1. Now let us look at some of the ways in which we may * John Caird.
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see that God's pardon outreaches the thoughts and the ways of men. And, first of all, let us consider the character of the sin which had to he forgiven. Man does not forgive where he has been insulted as God was in his rebellion. Nations do not tolerate blows aimed at their independence and their very- existence ; and therefore man's revolt might have been expected to draw down swift and remediless destruction. We justly exalt the Fatherhood of God ; but this great and glorious truth must be harmonised with the rest of God's character, and with the conditions of the moral universe over which He presides. Sin in its very essence is a wilful attempt to dethrone, degrade, and even destroy God ; and even the relation of fatherhood, with its duties to other children, may warrant and even necessitate the penal separation of the child or children, who would con- spire to act out in the family, what sin is in the universe. That God's thoughts should have been thoughts of peace, in such a crisis to a sinning world, is the wonder of unfallen beings and of those who are recovered. They cannot go back to that " counsel of peace," in which, though every foreseen trespass demanded the exercise of justice, mercy yet rejoiced against judgment, without exclaiming : " This is not the manner of man, 0 Lord God." " 0 the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God ! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out ! "
Wilt thou forgive that sin where I begun,
Which was my sin, though it were done before ?
Wilt thou forgive that sin, through which I run And do run still, though still I do deplore ?
When thou hast done, thou hast not done ; For I have more.
Wilt thou forgive that sin which I have won Others to sin, and made my sins their door?
Wilt thou forgive that sin which I did shun A year or two, but wallowed in, a score ?
When thou hast done, thou hast not done; For I have more."^
2. The conditions imposed. — The sole and simple condition is repentance — that is to say, repentance which is renunciation. Is
^ John Donne.
4o6 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
there anything in God which, if I now repent and turn with my whole heart to Him, bars the way to forgiveness, makes Him insist first on the satisfaction to His offended law which misery and suffering bring ? Be my past life what it may — wasted, mis-spent, stained with the indelible traces of selfish and evil deeds — if now I break away from the past, hate it, renounce it, and in sincerest sorrow and penitence turn to offer up my soul, my life, my whole being to God, will He say : " No, till vengeance for the past have its due, till the demand of my law for penal suffering be satisfied, mercy is impossible, I cannot forgive ? "
Is not such a thought a travesty of the nature of God, a mis- conception of what He, the All-good, All-loving, must regard as the sacrifice for sin that is best and truest ? For what must be that sacrifice or satisfaction that is dearest to Eighteousness or to the Infinite Eighteous One ? The misery of lost souls, the pain, the sorrow and dismay of their moral desolation, that knows no mitigation, and the smoke of a torment that rises up for ever ? Oh no, offer that to Molech, but not to the God whom Christ has revealed. But the tear of penitence, the prayer of faith, the sighs of a contrite spirit, the love and hope that will not let go its hold on God, the confiding trust that from the depths of despair sends forth the cry, " Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee " ; the yearning after a purer, better life, that finds utterance in the prayer, " Create in me a elean heart, 0 God ; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me " — yes, I make answer, that is the sacrifice dearest to Him who despiseth not the sighing of a broken and contrite spirit, who hath said, " Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest," and whose gospel, proclaimed by the lips and sealed by the sacrifice and death of His dear Son, is but a glorious renewal of the ancient promise, " Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts : and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him ; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon."
IT He discoursed with me very fervently and with great open- ness of heart, concerning his manner of going to God, whereof some part is related already. He told me, that all consists in
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one hearty renunciation of everything which we are sensible does not lead us to God, in order that we may accustom ourselves to a continual conversation with Him, without mystery and in simplicity.^