Page:Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (1898).djvu/336

316 One of the forms of worship in Thibet is to carry a praying-machine through the streets, and stop at the

doors to earn a penny by grinding out a prayer; whereas civilization pays for prayers by the clergy, in lofty edifices. Is the difference very great, after all?

Experience teaches us that we do not always receive the blessings we ask for in audible prayer. There is some

misapprehension of the source and means of all goodness and blessedness, or we should certainly receive what we ask for. The Scriptures say: “Ye ask and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.” What we desire and ask for, it is not always best for us to receive. In this case infinite Love will not grant the request. Do you ask Wisdom to be merciful, and not punish sin? Then “ye ask amiss.” Without punishment, sin would multiply. Jesus' prayer, “forgive us our debts,” specified also the terms of forgiveness. When forgiving the adulterous woman he said, “Go and sin no more.”

A magistrate sometimes remits the penalty, but this may be no moral benefit to the criminal; and at best, it

only saves him from one form of punishment, The moral law, which alone has the right to acquit or condemn, always demands restitution, before mortals can “go up higher.” Broken law brings penalty, in order to compel this progress.

Mere legal pardon (and there is no other, for Principle never pardons our sins or mistakes) leaves the

offender free to repeat the offence; if, indeed, he has not already suffered sufficiently from vice to make him turn from it with loathing. Truth