FORGIVENESS.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1081, 1 June 1882, Page 4

FORGIVENESS.

The following outline of a sermon delivered recently by Mr Moody in San Francisco will give a very good idea of that gentleman’s teaching. Mr Moody spoke from the text Jeremiah xxi ; 54 : —“ And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, Know ye the Lord ? for they shall know Ale, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lard ; for I will forgive their iniquity, an I will remember their sin no more.” He said that God’s forgiveness was precious because complete. Once forgiven, always forgiven ; and it would be all folly on our part to bring our past sins and dwell upon them after we are converted. They were wiped away for ever. In addition to this when God forgives he forgives everything. We must come willing to give up all our transgressions. We have no choice whatever in the matter, and unless we are prepared to give up all our evil habits aud pet vices we can obtain no forgiveness. Neither can we come without making the restitution that lies in ®ur power to those we have wronged or inj used. Mr Moody il 1 ustrated this point by reciting the case of a young mas. who had followed him home one night for the purpose of asking him if it was necessary for him, now that he professed to be a Christian, to pay his debts, among them some whisky bills. Mr Moody told him to pay them all by means; that these very men would respect him for it,and have confidence in the religion he professed. The .speaker said it was not only necessary

for us to obtain forgiveness, but that we must also forgive those who have sinned against us. There were thousands of men in this city who were kept out of the Kingdom of Heaven simply because they were not willing to forgive. They think that itis manlike to resist. So it is; but it is Godlike to forgive. The difficulty is that men have too much pride to go and acknowledge their faults, obtain the forgiveness of their enemies and tender tiieir own.