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5. Forgive from the heart. How often do people say, "I can forgive, but I cannot forget?" In other words, "I can forbear outward acts of retaliation; I can say I forgive; but I cannot root the bitter feeling from my heart."

Our Lord has been very careful to aim a thunderbolt against this refuge of lies. "And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors. So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye, from your heart, forgive not every one his brother their trespasses." Simply saying, "I forgive," will not do. Simply forbearing revenge, will not do. The Lord would have us root out all wrath, and malice, and unkind feelings, from the soul. All bitter recollection of the injury is to be effaced. The waters of oblivion should close over the wrong, and hide it forever. So God forgives. "I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." "For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." "He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea."

If we would be the sons and daughters of the Highest; if we would have God wipe away all tears from our eyes, and the Lamb feed us and lead us to living fountains in heaven; we must beware not to deceive ourselves with saying, "I can forgive, but I cannot forget." What if God should remember our sins, and retain his secret anger forever? There could be no heaven to us. We must forget. If memory cannot forget things that are once past, the heart must not remember or if it does, it must be only with love and pity for the offender; and, with rejoicing for ourselves, that we have an opportunity of imitating our Father who is in heaven.

REFLECTIONS.

1. With what fearful rigor the Gospel represses a malicious and revengeful spirit! "He that hateth his brother, is a murderer." He that shall use the language of reproach or of railing against his brother, is "in danger of hell-fire." And here, to cut up all malice and bitterness and revenge by the very roots; our Lord requires us, when we pray, to bind ourselves to forgive,-to forgive from the heart,-under penalty of never being forgiven of God! It must be that he saw in the human heart a great propensity to malice and bitterness and revenge. It must be that such a temper is exceedingly

loathsome in his sight, and utterly incompatible with salvation. His Gospel is fitted for such a world of offences as this; and for just such proud, high spirited, irascible beings, as fallen men. Therefore it is, that the Gospel abounds with such injunctions as these: "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and evil speaking, and clamor, be put away from you, with all malice and be ye kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you." "Put on, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind,-meekness, long-suffering: forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any; even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye."

2. It is a serious thing to pray for forgiveness. That prayer is inseparable from the condition, "As we forgive our debtors." It will be of no use to omit the condition, though conscious guilt may prompt us to do so. If we forget the condition, God will not. Think, then, what must be the prayer of the duellist; when-as he knows not but he stands on the brink of the eternal world, and feels himself unfit to die,―he secretly lifts up his heart with the prayer, “Forgive my trespasses." Oh that awful condition, "As I forgive!" And he stretches out his hand to destroy his brother! This is the way he forgives! His prayer turns into the most horrible imprecation of wrath upon his own soul: "So let God visit me with his wrath: so let God destroy my soul, as I aim to destroy my brother!"

Let those, too, tremble, who can go to law, merely to avenge a little wrong or a little insult; or to harrass and vex a neighbor against whom they entertain a grudge. Do such people ever reflect that they are cutting themselves off from the mercy of God? They cannot pray, without bringing their souls under a bond of perdition. Can such a man pray? Will he dare to utter before God the fearful words, "Forgive me my debts, as I forgive my debtors?" Heaven will not endure the presumptuous mockery. The mercy-seat changes into a throne of judgment. Clouds and darkness frown around it; and amid lightnings of wrath and thunders of wo, the sentence is heard, "He shall have judgment without mercy, that showed no mercy."

Oh then, tremble too, ye who have a standing in the church of Christ, but who cannot commune together, nor pray together, nor labor for Christ together! If you cannot repair the wrong, can you not forgive? How can you live a day in such a condition that you

cannot pray, without perhaps calling down vengeance on your own souls? How dare you let the sun go down upon your wrath? Two aged and eminent Christians, in the early days of Christianity, were at variance. It was a grievous matter. The world could not

have devised a way to prevent an eternal hatred. But towards evening one sent to the other this touching message," Brother, the sun is near going down." They remembered the injunction of holy writ, "Let not the sun go down upon your wrath :" and they were reconciled. How can you let the sun go down upon your wrath, when you cannot pray without imprecating upon your soul the wrath of God!

