Article March 8, 1958 Issue

FORGIVENESS

FREDERIC E. EARLE

Forgiveness includes much more than appears on the surface. Its effect on the one who expresses it and on those who witness it in the affairs of mankind sometimes seems revolutionary.

In the case of Christ Jesus on the cross, perhaps it could be said that his forgiveness of his persecutors, expressed in his words (Luke 23:34), "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do," aided him in attaining resurrection from the tomb. So also Stephen's words (Acts 7:60), "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge," may have had a profound effect on Saul and may have been one of the main factors that changed his thinking form hate and persecution to devoted obedience to Christ.

But it is quite as important to forgive in lesser affairs of daily life, in the home and in the working world. Forgiveness is based on two spiritual qualities which are inseparable from it and indispensable to it, namely love and spiritual seeing, or Soul-sense. In the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy writes (p. 274), "The senses of Spirit abide in Love, and they demonstrate Truth and Life."

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