anyone could be expected to possess the necessary amount of faith to render their prayers efficacious, surely it is this estimable family. Then, why this absence from home at such a critical juncture on account of health, leaving out of account the unnecessary expense of such a journey, when a simple prayer at Hawarden would have done all that was necessary?" The prayer of faith shall save the sick man,' preaches the Rev. Stephen to his congregation; yet it is of no use to himself or his father! Have we ever seen that it is of any use to anyone? We naturally ask: When is prayer efficacious? And are the divine promises similar to some mundane ones-"like pie-crust "-easily broken, and never intended to be kept, or were the promises never made at all?

There is a sect of Christians called "the Peculiar People," who astonish and offend other Christians by their excessive faith in believing what their Bible tells them. Christian coroners and magistrates condemn and convict them for carrying out the precepts of Jesus their master, and James his apostle. When they are ill, instead of sending for a physician to cure them, they call in "Elders," according to the teaching of their Scriptures, who "pray over the sick person, and anoint with oil in the name of the Lord (James v. 14), believing that "the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up "; the promise is corroborated by the writer of Mark: "They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover" (xvi. 18). Those who cannot believe in Bible promises, such as the late Charles Bradlaugh and others, are sent to prison; and those who do believe in it, and try to act up to it, are also sent to prison, because they both have the honesty to say so. Those who do not believe in them, but pretend to do so, condemn the two former. But what an illogical position these administrators of the law take up, for the promises or commands are either true or they are untrue. If they admit the latter, they indirectly condemn the very book on which their own creed is founded. By thus bringing the "Holy Scriptures" into "ridicule or contempt" (as the Blasphemy laws have it), these dispensers of law are virtually guilty of blasphemy, and render themselves amenable to the Blasphemy laws, the very laws under which Freethinkers have been prosecuted and punished. We cannot help

admiring the honest logic of these poor deluded people who place implicit faith in their Bible. But what can we think of those who, for respectability's sake, accept the Bible with all its contradictoriness, impossibilities, and atrocities, while secretly being non-believers; who one moment send people to prison for not believing in the Bible, and at another send people to prison for believing in it? Wherein is the difference in the measurement of credulity in prayers for rain or fine weather, and prayers for the diseased or dying? The first is called "faith," the other "credulity"; but the difference is a difference without a distinction, which is an impossibility.

Do life insurance companies, in preparing their "tables," take into consideration the piety or prayerfulness of a district? And are these tables formed on an estimate of the prayers that are likely to go up to the "throne above," or on an estimate of the average longevity of lives? And would they not do so if it could be proved satisfactorily that prayer was really efficacious, and not a feeling and sentiment?

mere matter of

Is prayer for recovery from illness logical? We hear from believers, who have perfect assurance and confidence in being what they term "saved," of the bliss and perpetual happiness reserved for them in Paradise. This being so, how is it these same people have such a dread of illness and fear of death? Why do they send for the physician immediately they are ill, and request the prayers of their friends and of the congregation among whom they worship—not, be it observed, that they may depart speedily for Paradise, but that they may recover, and remain longer in what they term this "miserable" and "wicked world"? We can only conclude that this world is not so distasteful, the bliss of Paradise so inviting or so certain, as orthodox believers, when they are in the enjoyment of sound health, would have us believe.

The efficacy of prayer is, and must be, a matter of opinion. To those who choose to spend a considerable portion of their lives in what may appear to rational people as useless praying-for we have seen that no communications can possibly take place between the natural and the supernatural, the scrutable and the inscrutable, the finite and the infinite-all we can say is, let them do so; and no

fair-minded person would wish to deprive the illiterate of their little comfort. It is with a feeling more of sadness than of reproach that we turn away from such; and, though their faithfulness to their opinions may be admired, it is impossible to look with the same equanimity upon the obstinate and culpable credulity of the more intelligent ones, who, mentally able to see and to reason, absolutely refuse to do either.

But does it not appeal to the mind unfettered by the slavery of custom that such a waste of valuable time is very shocking to contemplate, and especially so when we consider what might be learned concerning the truth of the various phenomena that are daily exhibited, which are now as so many dark places to the person of faith, were that time devoted instead to the study of science? And were these credulous persons, who display such culpable ignorance in even elementary science, told that they were guilty of similar superstitions to the savages in the heart of Africa, they would be as much astonished as we may be at their credulity.

