| The Golden Gate of Prayer |
Chapter 12 |
Page 4 |
Have we been paying all these debts? One of the bitterest ingredients in the cup of sorrow ofttimes is the remembrance of failure in fulfilling love’s duties. We stand by the coffins of our friends and recall, perhaps not unkindnesses, but neglect to show kindnesses, courtesies omitted, to those who are now beyond our reach. It is this class of sins which the word “debts” specially suggests — duties which we owed and did not pay. In the case of refined, cultivated people, there may well be no acts of cruelty, injustice, or wrong, committed against others, but there are few days in which the gentlest do not leave undone many things they ought to have done, neglecting duties of encouragement, of comfort, of kindness, and of thoughtful help.
But is it only to our fellow-men that we owe these debts? Would their forgiveness of us, when we have failed in love’s duty to them, set us free from the obligation? No, we must look back of the persons we injure or neglect. All our sins against others are against God. Even a cruelty to a dumb animal is a sin against God and God alone can forgive it. It is with God we have to do in every thought or word or act. It is God’s law we violate when we fail to love our neighbor as ourself. The calls of need that come to us are not merely human voices — they are the echoes of the divine voice. “Behind the injured, neglected brother, God stands, the guardian of the brother’s right; behind the neglected work God stands, the real Employer who has trusted us with talents and powers. Behind the misused or unused talents, stands the Giver of them, and demands his own.” Our unpaid debts of love to others are really debts to God. We may wrong our friends and neighbors, but we can sin only against God, and God only can forgive us.
Page 4