--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Youth's Companion collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 20 number: 3 published: 1917-01 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: "Youth's Companion, \"The Higher Law,\" *Improvement Era* 20, no. 3 (January 1917): 223." source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2003unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera2003unse start_page: 223 end_page: 223 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1917-01) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2003unse publication_year: 1917 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1917, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # The Higher Law Higher Law The young man who had been examining the row of shining instruments that lined the operating room, turned abruptly to the great surgeon. "Of course you do not believe in the foolishness called prayer," he said. "And why not?" the surgeon asked, as he held a delicate instrument critically to the light. "What! A man with your scientific training!" the younger man exclaimed in surprise. "And why not?" the keen-eyed elderly man repeated. "Oh, come now doctor," the young man said, smiling. "Surely you cannot believe that God would upset all the laws of nature to grant the request of some one of his creatures. You know how inexorable are the laws of nature." "That's exactly why I believe so strongly in the efficacy of prayer." The words were spoken quietly but with evident seriousness. "Explain the riddle, please," the other demanded, and his manner was grave now* "Why, that's easy enough to do," the surgeon said. "Prayer — or rather faith, which is the motive of prayer is just as much a force of nature as gravity. The skeptics seem to think that if a prayer were answered all the laws of nature would be smashed to pieces. That is not necessarily the case. Let me illustrate: Why does this instrument that I hold in my hand not fall to the floor?" "Why, because you are sustaining it!" "Exactly. And yet the law of gravitation is not wrecked or denied. It is merely superseded for the moment by a higher law the — law of life. — "Now, as we ascend in nature we find this the basic laws of a higher plane have just this power of overruling some of the laws of a lower plane. "Gravity is the great law of the inorganic world. It is still a law in the organic world, but the great law of the organic world — the law of life is superior to it. The plant thrusts its stem upward in the face of gravity; man walks about in defiance of it. "Then why may there not be a law in the next plane of nature — — the spiritual that, just as naturally, supersedes some of the laws of the organic world? The plant reaches down into the inorganic world, and grasping the dead atoms there endows them with life and the ability to rise superior to the force of gravity. May not the spiritual world do as much for the material world without outraging a single law of nature?" "Why —why, I guess it could," the young man stammered. "It not only could — it does!" the surgeon declared emphatically. "Then there is something in prayer after all?" " 'The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much,' " the doctor quoted. "I tell you, my friend, prayer changes things." And the young man knew from the light on the older man's face that here was one man at least for whom prayer had changed — things many things. The Youth's Companion.