just what he learns. Those who seek Him in prayer desiring to learn His laws will be rewarded in proportion to their labor. He asks no prayers for His good, and a prayer made up of words is lost unless accompanied by good to some one, and if we do good to one another our prayer is in the act. When Jesus said to the righteous, “Come ye blessed for I was naked and you clothed me,” they were not aware that they had done any good, but He said, “Inasmuch as you did it unto the least of these my brethren you did it unto me,” or God, and in His answer to the wicked, “Inasmuch as you did it not to them, ye did it not to me,” He put the good and bad in acts, and not in the words. So true prayer is in our acts, false prayer is in our words, and by their fruits you shall know them. For He said, “Not all those who say, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven or Science”; not those who say, “I understand it,” but those who put it into practice so that the world shall be the wiser for the knowledge. If this is so, “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man,” or one learned in this world's knowledge to embrace this Truth or Christ. But I say to all, strive to understand.—March, 1860.
HOW I HOLD MY PATIENTS
The question is often asked, how I hold my patients, when I give no medicine, and make no applications. I answer, it is through my knowledge. Then you may ask me where I differ from others. In everything so far as disease and what produces it is concerned. All persons believe in disease and their belief is in the thing believed. For instance, take consumption. People are not aware that consumption has an identity, as much as a serpent or canker worm, that it has life or a sort of knowledge.[1] It is liable to get hold of us, and if it does we cannot shake it off, as Paul did the viper, from his hand. All diseases have an identity and the well are likely to be deceived. But these diseases are in the mind as much as ghosts, witchcraft, or evil spirits, and the fruits of this belief are seen in almost every person. These beliefs show what the people are afraid of, and what they have to contend with, and make it necessary for them to have help in driving off their enemies. For if a person cannot conquer his enemy or disease himself, he must have help.
- ↑ That is through the life or reality which we attribute to it.