Remember that the condition of this prayer is not to be evaded! People sometimes have the heart to work ill to their neighbor, where they have not the courage to do so directly. They would gladly have the mischief done, but they wish to avoid the thunderbolts of the law, or the dread rebuke of public sentiment. They begin no slander, but they love to hear an ill report of their neighbor. They say nothing; save to help it on by words of mischief that shall seem innocent. They love to see the mischief working against the one who has offended them; but they abound in exclamations of regret. With many professions of pity, they secretly rejoice in their neighbor's shame and downfall. They think no eye of holy indignation seeth them. But such artifice escapes not the notice of the heartsearching God. They will be held to the bond in their prayer for forgiveness. In addition to the woes that come upon an unforgiving temper, they will be called to meet an account of hypocrisy and lies.

3. How very few forgive as they need to be forgiven. Oh, how much men need forgiveness from God! It is not one or two offences that they want forgiven; but a whole life of rebellion and aggravated insult. They have treated God's laws with contempt; though he has promulgated them with the most solemn pomp, and sanctioned them with everlasting penalties. They have treated their Maker,—the Lord of heaven and earth, who only can kill or make alive,--as though he were beneath their notice. Talk of what he may,-of justice or of mercy, of life or death, of heaven or hell,-they treat him as though his Yea and Amen were mere idle words. A little momentary pleasure, a few dollars and cents, weigh more heavily on their minds than all the promises and all the warnings of Jehovah.

Yet, oh, they want forgiveness! and forgiveness that will come VOL. XII. No. 3.

without their seeking it! forgiveness that will allow them to sin on, till the last gasp of life! They are willing to take forgiveness that cost the great Jehovah the sacrifice of his Son; and that cost the Redeemer his life. They want iniquities forgiven,-yea, they want iniquities washed out with blood,-that deserve no less than everlasting imprisonment amid the torments of hell. Unless they are forgiven, they must suffer all this. Unless they are ransomed with a price beyond silver and gold, and with a greater sacrifice than the cattle on a thousand hills, with all Lebanon to burn, they must "dwell with everlasting burnings." This is the forgiveness which man needs; and this is the forgiveness which he asks of God.

But is that guilty being, who wishes to be indebted so much to the forgiveness of God, ready to forgive his fellow men? Is he ready to exercise that "charity," which "hopeth all things," when judging of his neighbor? Is he willing to forgive and forget great wrongs, repeated seventy times seven? Is he ready to make any sacrifices and to suffer any thing, rather than remember and revenge the injuries which he has received from his brother?

Alas, no! He is ready to put the worst construction on his neighbor's conduct. He esteems it a point of honor to resent all wrongs; to stand off coldly, and wait till the offender first seeks reconciliation, and makes satisfaction to the uttermost.

Oh! let us ever remember under what a solemn bond we pray for forgiveness! As often as we come to this petition, let us solemnly pause; and before we utter it, inquire,-Is my heart in such a state, that I can safely say, O Lord, forgive me, even as I forgive others their trespasses ?

SERMON CCXLV.

BY REV. EDWIN HALL.

THE NATURE AND SPIRIT OF THE FRAYER FOR FORGIVENESS.

MATT. iv. 12.-" And forgive us our debts."

OUR Lord designed this petition for all men, because "all have sinned." The Gospel recognizes none as righteous;-" no, not one." All have, therefore, occasion to pray, "Forgive us our debts."

We will inquire,

I. WHAT THIS PRAYER MEANS;

II. How IT IS TO BE MADE.

1. Whoever uses this prayer, confesses himself guilty and undone. The whole Gospel proceeds upon this ground. Its great topics are, "atonement," "forgiveness," "mercy," "grace," "salvation." These have no appropriateness, save to the guilty and the lost. And, in so dreadful a controversy between God and his creatures, there can be no question who is in the wrong:-we are righteously condemned, and lost by our own iniquities.

The prayer under consideration makes this confession of sin. Whoever uses it, must be speechless in the judgment. He has known his sin: he has confessed it. His very prayer testifies against him, as a sinner, and will be recognized in the judgment as a confession of his guilt.

If the petitioner does not mean this, then he speaks lies in hypocrisy.

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