Cancellation of human sin
Prayer is not to be used as a confessional to cancel sin.
Such an error would impede true religion. Sin is forgiven
5:24 only as it is destroyed by Christ, - Truth and
Life. If prayer nourishes the belief that sin is
cancelled, and that man is made better merely by praying,
5:27 prayer is an evil. He grows worse who continues in sin
because he fancies himself forgiven.
Diabolism destroyed
An apostle says that the Son of God [Christ] came to
5:30 "destroy the /works/ of the devil." We should
follow our divine Exemplar, and seek the de-
struction of all evil works, error and disease included.
6:1 We cannot escape the penalty due for sin. The Scrip-
tures say, that if we deny Christ, " he also will deny us."
Pardon and amendment
6:3 Divine Love corrects and governs man. Men may
pardon, but this divine Principle alone reforms the
sinner. God is not separate from the wis-
6:6 dom He bestows. The talents He gives we
must improve. Calling on Him to forgive our work
badly done or left undone, implies the vain supposition
6:9 that we have nothing to do but to ask pardon, and
that afterwards we shall be free to repeat the offence.
To cause suffering as the result of sin, is the means
6:12 of destroying sin. Every supposed pleasure in sin
will furnish more than its equivalent of pain, until be-
lief in material life and sin is destroyed. To reach
6:15 heaven, the harmony of being, we must understand
the divine Principle of being.
Mercy without partiality
"God is Love." More than this we cannot ask,
6:18 higher we cannot look, farther we cannot go. To
suppose that God forgives or punishes sin
according as His mercy is sought or un-
6:21 sought, is to misunderstand Love and to make prayer
the safety-valve for wrong-doing.
Divine severity