The idea of incessant divine intervention, in opposition to the operation of unvarying law, will always be supported and encouraged by a priesthood, since it must desire to be considered as standing between the prayer of the votary and the providential act. "Astronomical predictions of all kinds," says Draper, "depend upon the admission of the fact that there never has been, and never will be, any intervention in the operation of natural laws. The scientific philosopher affirms that the world at any given moment is the direct result of its condition in the preceding moment, and the direct cause of its condition in the subsequent moment.................' Law' and 'chance' are only different names for mechanical necessity. Every event has its warrant in some preceding event, and gives warrant to others that are to follow." Again he says: "It has always been inexpedient to admit the prevalence of law of any kind as opposed to Providential intervention. It was considered derogatory to the majesty of God that that will should be fettered in any way."

We are justified in expressing wonder and admiration, if not reverence, in contemplating the magnificence of the visible universe; the marvellous beauty and harmony of

nature, and her grand and immutable laws; our own existence, and that of all other life by which we are surrounded. We are also justified in recognizing the existence of an inscrutable power, behind all the phenomena, that is manifested around us. But to attribute all this magnificent result of natural laws to a man-like deity, given to anger, cruelty, and vindictiveness—one god among a number of others, and jealous of the others; demanding worship in the form of cringing self-abasement, flattery, and adulation—is to reduce humanity, in a manner, to the lowest species of animal life, and the human mind to a state of primitive ignorance, cowardice, and fear. Such crass and ignorant notions, fostered through many centuries of priestcraft, have been the means of keeping men in darkness, have led them astray from the truth, and have delayed the progress and development of science and the advancement of knowledge.

With the disappearance of the primitive conception of an anthropomorphous God with human attributes there disappears also, not only lip worship, but divine worship of any sort. Mr. Herbert Spencer says that worship "is not mere lip-homage, but a homage expressed in actions s; not a mere respect, but a respect proved by the sacrifice of time, thought, and labour." Again he says: "It is the neglect of science that is irreligious......it is the refusal to study the surrounding creation......the universe, and its cause......that is irreligious..............Not only does mankind in general pass by, without study, these things which they daily proclaim to be so wonderful, but they frequently condemn as mere triflers those who give time to the observation of nature, and actually scorn those who show any active interest in these marvels .....Devotion to science is a tacit worship-a tacit recognition of worth in the things studied, and, by implication, in their cause.'

* First Principles.

F

V.

SPIRIT Worship—Fetichism—Totemism—MAGIC RODS— PHALLIC WORSHIP-PHALLIC OATHS-SACRED PROSTITUTION- -THE FEAST OF THE MATRIX-PLANETARY WORSHIP-MOON WORSHIP-THE NUMBER SEVEN— SUN WORSHIP

- THE NUMBER TWELVE — ZODIACAL

REFERENCES IN THE OLD TESTAMENT-" JEHOVAH," CHIEF OF THE ALEIM, AND IDENTICAL WITH ADONIS AND AMMON.

FROM spirit worship-ANIMISM-was evolved the worship of material objects-FETICHISM-such as fire, light, stones, trees, animals, etc., which were supposed to be occupied by a spirit and to possess mysterious powers. Then was evolved the idea of driving away a threatened danger by means of its symbol. When the Israelites were afflicted with fiery serpents, Moses erected a brazen serpent. When the Philistines were troubled with a plague of mice and tumours, they made a golden image of these and sent them out of their country with the hope that the vermin and the disease would depart also. The Indians of Dacotah adopt this custom. If a man suffer from a boil, they carve an image of a boil in wood, which is then placed in a bowl of water and blown to pieces with a gun; the idea being that, as the image is thus destroyed, so will the original boil be.

The Australian native tribes are never without fire. If a fire dies out, they will travel for miles to borrow a spark from the nearest tribe. Watching the sacred flame is a duty assigned to a particular tribesman or woman. The vestal virgins of Rome were stripped and scourged if they neglected to keep up the holy fire.

The Hebrew God "Jehovah " was said to be a "sanguinary fire" (Deut. iv. 24), and fire was one of the favourite