Editorial September 10, 1927 Issue

"As white as snow"

Duncan Sinclair

Were words more consolatory ever uttered than those of Isaiah in his great exhortation to repentance: "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool"? How often they have appealed to the sin-stricken heart, inspiring hope and quickening faith in the power that makes for righteousness! Unmistakably they tell even the hardened sinner, he whose sins are scarlet, as crimson, that he may be cleansed and become "as white as snow."

What inspired the prophet to give utterance to such benign words? His knowledge of God. Isaiah's understanding of God reached beyond the generally accepted beliefs of his people, enabling him to perceive the goodness of God, the love of God, and the inevitable effect the apprehension of His goodness and love must have on the sinner. He understood to a marked degree the effect of correct views of God on individual human consciousness; and these correct views he proclaimed, in order to bring the people to repentance and to ensure their salvation.

Christ Jesus carried the same message to the world, but in still more enlightened form; for God was Father to him and to all. Does not the parable of the prodigal son show this? That wonderfully told story is intended to convey the lesson of God's limitless love towards the children of men, even to those of them who have traveled far into the quagmires of iniquity. God's unlimited love! That is the secret of divine forgiveness.

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