The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1888-02-16
TEACHING FORGIVENESS,
LESSON VIII, INTERNATIONAL SUM-
DAY SCHOOL SERIES. FEB. 10.

LESSON VII, INTERNATIONAL SUN
DAY SCHOOL SERIES, FEB. 10.
Text of the Lesson. pfatt. xviii, e1-s5.
Golden Text. Dsate vi, 1s-aIenorize
Verses s1-22-Comment by Rev. Will
liam Newton, d. d.
| IFron Lesson Helper Quafterl., by permission of
H s. Hoffman, Fhiiadelrhi;., pu5lsher.1
| Notes.-Iy brothers 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 .TAlelss. a talent was
5000 shekels, and a shekel es silver was about
E " cents. Went outsI e., from lis Lords
presence. Hundred pezTs.. a pence was the
| Roman denarius, valued about fourteen
cents Wroth very angry Tormentors,
officers of the prison. likewise, in the same
way Trespasses, SINS or wrongs against
| you.
v. 81. Moved by our Lords directions as
to the treatment by his dlsc.ples of their Of
| tending brethren, Potter Spmes with the very
practical question as to Gle extent that for
sive1ess might be REQUIRED Of him. He
wanted to know how oftehhe must forgives
Clearly he thought tae<A was limit to its
exercise and point beyond upon which he
could not be required togo. Now the rabbis
t..ught that three was that limit Peter,
| therefore, doubled that number and added
one to it, and then thought that even the
master could ask no more. We can smile at
the earnestness of the man, the darkness that
still shut him in and his struggling toward
l SOD L,., 1px1 Pow. brxs7
far-do many of the processing people of the
Lord stand even in this dispensation of tho
spirit below Peters "seven times!'
V. 22 How heavenly these words are
Clearly seventy times sevenn-490 times
are an unlimited numberl "Even as had
pity ON theen is the divine measure. And
until that is reached we must forgive as
freely as we have been forgiven.
| " % 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 were
officers to whom some public trust had been
confded. And this special one had prob
ably farmed out some portion Of the kings
| domain. In no other way Is it easy to see
| how such an enormous debt could be created
For a talent of silver would be about 81 sos,
| and 'sten thousand talents would sum up 80
| S15, ,G00, COO. A talent of gold would, of
| course, be proportionably greater. And if
| by this enormous sum the master meant tG
represent or!r sins against God, it is a most
| telling point that this great debtor was found
when ''he had begun to reckon" No cx-
tended search was needed. The proof lay
| upon the surface Tho records of the case at
once revealed it. There was the proof OF the
delt. And there was no escape from it.
Ard if that greet debt represent our sins be
fore God, how fitting is the statement, tone
w;.s brought unto him, etc" For this debtor
woald not have come of himself. The kings
nae engcrs brought him. And so in the case
| OF oUr sins. The king has many messengers
| to bring us into MS presence and open befors
us the record of cur sins. And as we
survey the record, there is no answer to
the question, SIS not thy wckedness
great, and thine iniquity infiniteg JOB
xxi, s.
" 25-27 All these Incidents are necessary
80 the parable as Illustrating human trana
| action, and arc not to be regarded as measur
| ing the divine mole Of forgiveness. Two
| great truths are illustrated by the para
bic, i.e.,
/. There is no limit to the exercise of for
| giveness, and
.. He who has received forgiveness from
God, will always extend it TO lnan.
" $3.50 1t IS q most significant point
that it was when tie servant went out, l. G.
from his lords rIeser-A-tha. l1u found his
Indebted fellow servant. He had 10 time for
I such search when he stool before his lord.
HIS own great need occupied him then. But
when he went out from hispresencc, he could
LOOK up the little matters Of his fellow serv-
ants indebtedness to hin elf. And what q
contrast is here! '-fen thousand talents ON
the one side, and hundred pence on the
other. Yet this taking bT the throat, this
Pay me that thou o1yes5; this casting into
prison-how clearly all this tells of oae who
has no sense Of forgiveness in his own eE-
pc~ience.
V. 3l-3A IEcre again we have the huina1,
side of The parable, the operations Of the
''lnan king Beyond q,e5sion, V. 81 mod
iGcs and explains V. 2I. Clearly the deb
tila5 was Tor 5ivca could net DO enforced, and
| the debt that was enforced could never have
ocen for. ivoH. So tjlat the principle here
involved IS that the realty OF the divine for
givcness il a C,i.cl case viii be shown by The
reality OF our forgiveness Of those who sir
| against Us. Tfcre IS 70 such thing s re-ca-
forcing tie rcn.tity Of sins that had once
been forgiven. The uDmcrciful servant Was
net trouble. b. his great debt. He would
willingly havc Ine;,c it larger if he had no.
been brought 10 the king. II was only the
penalty that troublod him. And he whom
that servant represents is the man whc
thought he was converted when he was only
terrified, ard s7io had no use for the love oi
Goa beyond tic fact that in some way il
could a.svc him fr,:in The penalty CT his sin
And Wien i;5 goes ol:s from the Lords pres
ence; when Ais SsTse OF danger is lost in thC
promises Of the G,.s.,el, the current of his old
nature flows on as before Why should ht
not have his hundred pence? Why should ht
not claim that which is his duel And SO lis
claim to be forgiven is proved by the ruling
spirit of lis l.fc u have been utterly without
foundation. The principle, therefore, hold:
good in every case, that he who refuses tt
forgive shows that he himself had never beer
forgiven. And now, in reviewing this para
bic, we learn,
l. That the duty CT forgiveness isabsolutelJ
unlimited. How, indeed, can it be otherwise
if it flows out OF what God has done for us
Even as had pity on thee," is the divi.l
rule Therefore to one who has been hinscl
forgiven the right to refuse forgiveness doe
not exist. How can we reach the limit o
our "seventy times seven z"
Q Our sins against God are practical.
without number Is no5 this just the mean
ing OF the ten thousand talents oil tho parable
"Wc cannot answer him one OF a thousand.
g. The offenses of our fellow men agains
ourselves are, In comparison, insignificant
Viewed in any other light, measured by ar.
ether standard, they may be very great Bu
the parable sets tho one over against til
other; our 10000 talents, with our fello'
servants 100 pence. And that compariso
remains. And the practical operation of thl
truth is that because God has forgiven L
we ought also to forgive one another. 1t 70
lows from this that the power leat
ing TO forgiveness is not one of tt
, forces of our nature. II is not native am
| ability of temper. 1t is simply and alon
the sense of Gods pardoni;lg love to us, flow
: ing out in forgiveness to others. As necei
sity, therefore, where the sense of that lov
is absent, that forgiveness cannot appear