George Jacob Holyoake, of England, tells how in the days of
utter poverty, his believing mother asked the Lord, again and again
-- on her knees, with tears streaming from her eyes, and with
absolute faith in Jesus' ability to keep His promise, -- to give
her starving children their daily bread. But the more fervently she
prayed the heavier grew the burden of her life. A stone or wooden
idol could not have been more indifferent to a mother's tears. "My
mind aches as I think of those days," writes Mr. Holyoake. One day
he went to see the Rev. Mr. Cribbace, who had invited inquirers to
his house. "Do you really believe," asked young Holyoake to the
clergyman, "that what we ask in faith we shall receive?" "It never
struck me," continues Mr. Holyoake, "that the preacher's threadbare
dress, his half-famished look, and necessity of taking up a
collection the previous night to pay expense's showed that faith
was not a source of income to him. It never struck me that if help
could be obtained by prayer no church would be needy, no believer
would be poor." What answer did the preacher give to Holyoake's
earnest question? The same which the preachers of today give: "He
parried his answer with many words, and at length said that the
promise was to be taken with the provision that what we asked for
would be given, if God thought it for our good." Why then, did not
Jesus explain that important proviso when he made the promise? Was
Jesus only making a half statement, the other half of which he
would reveal later to protect himself against disappointed
petitioners. But he said: "If ye ask anything in my name, I will do
it," and "If it were not so, I would have told you." Did he not
mean just what be said? The truth is that no historical person in
his senses ever made such extraordinary, such impossible promises,
and the report that Jesus made them only goes to confirm that their
author is only a legendary being.
When this truth dawned upon Mr. Holyoake he ceased to petition
Heaven, which was like "dropping a bucket into an empty well," and
began to look elsewhere for help. [Bygones Worth Remembering. --
George Jacob Holyoake.] The world owes its advancement to the fact
that men no longer look to Heaven for help, but help themselves.
Self-effort, and not prayer, is the remedy against ignorance,
slavery, poverty, and moral degradation. Fortunately, by bolding up
before us an impossible Jesus, with his impossible promises, the
churches have succeeded only in postponing, but not in preventing,
the progress of man. This is a compliment to human nature, and it
is well earned. It is also a promise that in time humanity will be
completely emancipated from every phantom which in the past has
scared it into silence or submission, and
"A loftier race than e'er the world
Hath known shall rise
With flame of liberty in their souls,
And light of science in their eyes."
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