very
beginning of His ministry He drew a contrast between the perverted
morals of that day and the spiritual life into which He would lead them
(Matt. 5):

Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour,
and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless
them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for
them which despitefully use you and persecute you; That ye may be
the children of your Father which is in heaven, for he maketh his
sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the
just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what
reward have ye? Do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute
your brethren only, what do ye more than others? Do not even the
publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is
in heaven is perfect.

A little later, He embodies the thought in the Lord's Prayer--"Forgive
us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us." He
follows that with a scathing arraignment of the cruel servant, who,
having been forgiven a debt almost incalculable in amount, refused to
forgive a small debt due to him. Even when in agony upon the cross the
thought of forgiveness was uppermost in the Saviour's heart and He
prayed: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!"

He was not thinking of relief to wrong-doers when He made forgiveness a
cardinal principle in the moral code that He promulgated. It was not,
I am persuaded, to shield from just punishment one who does injury to
another, but to save the injured from the paralyzing influence of the
thirst for revenge. It is only rarely that one has an opportunity to
retaliate, but the desire for retaliation is a soul-destroying disease.
Christ would purge the heart of hatred and make love the law of life.

Christianity has been called "The Gospel of the Second Chance"; it is
more than that. There is no limit to the chances that it offers to the
repentant. When Christ was asked whether one should forgive a brother
seven times He answered, "Seventy times seven." Christianity is the only
hope of the discouraged and the despondent. Walter Malone has put into a
poem entitled "Opportunity" the exhaustless mercy that Christ holds out
to men. I quote the concluding stanzas:

Though deep in mire, wring not your hands and weep:
I lend my arm to all who say "I can";
No shamefaced outcast ever s