In Answer to Prayer

In Answer to Prayer
The Right Rev. the BISHOP OF RIPON, The Rev. Dr. CUYLER, The Rev. Dr. JOHN WATSON ( Ian Maclaren ), The Rev. Canon KNOX LITTLE, Mr. WILLIAM QUARRIER, Mr. L. K. SHAW, The Rev. Dr. HORTON, The Rev. H. PRICE HUGHES, The Rev. Dr. CLIFFORD, and The DEAN OF SALISBURY
NEW YORK DODD, MEAD & COMPANY 1899
PREFATORY NOTE
The following pages were originally written for the Sunday Magazine. In their present form it is hoped that they will reach another and not less appreciative public.
Although Dr. Watson's contribution is of a character quite distinct from the other papers, it treats of a phase of religious experience so closely allied to that of answered prayer that it seems in the present collection to serve as a stage of transition from the sphere of the unseen and spiritual to that of the visible and tangible.
CONTENTS

By the Right Rev. W. BOYD CARPENTER, D.D. Lord Bishop of Ripon
I HAVE been asked to write some thoughts on answers to prayer. I am afraid that I cannot give from personal experience vivid and striking anecdotes such as others have chronicled. God does not deal with all alike, either in His gifts of faith or in those of experience. We differ also in the use we make of His gifts. But if I mistake not the object of these papers is not merely to gather together an array of startling experiences, but rather to unite in conference on the great subject of prayer and the answers to prayer.
No doubt every Christian spirit holds within his memory many cherished experiences of God's dealings with him, and these must touch the question of prayer. But the greater part of these experiences belong to that sanctuary life of the soul which, rightly or wrongly, we keep veiled from the world. There are some matters which would lose their charm if they were made public property. There is a reticence which is of faith, just as there may be a reticence which is of cowardice or unfaith. But like the little home treasures, which we only open to look upon when we are alone, so are some of the secret treasures of inward experiences. Nevertheless, none of us can have lived and thought without meeting with a sort of general confirmation or otherwise of the efficacy of prayer; and though I cannot chronicle positive and striking examples, I can say what I have known.