But there is very little of this Godlike forgiveness among men. We find it in Mothers and wives, and sometimes in fathers and husbands, But there is not a great stock of it outside the family circle. Too often after outward forgiveness, the old omnify and bitterness remains below the surface, hidden, but still alive. What goes with us by the name of forgiveness, is a very hollow and unsatisfactory thing, as compared with the forgiveness of God. Men who have done us a real wrong, are rarely admitted to our full trust and favour again, We bury the offence, but we know where the bones are. Complete forgiveness, to pass over and forget, is a divine thing, and we have the human fault of continually remembering. How eagerly we insist not only full repentance, but on ample apologies as well. How rarely we meet the' offender half way, as the Father sought to do in Christ's story of the Prodigal Son. We want him to come all the way, and then perhaps we will graciously receive him, more likely though, we will give him a cold shake of the hand. That is man's forgiveness, and it is not Godlike"; Do we ever delight in forgiving? How often human forgiveness is wrung from reluctant lips, Men forgive those who have offended, but after a caution, and a piece of their mind. It is "this once" and "you know you don't deserve it. How often it is like ramming forgiveness in a pistol and firing it at you.
Now thank God—as the prophet saw—God's forgiveness is the blessed opposite of man's poor effort, he forgives "Because he delighteth in He has a positive joy in forgiving. He waits for our repentance with a heart yearning and longing for us, How beautifully Jesus teaches that in the parable. Think of all the imagery,—the Father eagerly watching for the son's return, running to meet him, full of forgiveness and loading him with gifts and honours. He kills the calf, as one has said, not so much to make a feast for the prodigal, as to show his own joy. So God forgives—With a joy far greater than the joy of him who receives the forgiveness. Happy the man who has received God's forgiveness, happier still, if we have learned at the Cross to forgive others as fully and truly as he forgives us.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.