Chapter V - Prayer and Atonement
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pleasures, frowns, or flatteries of earth, are but ghosts
pleasures, frowns, or flatteries of earth, are but ghosts
of nothingness, compared to the prize set before us,
"And laying aside every weight and sin that so easily
beset us, let us press forward to the high calling of
God in Christ," putting aside personal self and sense,
for Soul, the Principle of being.
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Every pang of repentance, every suffering for sin,
Every pang of repentance, every suffering for sin,
(accompanied with reformatory efforts) and every good
deed, atones for sin. But if the sinner is sorry, and
continues to pray, and to sin and be sorry, he hath no
part in the at-one-ment. To understand God, "Whom
to know aright is Life eternal," is to do the will of
Wisdom; and none hath part in Him, who demonstrates
not, in part, the Principle embraced in the teachings
and practice of our Master. If not obeying the science
of being according to its Principle, God, we should
have no confidence in man's safety, because God is
good, and man repents. But if we are growing spirit-
ual, and error is yielding to Truth in our demonstra-
tions of being, and our daily walk and conversation,
we shall say at length, "I have fought the good fight
and kept the faith;" for I am a better man. This is
having part in the at-one-ment. If a man stands still,
praying, and expecting because of another man's good-
ness, sufferings and triumphs, he will reach his harmony
and reward; that man will vibrate, a pendulum, between
sin and the hope of forgiveness; selfishness and sensu-
ality winding him up to this action, and his growth
will be slow. An at-one-ment with Love and Truth,
is to apply the meaning of the Life, and not death of
Jesus, to deeds and a Christian character, and not to
cover, or forgive sin, but to destroy it in the most
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effectual manner. When Truth lays the axe at the
effectual manner. When Truth lays the axe at the
root of error, saying, cut it down, then come the ex-
periences and sufferings that cause one, even as a
drowning man, to make vigorous efforts to save him-
self, and these efforts are what save him.
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"Work out your own salvation," is the demand of
"Work out your own salvation," is the demand of
Life and Love; and to this end God worketh with you.
"Occupy until I come," i.e., wait for thy reward and
grow not weary in well doing. Although your en-
deavors are against fearful odds, receiving no present
reward, go not back to error, nor become a sluggard in
the contest, and you will find your reward when the
smoke of battle clears away, so that you discern the
good you have done, and your gain from experience.
Love often delays to deliver from temptation, that it
may try, and prove you as by fire. If you understand
the science of being sufficiently to have faith in the
right, and no faith in wrong, you will work more earn-
estly, though more silently, perhaps, in persecution
than amid applause, for your labor is more needed; and
the reward of your self-sacrifice is great, though it be
never here. Final deliverance from error, whereby we
rejoice in immortality, boundless freedom, and sinless
sense, is not won through smooth footsteps, nor through
doctrines, or pinning one's faith to personality. Whoso
believeth wrath is righteous or appeased by the unmer-
ited death of a good man, cannot understand God.
Justice requires no propitiation but from the sinner;
mercy cancels without pay or sacrifice, and revenge is
inadmissible in Love. The wrath that is appeased is
not destroyed, but indulged, and may require another
sacrifice, one being found insufficient; but these are