October 3

"Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered."—I's. xxxii. 1.

THE hour of forgiveness — it is the hour of blessedness. To have my transgression, my personal rebellion against the living God, pardoned, and its heavy burden lifted away; to have my sin, my miserable failure to glorify Him, covered, and its shame hidden under Christ's white and stainless raiment; to have my iniquity, my crookedness of thought and life, no longer imputed, its debt and liability reckoned to Another and not to me—"well may this glowing heart rejoice."

The hour before forgiveness—it is the hour of confession. He that covereth his sin shall not prosper. No, no; so long as I did that, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. I had neither joy nor love nor light. So, just as I was, I went and acknowledged my transgressions to the Lord, my separate acts of disobedience, and the hideous root of heart-alienation out of which they sprang. I bade Him see and consider the whole black indictment—I kept nothing back. Then, I thank His name, He forgave the iniquity of my sin.

And the hour after forgiveness—it is the hour of manifold goodness and mercy. Now that I am a child in the home, protection is mine. He will preserve me from trouble, and will compass me about with songs of deliverance. And instruction is mine. He will counsel me with His eye upon me. And ecstasy and rapture are sometimes mine. I shall shout for joy. I have found the Fountain of Youth. I have entered the City of Gold. I have reached the Happy Isles. I am at rest on the mother-heart of God.