Article May 13, 1905 Issue

"Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors"

SUE HARPER MIMS.

What depths of meaning unfold, as thought dwells on this line of our Lord's Prayer, "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." Our petition includes the condition of our forgiveness.

What is our duty, or debt to God, and to our brother? Our duty to God is to reflect Him, the divine nature, in word and deed: this also includes our duty or debt to our brother. It unfolds the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. St. Paul tells us, "Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law." The Twentieth Century edition renders this: "Never owe any one anything except brotherly love; for those who love their fellow men have satisfied the Law." How complete is the manual for living and loving here contained! What comprehensiveness and depth in those words, "have satisfied the Law, "—the law of Life, Truth, Love. Analyzed in the light of Christian Science, this includes the healing and regenerating power of Spirit.

Our great debt to our brother is to see him as God sees him, as the divine image and likeness. To hold of him the true concept, "born, not ... of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." It is this true concept of man that heals. This also is an essential of our duty, or debt, to ourselves, and is our worship of God "in spirit and in truth." Many obstinate cases of disease may be delayed in their perfect healing by the fact that the patient clings persistently to some false concept, some condition or belief of error manifested through personality; then the false sense of self-pity comes in, and the patient cries, "Oh, I have so much to meet!" We will continue to have much to meet, until the false sense yields to the true, the perfect, and the harmonious.

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A Reminiscence
May 13, 1905
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