September 28

Followers of God, as dear children. — EPH. v. 1.

And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses. — MARK xi. 25, 26.

IT is easy to forgive, when we know ourselves forgiven for Jesus' sake. Whatever our posture in prayer, we must confess that we owe our Lord more than ten thousand talents, and have nothing to pay. Freely forgiven, because of the divine compassion, and the redemption purchased by Christ applied to us by his Holy Spirit, we have neither hand nor heart to take by the throat our fellow-servant, who owes us an hundred pence.

And yet we are not forgiven because we forgive those who trespass against us. We are taught to pray, "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors." But the rule of forgiving and being forgiven is in these words of the Holy Spirit: "Be ye kind one to another, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you" (Eph. iv. 32).

Is there a limit to forgiveness? Yes, even to God's (Mark iii. 29).

And to ours? Yes, again (Matt. xviii. 15-17, 21, 22, and Luke xvii. 3, 4).

Yet we are to love our enemies, who will not let us forgive them (Matt. v. 44, 45).

John D. Wells.

Think gently of the erring one!

And let us not forget,

However darkly stained by sin,

He is our brother yet.

FLETCHER.