FORGIVENESS by Mrs. M. Lowry

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Apr 2, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 22.

FORGIVENESS.

By Mrs. M. Lowry

BY MRS. M. LOWRY.

HOW GREAT the consolation to know that we have a Saviour so full of love and pity that he will forgive us for our past transgressions, whatever they may be! He says though our sins are as scarlet, he can make them as white as snow; and though they be red like crimson, he will make them as wool. Yes, his loving-kindness goes still further—he says he will put them as far from us as the east is from the west, and remember them no more.

Oh, such love, such wonderful love! There are none so deeply stained with pollution that he will not gladly accept them, if they will only come to him. This forgiveness knows no limit. Though we sin seventy times seven,

he is ready to pardon, yea, more willing to forgive than we are to be forgiven.

But forgiveness is not to be practiced by God alone; it is enjoined upon Christians. We are commanded when we pray to forgive if we have aught against anyone, that our Father which is in heaven may also forgive us of our trespasses; but if we do not forgive, neither will he forgive us. If slander be hurled to crush our hopes, we must remember that to err is human, leave the slanderer with God, and freely forgive.

We should look at the example of Christ. While suffering on the cross, nailed there by the hands of his enemies, in his great mercy he prays, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” As he was then so is he now: he has power to save and willingness to forgive.

God grant that we may banish every revengeful thought. The spirit of revenge is the spirit of the devil. The spirit of forgiveness is the Spirit of Christ and the Spirit of God’s law, the operations of which God ever blesses.