mucli, and to put up with muchj rather than quarrel. We are to look over muchj and submit to much, rather than have any strife. We are to lay aside everything like malicCj strife, revenge, and retaliation. Such feel- ings are only fit for heathens. They are utterly un- worthy of a disciple of Christ.
What a happy world it would he if this rule of our Lord's was more known and better obeyed ! How many of the miseries of mankind are occasioned by disputes, quarrels, lawsuits, and an obstinate tenacity about what men call " their rights !" How many of them might be altogether avoided, if men were more willing to forgive, and more desirous for peace ! Let us never forget that a fire cannot go on burning without fuel. Just in the same way it takes two to make a quarrel. Let us each resolve by God's grace, that of these two we will never be one. Let us resolve to return good for evil, and bless- ing for cursing, and so melt down enmity, and change our foes into friends. (Rom. xii. 20.) It was a fine fea- ture in Archbishop Cranmer's charater, that if you did him an injury, he was sure to be your friend.
In the second place, our Lord supplies us with tivo poioerful motives for exercising a forgiving spirit. He tells us a story of a man who owed an enormous sum to his master, and had ^^ nothing to pay." Nevertheless at the time of reckoning his master had compassion on him, and " forgave him all." He tells us that this very man, after being forgiven himself, refused to forgive a fellow- servant a trifling debt of a few pence. He actually cast him into prison, and would not abate a jot of his demand. He tells us how punishment overtook this wicked and
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cruel man, who, after receiving mercy, ought surely to have shown mercy to others. And finally, he concludes the parable with the impressive words, " so likewise shall my heavenly Father do unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brotheV their trespasses."
It is clear from this parable that one motive for forgiv- ing others, ought to be the recollection that we all need forgiveness at Grod's hands ourselves. Day after day we are coming short in many things, "leaving undone what we ought to do, and doing what we ought not to do." Day after day we require mercy and pardon. Our neighbors' offences against us are mere trifles, com- pared with our offences against God . Surely it ill becomes poor erring creatures like us, to be extreme in marking what is done amiss by our brethren, or slow to forgive it.
Another motive for forgiving others, ought to be the recollection of the day of judgment, and the standard by which we shall all be tried in that day. There will be no forgiveness in that day for unforgiving people. Such peo^Dle would be unfit for heaven. They would not be able to value a dwelling-place to which '^ mercy" is the only title, and in which " mercy" is the eternal sub- ject of song. Surely if we mean to stand at the right hand, when Jesus sits on the throne of His glory, we must learn, while we are on earth, to forgive.
Let these truths sink down deeply into our hearts. It is a melancholy fiict that there are few Christian duties BO little practised as that of forgiveness. It is sad to see howmuchbitterness,unmercifulness, spite, hardness, and unkindness there is among men. Yet there are few duties so strongly enforced in the New Testament Scrip-