rhaps you cry out before you are hurt. But if
you become heir to a broad estate in a fertile valley, you will no
longer be disposed to watch the motions of your neighbour, and go to law
with him for a spadeful of moss that he may have taken from a disputed
spot.

Thus, while a human soul has no other portion than an uncertain shred of
this uncertain world, he is kept in terror lest an atom of his property
should be lost; he will do battle with all his might against any one who
is, or seems to be, encroaching on his honour, or business, or property:
but when he becomes a child of God, and an heir of an incorruptible
inheritance--when he is a prince on the steps of a throne, he can afford
to overlook small deductions from a possession that is insignificant in
itself, and liable to be taken away at any time without an hour's
warning.

In this aspect it is eminently worthy of notice that the disciples, when
their Master on another occasion (Luke xvii. 3-5), taught them a similar
doctrine on the forgiveness of injuries, immediately exclaimed,
"Increase our faith." They seem to have been surprised by the extent of
the demand, and conscious of their inability to meet it. As soon as the
duty of forgiving injuries was laid before them in its true magnitude,
they were brought to a stand; but they had sense to know wherein their
weakness lay, and simplicity to seek in the proper quarter for renewed
strength. It was a true instinct that led them, then and there, to plead
for an increase of faith. A wider, freer channel for the inflow of God's
compassion into their own hearts,--this is what they need in the
emergency, and this is what they get from the Lord.

The miller, finding that some of the lumps are large and hard, and that
the mill-stones are consequently almost standing still, goes quietly out
and lets more water on. Go you, and do likewise. When injuries that seem
large and hard are accumulated on your head, and the process of
forgiving them begins to choke and go slow under the pressure, as if it
would soon stop altogether; when the demand for forgiveness grows great,
and the forgiving power in the heart is unable to meet it;--then, enter
into your closet and shut your door, and pray to your Father
specifically for more experience of his forgiving love; so shall your
forgiving love grow stronger, and overcome every obstacle that stands in
its way. Your heart, under the fresh impulse of pardon to you through
the blood of