Page:Sermons on the Lord's Prayer.djvu/83

 —if we do not make these returns that are due,—if we do not love and worship him as we ought,—if we do not yield obedience to his commands,—then we are delinquents; and our delinquencies are sins against him. It is on this ground, probably, that offences against our Heavenly Father are called "debts," that is, returns of gratitude and obedience due, but yet unpaid.

Now, the prayer is, that the Lord would forgive us these "debts"—would pardon our offences, our sins against him. And this subject of the forgiveness of sins opens up a wide field of thought, and one on which the light of the New Church Doctrine shines with peculiar brightness.

That doctrine teaches that the Lord always forgives, for he is Love and Mercy itself; that is, he never entertains any feeling of revenge or even of anger against any one, nor any desire to punish any one, however great his sins or offences may have been. "The Lord," says the New Church Doctrine, "remits to every one his sins; and never punishes for them, nor ever imputes them to any one, nor brings accusation against any one, inasmuch as he is essential Love and Goodness. When Peter asked him. How often his brother might sin against him and be forgiven,—whether seven times? the Lord answered, 'Not seven times only, but seventy times seven.' What then must be the extent of the Lord's forgiveness, who is Mercy itself?" "But," it is added—and this is a most important qualification of the previous remark,—