The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 2 — Section 225

have a right to demand also (see Luke xvii. 3). But when that is present he forgive& hardened ol~ offenders, who have grieved his Spirit many and many a time before, It is only the limitless forgiveness of God that mnkes it possible for us to be pardoned by him. Then it is incumbent on us to show the same spirit towards our fellow-men.- W. F. A. Vers. 23-35.-Th~ hard ddJtor. This parable follows our Lord's answer to St. Pater's question about the limits of forgiveness. The great reason why we should forgive ireely is that we have been freely forgiven much more than any men owe to us. I. THE GREAT DEBT. This represents what the sinner owes to God. We pray that God will forgive us our debts (eh. vi. 12). Deficiencies of duty are like debts con- sidered as arrears of payments. Positive transgressions are like debts, through our having wilfully appropriated what was not our own without paying for it. The accumulated omissions and offences make up the one consolidated debt of guilt. 1. Its immense size. Christ names a fabulous sum. There is no counting the accumulated sins of a lifetime. 2. Its full, expomre. The miserable debtor had been postponing the evil day. Perhaps, as he had been left long to himself, he had begun to hope that be would never be called to account. But the day of reckoning came. That day will corn\' for every soul. Long delay means an aggravated debt. IT. THE DREADFUL PUNTSHME1'"T, It was according to the stern legislation of antiquity, aud Christ bases his parables on familiar aspects of life without thereby justifying the facts and usages that he describes. In the spiritual world great punish- ment is the due of great sin. A reaction age.inst the physical horrors of the medimval hell has blinded our age to this fearful truth. Yet Christ frequently affirms it in calm, terrible J.a.nguage. III. THE GEKERous FORGIVENESS. In his dismay the debtor grovels at the feet of his lord, and foolishly offers to repay all if only the king will be patient and give him time. That is impossible, and the king knows it. "\Ve can never repay what we owe to God. If bis mercy only took the form of staying execution, at best it would only lead to a postponement of our doom. But the king forgave the debtor-forgave him completely. God forgives freely and fully. He acts royally. He does not spoil his gift by making it but half a pardon. The great debt is completely cancelled to the penitent soul IV. THE SU11SEQUE1'"T CRUELTY, The debtor's conduct was doubly odious, He had just been forgiven himself, and hie debt was vastly greater than his fellow-serv:ant's. Yet he treated the poor man with brutal insistence, with cruel harshness. Nothing could be more odions than this conduct. But is it not just the conduct of every Christian who will not forgive his brother? The Christian should be melted by the sight ot God's bonndless clemency, by his own reception of it, and by the knowledge that God has forgiven him far more than anything he can ever have to forgive his brother. V. THE FINAL DOOM. The king is justly angry. He recalls the pardon. He even has his wretched debtor pnt to torture. There are degrees of punishment in the future world, e.nd the worse torment is reserved for those who, having accepted the mercy of God for themselves, have had no mercy on their brother-men.-W. F. A. VeI'II. 1-14.-Necessity of ber,oming lilu little chi'ldren. To discuss in the abstract the qnestion who shall be greatest in the kingdom of heaven, is a profitable employ- ment. But when discussed with personal reference, and in view of present competing claims, there must inevitably be jealousies and rivalries, vanity and hatred. That his reply might lodge in their minds, and be audible to.all generations, our Lord gives it dramatically. He calls a little child to him, perhaps one of Pater's children. "Here," says he, "is the one excellence on which my kingdom is founded, and by which alone it can be extended-the excellence of not knowing you have any excellence at alL" It we.s, in short, a true humility-an humility that did not know itself to be humility, and was thereby humble. To become humble is a change that must be wrought upon you wbile yourself unconscious; it is like a new birth. A man feels th:1-t of all things this is beyond him. We cannot humble ourselves to serve a purpose; 1f we do so our humility cannot be genuine. Look at one or two instru•~tive features of childhood. 1. What delights us in children is very much their inability to conceal their thoughts, en. xvm. 1-35.] THE GOSPBL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTIIEW. 223