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CHAPTER VII. 



RETRIBUTION AND FORGIVENESS. 



I HAVE endeavoured to show in the foregoing 

 chapter that we have every reason to hope for a 

 " restoration of all things," in which sin and suffer- 

 ing shall cease to exist. But it is not true that 

 forgiven sins are as though they had not been. On 

 this subject, I quote the following passages from the 

 prophetical writings ; which, as is usual in both the 

 Old and the New Testaments, state the apparently 

 opposing truths of justice and mercy, retribution 

 and forgiveness, without any hint to show how they 

 are to be reconciled : 



"Jehovah is slow to anger and plenteous in 

 mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and 

 will by no means clear the guilty." * " Thou wast a 

 God that forgavest them, though Thou tookest 

 vengeance of their doings." 2 These latter are the 

 words of a Psalmist of the early Israelite Monarchy, 



1 Numbers xiv. 18 ; see also Exodus xxxiv. 7. 

 2 Psalm xcix. 8. 



