Article November 12, 1927 Issue

Forgiveness

CUTHBERT SYDNEY BOOTH

On page 11 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, we read, "Jesus' prayer, 'Forgive us our debts,' specified also the terms of forgiveness." As Christians, we pray daily that our debts may be forgiven, "as we forgive our debtors;" and if we are sincere, this means that we hope and desire to be forgiven not only when we forgive, but in the same manner and to the same extent that we forgive those who we consider have offended us.

How often have we heard someone suffering under a sense of injury or injustice, when urged to forgive, say, apparently with great reluctance, "Very well, I forgive; but I can never forget"! Such a declaration indicates a mental attitude that regards forgiveness as being extended or withheld according to the whim of the one supposedly injured. Our concept of man largely reveals what we understand about God; and if we consider that one's forgiveness of a brother's offense depends upon one's mood when approached, or upon the persuasive power of the pleader, it is evident that we are believing God's forgiveness of our offenses to be subject to the same variableness and uncertainty; indeed, our very prayer indicates that we hope for nothing more. Such a concept of God leaves us in a hopeless position, having no sure road by which we may rise above sin; and Paul's admonition, "Work out your own salvation," becomes little else than a mockery.

Such a sense of forgiveness is very far from being Christianly scientific; for while it may declare its intention to refrain from exacting retribution, it also states quite plainly that the sense of injury and offense will continue to be nurtured in thought. The effect of this is that whenever the thought rests upon the so-called offender the offense also is remembered and emphasized, until, if the attitude be persisted in, the offender will seem to become the very embodiment of the error. He who adopts this attitude excludes himself from forgiveness. To work out his own salvation, to earn his own forgiveness, he must "judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment." He must rise above material sense testimony, must understand in some degree man's perfection as the image and likeness of God; and this he cannot do while he regards his brother's real selfhood as identified with error. Christianity, as taught by Christ Jesus and as scientifically explained by Mary Baker Eddy, is based on divine law—infallible, immutable, inviolable; and he who is disobedient to law inevitably pays the penalty. This is a scientific fact; and the simple prayer, "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors," is a statement of scientific fact.

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