was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due to him. So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses."[1]
There, now, is the lesson: there is the Divine declaration, and it will be fulfilled to the letter. If any one fancies himself justified in indulging anger because he has been wronged, let him think how much more justifiable would our Divine Master be in exercising wrath against us. "If thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?"[2] Have we not, each and all, sinned against him again and again, in thought and word and deed,—and if he should take revenge for all these wrongs against his Divine law, where should we be? And yet if we are wronged in the least degree by our "fellow- servant,"—our fellowman, we fancy we are justified in being angry and taking revenge to the utmost. How do those accounts square with each other? How will those reckonings stand, when a comparison is made?—and it will be made at our judgment. Our fellow-servant owes us a hundred pence; but we owe our own Lord ten thousand talents: such is the proportion between the wrongs done to us, and the wrongs which we ourselves have done.
Let us beware, then, how we cherish an unforgiving spirit, if we wish to be ourselves forgiven. Let us hasten to put away all feelings of anger, revenge, and ill-will, and come into a state of love and kind-
