Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures
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, | ||
| 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 | ||
| 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 | ||
| 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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