GLEANINGS IN BE6 CULTURU: 



mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that 

 shall he also reap." The young man who 

 sows his " wild oats " may be forgiven by 

 the society which he has outraged and by 

 the God whom he has wronged ; but there 

 is no process of forgiveness which can wipe 

 out the terrible harvest crop. Be not de- 

 ceived; the law of cause and eifect is never 

 set aside; the sinner may be forgiven for 

 his sin, but he can not escape the penalty 

 of his sin. 



But what, then, is' the purpose of this 

 petition, " Forgive us our sins," if it neither 

 furnishes license to sin nor yet cancels the 

 penalty of sin"? It is a prayer with power 

 to remove the guilt of sin. 



The worst thing about sin is the feeling 

 of g-uilt that it produces. Not too strongly 

 does Byron speak of gniilt as 



Oh that pang where more than madness lies — 

 The worm that will not sleep, and never dies I 



And the worst thing about giailt is that it 

 puts an impossible and impassable ban'ier 

 between the soul and its God. As the guilt 

 of the naughty child makes him shun his 

 father and mother, so down from the time 

 when Adam and Eve hid themselves in the 

 garden, the guilt of man's sin has held him 

 aloof from God. Man's guilt did not hold 

 God aloof from man ; it held man aloof 

 from God. The gTiilty conscience always 

 takes it for granted that the wronged party 

 is holding himself aloof in anger. So man 

 in his guilt took it for granted that God had 

 withdrawn himself, burning with vengeance; 

 and guilty man, instead of permitting him- 

 self to be drawn tight to the father-heart 

 of God, held aloof and tried to propitiate 

 an outraged parent with burnt offerings and 

 sacrifices, with rituals and ceremonies. To 

 overcome this aloofness, God sent his Son, 

 not to reconcile God to guilty man, but to 

 tell guilty man that God is reconciled, that 

 God never was angTy. God sent his Son 

 to say to guilty man, " Never mind, my chil- 

 dren. You've done wrong, and feel gTiilty; 

 but don't let that feeling of guilt keep you 

 away from me. Come ! I forgave you long 

 ago ; come back to my heart." Oh the mea- 

 sureless, matchless love which kisses away 

 the sense of guilt, and folds us tight in the 

 embrace of forgiveness ! 



But if God has thus fully and freely for- 

 given, why then should we still pray, " For- 

 give us " ? It must be understood that the 

 prayer for forgiveness is not a plea that 

 God may be forgiving — God needs no such 

 plea. It is, rather, a plea that we may re- 

 ceive and accept that forgiveness, that the 

 burden of guilt may be lifted from our 

 hearts, that the barrier which guilt has 

 thrown between us and our God may be 

 broken down. 



Before leaving this petition, it is well to 

 remember that there is a condition attached : 

 " Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our 

 debtors." Listen, friends, are you and I 

 willing to have God take us at our word, 

 and forgive us as we forgive our friends? 

 Are we willing that God should be as reluc- 

 tant to forgive as we sometimes are with 

 as many mental reservations, or with that 

 complacent condescension which requires 

 the pardoned one to grovel in the dust at 

 our feet? "As we forgive our debtors." 

 Let us be so loving and kind in forgiving 

 our debtors that we would not be shocked 

 or grieved if God should take us at our 

 word when we pray this petition. 



" And lead us not into temptation." Of all 

 the petitions in the Lord's Prayer, this one 

 has most troubled thoughtful people. God 

 being God, does he ever, can he ever, lead 

 anybody into temptation? And if God does 

 not and can not lead anybody into tempta- 

 tion, then what's the use of asking him not 

 to? Yea, verily, if God does not, and can 

 not lead anybody into temptation, is it not 

 presuming terribly to ask him not to? and 

 is not that presumption dangerously close 

 to blasphemy? 



Did Jesus believe that God has a disposi- 

 tion to tempt people, a disposition which 

 would make it wise for humanity to pi'ay 

 unceasingly, " Lead us not into tempta- 

 tion "? No words on this question from 

 Jesus himself are preserved to us ; but it is 

 quite probable that he discussed the subject 

 of temptation with liis own family, as well 

 as the circumstances of his own temptation. 

 At any rate, this is what James, own. broth- 

 er of Jesus, says about temptation, and we 

 may well believe it is a reflection if not a 

 repetition of the teaching of his divine 

 elder brother : " Let no man say when he is 

 tempted, ' I am tempted of God.' For God 

 can not be temi^ted with evil, and he himself 

 If mpteth no man. But each man is tempted 

 when he is drawn away by his own lust, and 

 enticed." It is contrary to the nature of 

 God, therefore, to tempt man, and we must 

 seek for some other interpretation of this 

 petition than that which asks God to please 

 be so kind as not to lead us into temptation. 



This better interpretation we obtain by a 

 common-sense punctuation of the petition. 

 It was never intended that this sentence 

 should be spoken in one breath : " Lead us 

 not into temptation." The intended mean- 

 ing is brought out by making the pause of 

 a comma or of a dash after the word us. 

 " And lead us — not into temptation — but 

 deliver us from evil." We may bring out 

 the thought by paraphrasing the petition 

 thus : " Lord, there are many objects and 

 conditions and circumstances that appeal to 



