Page:SermonsFromTheLatins.djvu/583

 prayer: "  Father,  forgive  them,  for  they  know  not what  they  do."

The king,  in  the  parable,  having  heard  what  was done, recalled  his  servant  before  him,  and  having upbraided him  for  his  ingratitude,  delivered  him  to the  torturers  till  he  should  pay  all  the  debt. There •is the  third  and  last  act  in  this  little  drama  presented for our  instruction. We may  be  inclined,  perhaps, to console  our  guilty  consciences  by  arguing  that there is  no  parity  between  the  action  of  the  king  to his  servant  and  the  attitude  of  God  to  the  sinner,  for in Ezechiel  we  read  that  as  often  as  the  sinner  shall bewail his  iniquities  God  shall  no  longer  remember them. True, but  still  I  call  your  attention  to  the closing words  of  the  parable:  "  So,  also,  shall  My heavenly  Father  do  to  you  if  you  forgive  not  every one  your  brother  from  your  heart." The parity is plain — plainly  stated  in  the  sermon  on  the  mount: " If  you  forgive  others  your  heavenly  Father  will  forgive you;  but  if  you  forgive  not  others  neither  will your  heavenly  Father  forgive  you." Nay, just  as  in the  parable,  judgment  is  now  demanded  for  a  debt already pardoned,  so  our  subsequent  sin  revives  the guilt and  justifies  the  punishment  even  of  those  previously pardoned. A schoolboy,  for  example,  misbehaves and  is  forgiven;  he  offends  again  and  is  pardoned with  a  warning,  and  so  on  till  patience  ceases to be  a  virtue,  and  his  master  inflicts  punishment,  not for one  but  for  the  whole  series  of  offences. And by the  fact  that  the  ungrateful  servant  did  not  dare,  a second  time,  to  plead  for  pardon,  we  are  taught  that