FAITHFUL AND JUST TO FORGIVE.
By A. Smith
"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9. Every one has run up a fearful account of sin against God, and is therefore under bondage unto death. But the sinner has a friend in Jesus, who paid every farthing of that debt long ago. He, however, entered into an arrangement with God, the Father, that should the guilty one confess his iniquity, and ask forgiveness, he should be set at liberty, and the death penalty be canceled; otherwise it should not be averted. God is declared to be faithful. It means that He will do just as He has agreed to. He will keep faith with the repentant sinner. This fact must be fully accepted by the sinner as the first condition of acceptance. But God is also just in forgiving the sinner, for the reason that Jesus paid the debt in full, and all the conditions on the part of the Saviour of sinners are complied with. The terms of salvation are so plain that a child can understand them. Reader, will you accept them? "All the fitness He requireth
Is to feel your need of Him." Do you feel your need of Him now? "Come unto Me," says Jesus, "and I will give you rest." Matt. 11:28. "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find." Matt. 7:7. A. SMITH.