Chapter V - Prayer and Atonement
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helping to destroy it, therefore it would destroy them.
helping to destroy it, therefore it would destroy them.
Anciently, in Japan, they conveyed a praying-machine
through the streets, stopping at the doors to earn a
penny grinding out a prayer. But in the belief of
higher civilization, we pay for prayers in lofty edifices.
Experience teaches that we receive not the good we
ask for in audible prayer. Petitioning a personal Deity
is a misapprehension of the source and means of all
good and blessedness; therefore it cannot be beneficial,
and we receive not, because, as the scripture saith, "We
ask amiss, to consume it on our lusts."
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Suffering for sin is all that destroys it; every sup-
Suffering for sin is all that destroys it; every sup-
posed pleasure of personal sense, will furnish more
than its balance in pain, until the belief of Life and
Intelligence in matter is ultimately destroyed. We are
not rid of mortal experiences, of sin, sickness, or death,
at the change called death; we cannot reach heaven,
the harmony of Life, except we understand the Prin-
ciple of harmonious being, that alone destroys personal
sense and error. Seeking is not sufficient to destroy
error; striving to enter into the straight and narrow
way of science, is all that will enable us to do it.
Spiritual attainments are the preparation for heaven,
and that which opens the door to a higher understand-
ing, even the Life that is God. The petitions to a
personal Deity bring to man only the results of his be-
lief; they cannot obtain Truth, Life, or Love. We
know that a desire for holiness is requisite to gaining it,
but if we really desire this above all else, we shall lay
down all for it; first learn your willingness to do this,
and then you may calculate safely on the only practical
way of reaching holiness. Prayer cannot change the
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unalterable Truth, or give us the understanding of it;
unalterable Truth, or give us the understanding of it;
but a desire to know and do the will of God is neces-
sary, and also a symptom that we are growing wiser;
but this desire needs no expression from the lips; our
lives express it.
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Asking God to heal the sick has no effect to gain the
Asking God to heal the sick has no effect to gain the
ear of Love, beyond its ever-presence. The only ben-
eficial effect it has, is mind acting on the body through
a stronger faith, to heal it; but this is one belief cast-
ing out another; a belief in God casting out a belief of
Sickness, and not the understanding of the Principle
that heals being. Jesus said, a kingdom divided against
itself cannot stand; a belief is not the science of being
that heals the sick, and casts out sickness on the
ground that sensation and Intelligence are not in mat-
ter; the Truth of being is what destroys error. Ex-
changes of the same commodity are the mere merchan-
dise of mind, and not science. Deity interposes not in
behalf of one, and not another, who adopts the same
measures in prayer. If the sick recover on the plat-
form of prayer, it is the result of individual belief.
All may avail themselves of God in science as a pres-
ent help in trouble. Love is impartial, and universal
in its adaptation and bestowments; the open fount,
that saith, "Ho! every one that thirsteth, come ye,
and drink."
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Prayer to a person, affects the sick as a drug that has
Prayer to a person, affects the sick as a drug that has
no efficacy of its own, but borrows its power from faith
and belief in matter. The drug does nothing in the
case, insomuch as it has no Intelligence. The Principle
of man, and not a person, produces all good.
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Seeking the Science of Life, and not content with a
Seeking the Science of Life, and not content with a