Praying Downward by C. M. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Feb 12, 1914

Praying Downward

By C. M. S.

OUR Saviour never instructed his followers at any time that they should pray to any other being than God, nor that their prayers should be addressed to God the Father through any other intermediary than God the Son. In the issue of the Jesuit journal America, dated January 24, a request is made that prayer be offered for the restoration of eyesight in the case of a young student in a Jesuit college who was blinded by a chemical explosion. The young man will be ready for ordination to the priesthood in June next if he can recover his eyesight. We quote:—

Now that God may deign to restore his sight and insure his entering holy orders with his class, the students of theology of Woodstock, with the entire community, will unite in a novena to Sister Teresa of Lesieux. “The Little Flower”

of Jesus, which is to begin on Sunday, January 25, and end on the feast of the purification of Our Lady, February 2. We are eager to have all the readers of America unite with us in this nine days’ prayer. If many voices from our beloved country rise in novena to the throne of God, we feel confident that “The Little Flower” will be glorified and our wish for Mr. Wessling fulfilled.

“P. S.— The prayers to be recited will be the ‘Approved Novena,’ Our Father, Hail Mary, three times, with an invocation to Sister Teresa.

“Woodstock College, Woodstock, Md., Jan. 10, 1914.”

Here is a prayer for healing addressed to a certain woman long since dead. In spite of the Scriptural declaration that “the dead know not anything” and have no more a part forever in anything that is done under the sun, here is an organization, known by the name Christian and numbering its adherents by the millions, that is teaching the world to pray to the dead. “Sister Teresa” is not the only one to whom the prayers of the members of that organization are addressed.

When on earth, Jesus healed the sick, opened the mouths of the dumb, and unsealed the eyes of the blind. But in this novena, or nine days’ prayer, there is no mention of him. There is “an invocation to Sister Teresa,” that she may intercede with God on behalf of the unfortunate student; but of Jesus Christ, the great Healer, there is no recognition.

In spite of the fact that Jesus himself directed his followers to come unto the Father by him, this novena ignores him utterly, and attempts to come to the Father by a way which he has not ordained. Jesus himself said, “Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it.” John 14:13, 14. Here is a definite promise, made by Jesus himself; but nowhere in the divine Word is there any intimation that prayers addressed to any individual, living or dead, will bring results. Why should men trust in a dead human being when they might trust in a living Saviour? Why ignore God’s way, and adopt in its place something God has never put in its place?

In case the young man were healed, who would get the credit?—Sister Teresa, for to her the prayer is addressed; while Jesus, who gave up heaven that we might gain it, who lived among us that we might know how we ought to live, who died for us that we might escape eternal death, is thrust aside to make way for a human being, who, no matter how good she may have been, is still locked in the arms of death awaiting the voice of “this same Jesus” to bring her from the tomb.

What a fearful deception the father of evil has worked upon the human race in causing so many to think that by praying downward to the dead they can accomplish wonders for the living! And yet out of that darkness God will bring many to his light. “On behalf of the living should they seek unto the dead?”

C. M. S.