Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1888-02-17
TEACHING FORGIVENESS.
LESSON VIII, INTERNATIONAL SUM-
DAY SCHOOL SERIES, FEB. 10.


nam N'"'"'' ~ !"
Iron lesson Helper Quarterly by permission OF
IL. 5. Holman niiadelphia, pubiishcrl
tos-My brother, or fellow disciple.
Seventy times seven, or indefinitely for 400
times; clearly mark the unlimited exercise of
forgiveness. Take account see how much
they owed. Servants, officers, or those in
charge of some trust Talents. "a talent was
5000 shcbcls and a shckcl of silver was about
fifty cents. Went out, l. e., from his Lords
presence Hundred pence, IA pence was the
Roman denarius, valued about fourteen
cents. Wroth. very angry. Tormentors,
officers of the prison. Likewise, in the same
way. Trcspasscs, sins or wrongs against
you.
V. 81. Moved by our Lords directions as
to the treatment 10y his disciples of their Of
Tending brethren, Peter comes with the very
practical question as to the extent that for
givCness might be required of him. He
wanted to know how often he must forgive!
Clearly he thought there was limit to It's
exercise and point beyond upon which he
could not be required togo. NuWthe rabhlS
taught that three was that limit Peter,
therefore, doubled that number and added
one TO it, and then thought that even tue
master could ask no more, We can smile ut
the earnestucss OF the man, the daIlincs, that
still shut him in and his struggling toward
the truth. But just mere, how tar-how very
far-do many of the protesting people of the
Lord stand even in this dispcnsation of the
spirit below Peters "scvcn times"
V. -. How heavenly these words are.
Clearly "scventy times sevcn'-4JO times
are an unlimited number! "Evon a, had
pity on thee Is the divine measure And
freely as we have been forgiven
V. % The whole doctrine of forgiveness is
illustrated in this parable. Gods forgive
ness of us is the reason why we should for
give
V. "a. No doubt these servants wero
officers to whom some public trust had been
confided And this special one had prob
ably farmCd out some portion of the kings
domain I'm no other way is it easy to see
how such an enormous debt could be created.
For a talent of silver would he about : 800
and "tcn thousand talcntsn would sum up to
$15.OO0,OO0 \ talent of gold would, Of
course, he proportionably greater. And if
by this enormous sum the master meant to
represent our sins against God. it is a most
tellinr point that this great debtor was found
when che had begun to reckon" No ex-
tended search was needed The proof Law
upon the surface The records of the case at
once revealed it. There was the proof Of the
debt. And there was no escape from it,
And if that great debt reprcsen' our sins be-
fore God. how fitting is the statement cone
was brought unto him, etc" For ,hi, debtor
would not have come of himself The kings
mo engors brought him. And 50 in Tire case
of our sins. The king has many messengers
to bring us into his presence and open before
us the record of oar sins -iHd as we
survey die record, there is no answer to
the question, IL, not thy wakedncss
great and thine iliiIuity infinite" job
xxii. >.
v .J-2;;. -tuthosc incident, are necessary
t. the parable ms illustrating human trans
action. aud are not to he regarded SIS nna.uI-
in. the divine mode Of ior .,aua-. Two
great truth, are illu .ratel uy the para
Die. j. e..
!. There is 10 limit 10 TIE eIorci~' of for
,.f,-