ase has merely a
spiritual meaning, it is certainly unsound advice, for evil should be
overcome by good.

A fanatical attitude towards the law was recommended when Jesus said:
"If any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him
have thy cloak also." Extreme generosity and non-resistance are taught,
but the illustration was not well thought out, for if the man had
already won his suit and taken the coat, it is evident that the owner of
the coat had put up a legal fight instead of giving away his coat and
cloak as Jesus implies he should. Yielding more than a legal opponent
wins in court is not compatible with defending the suit, nor is it a
principle that would meet the approval of most of Jesus' followers
today.

"Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is
perfect." If Jesus referred to Jehovah as his Father in heaven, the
standard of perfection advocated was very low, for Jehovah was, as
Thomas Jefferson put it, "cruel, vindictive, capricious and unjust."

The Lord's Prayer is not the simple, clear, devotional petition that is
usually supposed. Take it literally, as was undoubtedly intended, and
its irrelevance to actual life is at once apparent.

"Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven." This is a proper
invocation only if there is a heaven in which God's will is done. None
such has been discovered.

"Give us this day our daily bread" indicates that God would not give our
daily sustenance without being asked, whereas there is no apparent
distinction in actual living between those who pray for bread and those
who do not.

"And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors" intimates that
divine forgiveness is not to be superior to that of men.

"And lead us not into temptation"--as if God were anxious to lead us
there and would be deterred by our prayer.

It may seem like petty cavil to criticize the prayer that has been
acclaimed for many centuries as ideal, but, seriously, what valuable
principle for guidance through life does the Lord's Prayer contain? Do
its requests represent the best modern conception of prayer as an inward
aspiration rather than as petitionary? Is it not vain repetition to
recite it again and again?

The general idea of offering prayer in order to obtain various needs
presents the difficulty of reconciling the conception of an omnipotent,
all-foreseeing God with