Chapter V - Prayer and Atonement
292:1
we cannot look; beyond this we may not go. To re-
we cannot look; beyond this we may not go. To re-
gard God a person that forgives or punishes sin, accord-
ing as His mercy is sought, or unsought, is to misunder-
stand Love, and institute prayer as the safety-valve for
wrong-doing. Do we ask Wisdom to be merciful to sin,
then "We ask amiss to consume it on our lusts;" and
to forgive sin without punishment, allows the sin to
multiply, and this is neither mercy nor Wisdom. A
magistrate may remit a criminal sentence; but this is
no benefit morally to the criminal, and has only saved
him from one form of punishment. The moral law that
alone is capable of justifying or condemning, still de-
mands man to go up higher, or meet the penalty of a
broken law that punishes to compel this progress.
Personal pardon of sin – and there is none other – for
Principle, never pardons sin, leaves man free to com-
mit anew the offence; if indeed he has not suffered
sufficiently from sin, to turn from it with loathing.
Truth entertains no pardon for error, but wipes it out
in the most effectual manner.
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Asking God to pardon sin, is a "vain repetition such
Asking God to pardon sin, is a "vain repetition such
as heathen use." Habitual goodness, is praying with-
out ceasing, in which motives are made manifest by the
blessings we bestow, whether these are, or are not ac-
knowledged, and attest our worthiness to be made
partakers of Love. We cannot pray aright, and believe
that God, who is the same yesterday and forever, is
changeable or influenced in the least by a mortal sense
of what man needs. He who is immutably right, will
do right, without being reminded of it; and the wisdom
of man is insufficient to select from God. We would
not stand before a blackboard, and pray the Principle
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of mathematics to work out a problem for man; nor
of mathematics to work out a problem for man; nor
should we ask the Principle of all good to do a work
already done, and which we have only to avail ourselves
of, that is, to understand, in order to receive its bless-
ings. The Principle of man must be reflected by man,
else he is not the image and likeness of the patient,
tender, and true, yea, the one altogether lovely; and to
go higher than this, and understand "God is Love," is
the work of eternity.
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"When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when
"When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when
thou hast shut the door pray to the father which is in
secret, and thy father which seeth in secret shall reward
thee openly."
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The closet signifies the sanctuary of Spirit, its door
The closet signifies the sanctuary of Spirit, its door
opening on Soul, and not sense, opening to Truth, God,
and closing on error. The father in secret is the Prin-
ciple of man, unseen to personal sense, the infinite In-
telligence that knows all things, and rewards according
to motives, regarding mind only and not speech. The
"prayer of the righteous" that "heals the sick," is
after the manner our Master taught, when he bade his
students enter into the Spirit of prayer, the door of
personal sense closed, lips mute, and man in audience
with his Maker, where, Spirit instead of matter, and
Soul instead of sense are understood the standpoint of
being, even the Principle thereof, that destroys sick-
ness, sin, and death. Thus the power of Life, Love
and Truth, will destroy sin, sickness, and death, and
enlarge the capacities of man, revealing his God-given
dominion over earth; but remember, also, that "none
but the pure in heart shall see God "; shall be able to
take this scientific position of prayer, in which personal