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In Debt

"Forgive us our debts, as we forgive

our debtors"

O we have come to it at last-the most dreadful of all facts: Sin. We can not think of

Pray the Hallowed Name very long, we can not pray

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many words, but we must soon come to think of our own unworthiness. "Give" leaves our lips that we may haste to say "Forgive." The rest of this Model Prayer is interesting. Don't forget for a moment, when studying this prayer, that Jesus is teaching us to pray. What, then, does He teach us to ask for ourselves? First, life's necessities — Bread. Then what? Riches, that we may do much good? No. High station, that we may have power for good? No. Jesus had no patent of nobility, and yet did more good than kings. Learning, that our opinions may have weight? No. It is best not to pray for these. Just go ahead and get them, if you can without too great cost. They are good enough in their way, but they are not what Jesus teaches us to pray for. What then? Why,

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for Salvation. Listen! "Forgive us," "Lead us
not into temptation," "Deliver us from evil.”
Every one of these little sentences would tear
us away from the clutches of sin. O, it is Moral
Evil that our Father would have us fear! Not Pray
poverty, nor pain, nor persecution, nor death;
but Evil. "Be not afraid of them that kill the
body, but are not able to kill the soul: but
rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul
and body in hell." Sin seems to be, in the mind
of God, the terror of terrors. It is Salvation God
thinks we most need.

"Forgive." Here we have stumbled upon the
dreadful fact of sin: but we have also stumbled
upon the blessed fact of divine forgiveness.
Where sin is, God's grace is not far away; for
to every sinner God holds out a pardon signed
and sealed in the blood of His Son. Think what
frightful sins are committed, and then think
how great is the mercy of our God who abun-
dantly pardons. What a wonderful God it was
who spoke out of the cloud to Moses, saying:
"Jehovah, Jehovah, a God merciful and gracious,
slow to anger, and abundant in loving-kindness
and truth; keeping loving-kindness for thou-
sands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and
sin; and that will by no means clear the guilty."
Here stand two facts: the boundless love and

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mercy of God; and the other side of the same truth, the terrible fate of those who will have none of His love.

O blessing of all blessings to have a forgiving
God! It is no wonder to us who have tasted
and seen that the Lord is good that Mary
poured out on her Great Forgiver the precious
spikenard; that Mary Magdalene, forgiven for
ever having seven devils, devotedly stood at the
foot of the cross, followed the dead Christ to
the tomb, went before sunrise to embalm Him
with fragrant spices, and, hearing her name in
the old familiar voice, rapturously embraced the
feet of her risen Lord. Who, that knows God,
wonders at the forgiven harlot washing the feet
of Jesus with tears and wiping them with her
flowing hair? Nobody except a pharisaic Simon,
who realizes no sin, and consequently no for-
giveness.

"There is a fountain filled with blood
Drawn from Immanuel's veins;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood
Lose all their guilty stains.

"The dying thief rejoiced to see

That fountain in his day;

And there may I, though vile as he,
Wash all my sins away."

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We are not all saying this prayer quite alike. Some say debts, and others say trespasses. The latter are following an English translation of the Bible older than any now in use the "Great Bible," which was the authorized version in Eng-ray land from 1539 to 1568. The phraseology of this version got into the English prayer book, and has consequently been used by some Christian denominations ever since. The Greek word plainly means debts. A trespass is a positive wrong committed: a debt is a duty omitted. The word debts includes also the penalties we owe for positive trespasses. That the Greek word, however, includes also positive sins is shown by Christ's comment after the prayer, where He says, "If ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you." The word for trespasses is not the same word used in the prayer. So, then, we are asking forgiveness for the things we have done which we ought not to have done, and also for the numberless things we ought to have done and did not. It is quite as sinful to be a non-doer of good as to be a doer of evil.*

"As we forgive." That is Measure for Measure. It has been easy to say the prayer thus far: now

*Matt. 25: 41-46.

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we come to a sentence that chokes us. Pity it do not choke some of us into silence ere we ask our own doom. It was a blessing we started to ask for: but oh! this terrible little sentence is

about to turn the blessing into a curse. It is a wonder that some ever dare to utter this part of the Lord's Prayer. This Model Prayer starts out well enough. It begins with an Up-look. It begins with thoughts of the Heavenly Placesa comfortable distance away from each of us. Then on swift wings the words, "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth," sweep us around the world. This is the Out-look, and it is glorious. Now, so suddenly, comes the terrible In-look. This swift prayer, like a boomerang, shot up into the heavens, changes its course to a wide horizontal sweep to circle the whole earth, and is now darting straight at my own heart. It is a fearful prayer my poor lips have stumbled on.

This petition is both a test of character and a maker of character to those who say it thoughtfully and sincerely. This is the only petition of the Lord's Prayer that Jesus emphasized by a comment-a comment terribly direct, and so clear that nobody in the judgment can plead ignorance of its purport.