I will not execute the fierceness of my anger. I will not return to destroy Ephraim: For I am God, and not man; the Holy One in the midst of you; And I will not come in wrath.
Suppose that the offending person breaks out again with a new offense just as the reconciliation is about to be given. "There," says the man he has offended, "I was quite willing to have overlooked the past; but see, he is at his evil practices again. I stood prepared to give him my right hand, but he has added insult to the former injury. Even while we were talking about reconciliation, see what he has done, he has made a new breach. If there had been nothing between us before, he has acted now in a way that would have commenced a terrible battle between us. I cannot put up with this; you cannot reasonably expect that I should be on terms of amity with one who again and again and again repeats the grievance; and who, having done me wrong, at the very time that I am inviting him to be reconciled, commits that wrong again. There is a limit to all things, and certainly there must be a limit to the pardon that a man will give to an offender." Just so, just so; I knew there was such a limit. I do not altogether blame you, I do not say much against you; but I do say much in commendation of the forgiving grace of God. Though we do sin; though, even while the sinner is repenting, there is still a measure of sin about him; and while God is forgiving, and while we are receiving the forgiveness, there is still evil about us, yet he does forgive. Is he not, as one said, a great Forgiver? There is not any offense so aggravated but that God is willing to forgive you if you come to Jesus Christ by faith. If you have heaped up your sins mountain upon mountain, as the giants in the old fable were said to have piled Pelion upon Ossa, hill upon hill, if you have done even this, yet is God willing to sweep them all away, and still to be your Friend. You remember that blessed expression in the 55th of Isaiah, "He will abundantly pardon." I cannot help ringing out those words again and again, "He will abundantly pardon! He will abundantly pardon." I hope that the music of them may strike the ear of some poor desponding soul, who will say, "That is the word for me. It must be either great mercy or no mercy at all for me, for little mercy of no avail for such a sinner as I am. I must have great mercy to pardon my great sin." Oh, then, thank God that you have to deal with him, and not with man!  VI. Now let me go a step further. I feel morally certain that men who are offended with their fellows, MEN WHO HAVE BEEN VERY GREATLY WRONGED, WOULD NOT PROPOSE TO GO AND LIVE WITH THOSE WHO HAVE WRONGED THEM, AND TAKE UP A POSITION OF EQUALITY WITH THEM. 