“‘Forgive us our debts, as we forgive.’
Ah, who, dear Lord, can pray that prayer?
The rest with ready zeal is said,
But, self-accused, we falter there.”
“If in my heart has been
An unforgiving thought, or word, or look,
Though deep the malice which I scarce could brook,
Wash me from dark sin.”
A writer says of another, “his heart was as great as the world, but there was no room in it to hold the memory of a wrong.” This is the true ideal for every Christian heart. We have it in the prayer which we are taught to offer for forgiveness. While we ask God to forgive us, we declare to him that we have forgiven those who are indebted to us those who have trespassed against us. We say to God that there is no bitterness, no spirit of unforgiveness, in our heart.
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