JTLY 15, 1914 



561 



Ao 1. Moott 



OUE HOME 



After this manner, therefore pray ye: Our Father 

 which art in heaven. Hallowed be thy name. Thy 

 kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in 

 heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And 

 forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And 

 lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: 

 For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the 

 glory, for ever. Amen. Matt. 6:9-13. 



For some time back the Lord's Prayer has 

 been much on my mind. Our readers will 

 notice I have touched on it several times. 

 Now, with this in mind you can readily 

 imagine how deeply I took in the following 

 sermon, preached by our good pastor. I 

 said " amen " so many times that I hesitated 

 about saying it any more, although I felt 

 the sermon deserved it. You, my good 

 I liei-ds, may say amen as much as you feel 

 Like it as you read it over . 



A SERMON PREACHED IN THE FIRST CONGRE- 

 GATIONAL CHURCH^ MEDINA, OHIO^ BY 

 REV. H. SAMUEL FRITSCH, 



OCT. 26, 1913. 



The seven petitions of the Lord's Prayer 

 fall naturally into groups — three, one, and 

 three — three petitions relating to great 

 universal facts of God — thy name, thy king- 

 dom, thy will. One petition concerned with 

 man's physical, temporal, material needs — 

 daily bread. Three petitions for the inner, 

 spiritual needs of man — which gToup forms 

 the basis of our study to-day—" And for- 

 give us our debts as we forgive our debtors. 

 And lead us not into temptation, but deliv- 

 er us from evil" (Matt. 6:12,13). 



"Forgive us our debts" — what debts! 



Certainly this petition does not cover the 

 debts which man owes to man in a business 

 way. It does not mean that the man who 

 owes the baker for bread, the butcher for 

 meat, the grocer for eofifee and sugar, the 

 tailor for clothes, or even the church treas- 

 urer for subscriptions, can get out of pay- 

 ing those debts by devoutly praying, " For- 

 give us our debts." Such debts can not be 

 forgiven, they must be given for. They can 

 not be canceled by praying; they must be 

 canceled by paying. 



Neither does this petition cover the debts 

 that man owes to his God. We owe him a 

 debt of love — " Thou shalt love the Lord 

 thy God, because he first loved us." We 

 owe him a debt of gratitude — " Oh give 

 thanks unto the Lord, for he is good." We 

 owe him a portion of our worldly goods — 

 " Honor the Lord with thy substance and 

 with the firstfruits of all thine increase." 

 We owe him a debt of service — " Ye are not 

 your own, for ye are bought with a price." 

 These are all debts that we must pay. They 



are charged up against us in the divine 

 ledger; and the petition "Forgive us our 

 debts " is not a cheap and easy way of side- 

 stepping the obligation by having the ac- 

 count wiped off the books. " Pay what thou 

 owest ! " 



But what are the debts for which we 

 should pray forgiveness? St. Luke's version 

 of the Lord's Prayer leaves no doubt or 

 ambiguity : " Forgive us our sins." This 

 petition, then, is a prayer for the forgive- 

 ness of sins. 



Now, just what did Jesus intend when he 

 taught us to pray, " Forgive us our sins " ? 

 Assuredly he did not mean, as some have 

 fondly and foolishly imagined, that, if fer- 

 vently prayed to do so, God will overlook 

 our sins. I once knew a good church-mem- 

 ber who made his pocket money by trading 

 horses. In spite of his high standing in the 

 church, his trades were often " fearfully 

 and wonderfully made," and his ways in a 

 deal were past finding out. This good man 

 made it a practice every morning at family 

 worship to pray thus : " Lord, if to-day 

 in the course of worldly business I commit 

 wrong or deal unjustly, wilt thou in thy 

 great mercy forgive me." But tliink you 

 that that prayer would cause the recording 

 angel to omit making an entry of that man's 

 dubious deeds for that day? Think you not, 

 rather, that the deliberate intention that 

 lurked back of that prayer caused the re- 

 cording angel to make a double entry — one 

 for cheating at a horse trade and another 

 for cheating at prayer 1 He who keeps right 

 on sinning, expecting to fall back on the 

 i:)etition, " Forgive us our sins," will, I fear, 

 fall mighty hard ! Never can the promise 

 of forgiveness of sin be taken as a license 

 to commit sin. 



Again, " Forgive us our sins " does not 

 mean that there is any process of forgive- 

 ness whereby the natural results of sin may 

 be canceled or annulled. The forgiveness 

 of sin does not wipe out the natural penalty 

 of sin. " The soul that sinneth, it shall die." 

 Sin is a destructive force ; and in proportion 

 as a soul sins, it kills its finer fibers and its 

 softer sensibilities. Sin is soul-suicide ; and 

 the bloody corpses of those of my talents 

 and powers and opportunities that I have 

 deliberately slain can not be restored to life, 

 even by divine forgiveness. The slayer may 

 be forgiven, but the slain come not to life 

 again. " The wages of sin is death." Sin 

 always comes back with the yellow pay- 

 envelope; sin never accepts forgiveness for 

 its debts. "Be not deceived; God is not 



