Chapter V - Prayer and Atonement
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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
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the traits of heathen Deities, and not of our God, the
the traits of heathen Deities, and not of our God, the
Principle that is Love.
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God's wrath vented on his only son, is without logic
God's wrath vented on his only son, is without logic
or humanity, and but a man-made belief. The beauti-
ful import of this hard place in theology is, that suf-
fering is an error of personal sense that Truth destroys,
and sin falls, a broken reed, at the feet of Love. The
Rabbinical teachings said, "He that taketh one doc-
trine firm in faith, has the holy ghost dwelling in him."
But this receives a strong rebuke from our Master, who
said, "Faith without works is dead." Faith, as a be-
lief, is but a pendulum between nothing and some-
thing, holding on to no foundations; but the advanced
understanding that is sometimes misnamed faith, is the
evidence gained from spiritual sense that rebukes the
belief of personal sense, and brings out of experience
the Life that is God. In Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and
English, the word "faith" embraces two meanings,
viz., "trustfulness" and "trustworthiness." The first
trusts all to another, and the second understands and
relies on one's self. "Lord, I believe, help thou mine
unbelief," expresses the helplessness of a blind faith,
whereas "Believe, and you shall be saved," is self‑
reliant, trustworthy faith that implies the understand-
ing that brings its own reward. The Hebrew gives
the following signification of the verb, "to believe:"
"To be firm, lasting, constant," and this certainly ap-
plies to Truth understood; for firmness in error will
never save man from sickness, sin, or death. An ac-
quaintance with the original texts, together with a wil-
lingness to give up beliefs founded on dynasties and
the worst passions of men, for the advanced views of