we read, "If ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.'

God knows whether our penitence is real, whether it will lead to a moral change in us; and if He knows that we are incapable of that change, He does not forgive, even though the sinner may obtain absolution from God's minister. Indeed, this is very much the case in point. Many a man may seek the absolution of his sins after confession, and yet his penitence may be so imperfect, either from an insincere confession, or from want of sorrow for sin or lack of purpose of amendment, that he will be incapable of appropriating the gift which is bestowed in absolution. He obtains the absolution, as the servant in the parable did, but he is unable to use it, that is, he never appropriates it.

As we have seen, God's forgiveness flows from His love, and it is impossible to conceive of that forgiveness being bestowed where it would do harm. In the parable it did do the servant harm; for it gave him the opportunity of committing fresh sin against his fellow-servant. The difficulty which so many have found in the parable lies in the inadequacy of the human analogy to fully represent the Divine application of its principles. It is not GOD who first forgives and then takes back his forgiveness, but the human king. What our Lord reveals, is that if ye forgive not men their

trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. This is the great principle of God's mercy and justice, set forth in the Sermon on the Mount, which our Lord illustrates by the parable of the unmerciful servant. We must interpret the parable by the positive revelation in the Sermon on the Mount, not that revelation by the parable.

We are now probably in a position to correct what is erroneous in our conception of forgiveness. We have seen that on God's side it cannot be unconditional, since that would often mean the injury of the sinner; but that it always involves capacity and desire for moral change, that is, repentance.

CHAPTER II

THE MALICE OF SIN

We have investigated our conception of forgiveness, and have found that it postulates certain dispositions in the recipient. Now let us consider carefully what we mean by sin. We are met at the outset of our task by certain conditions which make it very difficult for us to obtain a true and adequate view of sin, whether from the intellectual or moral standpoint. By this I mean that from our position in a sinful world it is by no means easy to know intellectually what sin is, or to grasp morally its intrinsic malice. The conditions which make this so difficult are chiefly four.

First, there is a familiarity with sin, which comes from our daily contact with a sinful world; for in the world sin is all around us, and we inhale, as it were, an atmosphere charged with sin. We hear so much about it, and become so familiarized with it, that we lose that delicate moral sensitiveness which ought to enable us at once to realize what sin is. We are so much a part of the phenomenon we are examining, so close to it, that it is extremely

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difficult to form an accurate judgment of it in its true relation to God and the soul. If we could only stand apart from this sinful world, and regard it from outside, we might obtain a just view of sin in its intrinsic malice, and in its relation to God and ourselves. This is what we must try to do to look upon sin as God sees it, and not as the world regards it. Such a view of sin we can never obtain by our own unaided intellect. We must earnestly ask for the help of the Holy Spirit, whose office it is to convince the world of sin.

Our Blessed Lord said to His disciples, "It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you. And when He is come, He will convince the world of sin.”1 We must pray the Holy Ghost to enlighten our understandings that we may see sin in some measure as God sees it, or at least as the holy angels see it, and beseech Him to strengthen our wills that we may hate it, as indeed we shall hate it if only we realize its enormity.

The second condition which renders it difficult to obtain an adequate conception of sin is the prevalence around us of entirely erroneous views on this subject. The world in which we live, that is, society, has its views of sin; and there is great

1 S. John xvi. 7-8.

danger of unconsciously accepting these opinions or at least of allowing our judgment to be warped by them. For example, the world thinks lightly of all those sins which do not fall under the condemnation of its own code of morals. It considers those sins very bad which its tribunals punish, or which occasion the loss of one's reputation; but all others are regarded as very light. So that really the greatest sin, in the world's estimation, is "being found out." The world practically says, Do what you like, only don't be found out.

Then society calls sins by euphemistic names, and forgets that they are sins; as, when a young man is living in intemperance, impurity, wasting his glorious manhood, outraging the holiness of God, and often ruining his fellow-creatures, the world speaks of him as only "sowing his wild oats.” The world has a sort of theory of the necessity of sin that we cannot help sinning, and therefore need not worry very much about it. If this were the case, if we really could not help sinning, God, Who is absolute Justice, could not punish us for it.

Again, people make excuses for their sins by blaming their circumstances or those among whom their lives are cast. The answer is very simple. These things are only temptations, and if we use all the means of grace diligently we shall have strength to resist them; or if we have not, then we