A PRAYING AGNOSTIC.
[To THE EDITOR OF TEl 'Elrzerikroa."I' SIR,—The following words of the late Mr. Leaky seem to be a true statement of the case with regard to Agnostic Prayer :- "Prayer, by a law of our nature and apart from all supernatural intervention, exercises a reflex influence of a very beneficial character upon the minds of the worshippers. The man who offers up his petitions with passionate earnestness, with unfalter- ing faith, and with a vivid realization of the presence of an Unseen Being has risen to a condition of mind which is itself eminently favourable both to his own happiness and to the expansion of his moral qualities. But he who expects nothing more will never attain this. To him who neither believes nor hopes that his petitioni3 will redeive a response such a mental•state is impossible. . . . If prayers were offered up solely with a, view to this benefit, they would be absolutely sterile and would speedily cease."— " History of European Morals," vol. i., pp. 36-37.
—I am, Sir, &,c., BENWELL BIRD.
Wychbury, Mannamead, Plymouth.
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