St. Paul daily globe., 1895-06-24
REV. DIR. EGBERT POINTS OUT
THE DANGER THAT LURKS
BENEATH 1T.
FORGIVE OUR TREsPAsSEs
CONSIDERED IN IT'S MORAL RE-
LATION TO THE ACTUALI-
TIES OF LIFE.
OUR MUTUAL RESPONSIBILITIES
Forgiveness of Debts Among Men
Must BE as Complete as
Christ,s Love.

"And forgive us our debts as we
forgive our debtors" CMatt. vi, 12)
furnished the'theme Of Rev. DR.. Eg-
bert's sermon yesterday morning al
the House of Hope church.
The Lords prayer, from the be-
ginning to the end, said the preach
er, is built out of one thought ut
tered in the first sentence, "Our
Father who art in heaven" NO
man can stand contemplating COD,
the Infinite Ruler and Creator OF
the universe, recognizing Him as
the holy and just One, the omnipo-
tent One, the skiliful Devfser, With
out also thinking of Him in His re-
lation to men. "Our Father who art
in heaven''-not in some place, put
in some condition, character OF be-
ing, that is our highest ideal
Our Father in heaven! Can any
one contemplate that with any
thoughtfulness at ALL. with any rec
ognition of his own immortality, any
recognition of his own true relation
to God, and not instantly pray Thy
kingdom Gomez
Then comes, "And give us this day
our daily bread" AS if God would
come out of all his mystery and
Wonderfulness of distance into the
most intimate relation with the llt-
tie necessities of our daily life, TAX
ing up all our cares and all our DUR
dens. and all our difficulties, the
things that sometimes SO hinder the
development of life, hinder our high
est and noblest living, and telilns
us that they are sacred, that they
are helps, that God can WORK III
them and through them, as he can
through the working of HIS own
great kingdom and the higher dong
of His will, that we can earn our
daily bread in following with Him.
Then He goes further in this mar
yelous prayer, the most dlihcalt
prayer in 1t all, Forgive US our debts
as we forgive our debtors. Raskln'
in commenting on this prayer, says
that we have become so aceuStohleu
to the inaccurate word trespasseS
that we forget that this means DEBT
and lose the greatness and depth OF II.
Look at it a moment. We pray day
after day, Forgive us our debts.
What are my debts to you? There is
not an obligation even OF material
things that is not the expression OF a
moral obligation. The Indebtedness is
not an Indebtedness of thing; 1t Is
an iir51 indebtedness of soul; as the apostle
Peter put it, 81 debtor to all men.
And a man is neither a sood citizen
nor true communicate of the church
of Christ, nor true citizen Of the
Kingdom of God who thinks that any
amount of money, or any amount of
words, or any amount of moral con-
duct merely for his own life is suffi-
Gent 1t means that he shall put
moral gift, moral being and a moral
doing into his life among men that will
be for the glory of God and the gain
of his brother into fellowship with God.
If you lie against your brother, that
lie is sin against God as we'll as a
crime against your brother. Your
brother may forgive you that lie COM
pletely, however much harm it may do
to him, but your own soul has lied.
There is sinfulness in the capability
of lying. It is not the lie only, the act;
it Isl the condition Of spirit out of which
the lie sprang. It is not only the sim
gle bit of vapor that rises from the
stagfiant swamp and carries the fever
with it into a. household; it is the con-
dition of that stagnant pool that is
ready to send out more fever and
more fever by the very character it
bears.