PARDON FOR OMISSIONS

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 9, 1868

PARDON FOR OMISSIONS.

DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON, in writing to his mother, says:

“You have been the best mother, and I believe the best woman in this world. I thank you for your indulgence to me, and I beg forgiveness of all I have done ill, and all I have omitted to do well.”

So in the prayer he composed at the same time:

“Forgive me whatever I have done unkindly to my mother, and whatever I have omitted to do kindly.”

There is a deep meaning to this. Our offenses against God and our fellow-men are far greater in the omission of duties than in the commission of sins. Let any one think over it faithfully, and see if the weight of condemnation does not rest there.

And how much point in the expression—omitted to do kindly. We might—often at least—almost as well not speak the truth at all as to speak it not “in love;” so it may often happen that an act in itself eminently proper has a dreadful omission about it simply because it is not done kindly. What is charity, however bountifully bestowed, if sympathy be wanting? It is often positive insult.

Without pursuing the hint farther, let each one search for the catalogue of what he has left undone, and strive for a better spirit and a better life.—The Methodist.