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of God as "a very present help in trouble."
Love is impartial and universal in its adaptation and
bestowals. It is the open fount which cries, "Ho,
every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters."
(Public exaggerations)
In public prayer we often go beyond our convictions,
beyond the honest standpoint of fervent desire. If we
are not secretly yearning and openly striving
for the accomplishment of all we ask,
our prayers are "vain repetitions," such as the heathen
use. If our petitions are sincere, we labor for what we
ask; and our Father, who seeth in secret, will reward
us openly. Can the mere public expression of our desires
increase them? Do we gain the omnipotent ear
sooner by words than by thoughts? Even if prayer is
sincere, God knows our need before we tell Him or our
fellow-beings about it. If we cherish the desire honestly
and silently and humbly, God will bless it, and
we shall incur less risk of overwhelming our real
wishes with a torrent of words.
(Corporeal ignorance)
If we pray to God as a corporeal person, this will
prevent us from relinquishing the human doubts and
fears which attend such a belief, and so we
cannot grasp the wonders wrought by infinite,
incorporeal Love, to whom all things are possible.
Because of human ignorance of the divine Principle,
Love, the Father of all is represented as a corporeal
creator; hence men recognize themselves as merely
physical, and are ignorant of man as God's image or reflection
and of man's eternal incorporeal existence. The
world of error is ignorant of the world of Truth, - blind
to the reality of man's existence, - for the world of sensation
is not cognizant of life in Soul, not in body.
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