Chapter
1: Prayer
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1
What are the motives
for prayer?
Do we pray to
make ourselves better or to benefit
those who hear us,
3 to enlighten
the infinite
or to be heard of Right
men? Are we benefited by praying?
Yes, motives
the desire
which goes forth hungering after righteous-
6 ness
is blessed of our Father, and it does not return
unto us void.
God
is not moved by the breath of praise to do more
9 than He has already
done, nor can the infinite
do less
than bestow
all good, since He is unchang-
Deity
ing wisdom
and Love. We can do more for unchangeable
12 ourselves by humble
fervent
petitions,
but the All-lov-
ing does not grant them simply on
the ground of lip-
service, for He already knows all.
15 Prayer
cannot change the Science
of being, but it
tends to bring us into harmony
with it. Goodness at-
tains the demonstration
of Truth. A request that
18 God
will save us is not all that is required. The mere
habit of pleading
with the divine Mind,
as one pleads
with a human being, perpetuates
the belief in God as
21 humanly circumscribed,--an
error which impedes
spirit-
ual growth.
God
is Love.
Can we ask Him to be more? God
is
24 intelligence.
Can we inform the infinite Mind
of any-
thing He does not already comprehend?
God's
Do we expect to change perfection?
Shall standard
27 we plead for more at the open
fount,
which is pour-
ing forth more than we accept? The
unspoken desire
does bring us nearer the source
of all existence and
30 blessedness.
Asking God
to be God is a vain
repetition.
God
is
"the
same yesterday, and to-day, and forever;" and
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