(3) And especially to His greater knowledge.
God is more forgiving than man ; where the justice which only half knows the magnitude of the offence is often merciless, the justice which sees it in all its heinousness is ready to pardon ; even where all hope of clemency from a mortal weak and erring as himself, is gone ; to Him who knows no sin, who is absolutely inaccessible to temptation, may the forlorn and guilty soul repair with the assurance that its appeal for mercy will never be heard in vain. It is just because God's thoughts and ways are not as man's, because His righteousness is infinitely exalted above man's, that therefore the unrighteous man may " return unto the Lord " with the assurance that " He will have mercy upon him, and to our God " with the confidence that " He will abundantly pardon."
My Lord, when Thou didst love me, didst Thou know
How weak my efforts were, how few,
Tepid to love and impotent to do. Envious to reap while slack to sow? —"Yea, I knew."i
(4) It is expressed in His very Name,
In the effort that was put forth by the prophets of old to
^ Christina G. Rossetti.
ISAIAH 385
give the wings of words to the Divine Inspiration that stirred with- in them, and more particularly to give the divinest expression to their conception of the character of God, they hit upon nothing that is finer, or grander, or more instructive than the terms in which they represent the name of God. It must indeed be difficult to name God, if the name is to be adequately significant. Hence the accumulation of grand human terms in the name of the Lord as proclaimed to Moses of old : — " The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suflering, and abundant in goodness and truth ; keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and sin, and that will by no means clear the impenitent."
The penitent Levites, of whom we read in the Book of Nehemiah, thus spoke to God : " Thou art a God of pardons, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness." God is characterised not only as a pardoning God, but as a " God of pardons." He is possessed, as it were, of such an inexhaustible store of pardons that the supply is sufficient to meet the most numerous necessities imaginable. If pardon be at all, there is no fear of stint in the supply, stint such as might leave some of / us, against our will, out in the dark, out in the cold, out in the ; hurricane of storm and tempest. Whatever pardon may be in its essence and significance, there is assuredly enough of it and to spare, for all of us without distinction or exception, seeino- God is a God of pardons.
% The inner sanctuary of the humble home is the " fireside." A lad in his teens, a member of a large family in Sheffield, left his home, and by persistent waywardness caused his parents considerable anxiety and pain. One night a young sister found him loitering in the locality. Her best effort could only bring him a little nearer the old home. A mother's glad welcome induced him to "come in." Taking off his coat he shamefacedly proceeded to a chair near the door when his father called out "Nay lad, don't sit theer; tha's coom back; cum reight up te t' fier."
My God, my God, have mercy on my sin, For it is great; and if I should begin
To tell it all,
The day would be too small To tell it in. 25
386 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
My God, Thou wilt have mercy on my sin For Thy Love's sake: yea, if I should begin
To tell This all,
The day would be too small To tell it in.i
^ Christina G. Hossetti.
The Highest is the Most Forgiving.
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Keble (J.), Sermons for the Christian Year, Cliriatmas — Epiphany
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No. 1387 ; xxxvi. No. 2181. Talbot (E. S.), Sermons at Southwark, 71. Wilmot Buxton (H. J.), Mission Sermons for a Year, 99. Wilson (J. M.), Clifton College Sermons, i. 234.
„ Rochdale Sermons, 271.
Religion and the Modern World, 188. Christian World Pulpit, ix. 13 (Beecher) ; xxv. 106 (Beecher) ', xli. 33
(Bradley) ; Iviii. 279 (Horton) ; Ixxiii. 65 (Henson). Clergyman's Magazine, xii. 23 (Straton). Contemporary Pulpit, 2nd Ser., i. 45 (Candlish). Expository Times, iii. 298.
The Highest is the Most Forgiving.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. — Iv. 8, 9.