Page:Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (1898).djvu/328

308 Prayer cannot change the Science of Being. Goodness alone reaches the demonstration of Truth. A request that another may work for us never does our work. The habit of pleading with the divine Mind, as one pleads with a human being, perpetuates the belief in God as humanly circumscribed, — an error which impedes spiritual growth.

God is Love. Can we ask Him to be more? God is Intelligence. Can we inform the infinite Mind, or tell Him

anything He does not already comprehend? Do we hope to change perfection? Shall we plead for more at the open fount, which always pours forth more than we receive? Does spoken prayer bring us nearer the Source of all existence and blessedness?

Asking God to be God is a “vain repetition.” God is “the same yesterday and to-day and forever;” and He who is immutably right will do right, without being reminded of His province. The wisdom of man is not sufficient to warrant him in advising God.

Who would stand before a blackboard, and pray the principle of mathematics to work out the problem?

The rule is already established, and it is our task to work out the solution. Shall we ask the divine Principle of all goodness to do His own work? That work was finished long ago; and we have only to avail ourselves of God's rule, in order to receive the blessing.

The Divine Being must be reflected by man; else man is not the image and likeness of the patient, tender, and true, the one “altogether lovely;” but to understand God is the work of eternity, and demands absolute consecration of thought and energy.