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 Remission of penalty only saves the criminal from one form of punishment. The moral law, which 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 divine Principle never pardons our sins or mistakes till they are corrected) leaves the offender free to Truth annihilates error repeat the offence, if indeed, he has not already suffered sufficiently from vice to make him turn from it with loathing. Truth bestows no pardon upon error, but wipes it out in the most effectual manner. Jesus suffered is for our sins, not to annul the divine sentence for an individual's sin, but because sin brings inevitable suffering.
Petitions bring to mortals only the results of mortals' own faith. We know that a desire for holiness is Desire for holiness requisite in order to gain holiness; but if we desire holiness above all else, we shall sacrifice everything for it. We must be willing to do this, that we may walk securely in the only practical road to holiness. Prayer cannot change the unalterable Truth, nor can prayer alone give us an understanding of Truth; but prayer, coupled with a fervent habitual desire to know and do the will of God, will bring us into all Truth. Such a desire has little need of audible expression. It is best expressed in thought and in life.
