The Word “As” in the Lord's Prayer
“As.”—That little word “as” has cost me more trouble than the whole vocabulary of the English language. It often makes me tremble from head to foot, and not infrequently brings tears to my eyes. It is not the two letters of which it is formed, or just the word itself, but the place which it occupies in one of the petitions of that inimitable prayer Jesus Christ taught to his disciples: “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” There it stands as the deciding index on the beam of the balance while in one scale is placed my prayer for forgiveness, and in the other the exact weight of my pardon. As I forgive, so, Lord, forgive me. We repeat the Lord’s prayer from earliest infancy to our dying day; yet if we indulge in an unforgiving spirit we unconsciously plead for punishment instead of mercy. The question is: Can I conscientiously use the argument, “for I also forgive every one”? And, if not, can I expect my sin-darkened soul to be washed and made whiter than snow?