prays, "They know not what they do." As if He had said, THOU, O FATHER, hast declared My Coming by prophecy and by type: THOU sentest a Messenger before My face, who ceased not to prepare My way by His unceasing cry, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand:" I MYSELF have been with them warning them by reproof, enlightening them by instruction, and cheering them by promise of reward; and yet, "O FATHER, forgive them, they know not what they do." Yea, HE Who might have made their very darkness a reproach, now that light had come into the world; their very ignorance an aggravation of their guilt-seeing that their ignorance came of this, that they would not see with their eyes, nor hear with their ears, nor understand with their hearts-yet mercifully forbears so to do; and calls to mind the language of ancient prophecy, "They proceed from evil to evil, and they know not ME; saith the LORD;"1 and remembers how HE HIMSELF had said-"These things will they do because they have not known the FATHER nor ME."2 HE sees in the Roman soldiers who fasten HIM to His Cross, servants subject to an authority which was obeyed irrespectively of the nature of the thing commanded; and in the witnesses the consenting and applauding witnesses— of His execution, those who, through their blind confidence in the Priests and Elders, knew not that they were crucifying God's own Incarnate SON. 2 St. John xvi. 3. 1 Jeremiah ix. 3. He thinks not, therefore, of the wrong and injury which they wrought upon HIм: He gives no place to resentment, but prays that the sin in which they are now involved be not suffered to interpose a barrier between them and penitence, and so to close upon them for ever the door of pardon and forgive ness. How, think you, brethren, shall that man confront this merciful and forgiving SAVIOUR when advanced to His throne of judgment, who passes through life, and out of life, with the recollection of injuries, and the consciousness that there is one by whom he has been wronged, and whom he has not forgiven? It is by the SAVIOUR'S Own teaching that he has learnt to make his forgiveness of others the measure of the mercy to be shown to himself: " Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us," has been the constant language of his lips; and if, this notwithstanding, he harbours any secret malice, is ready to do any secret injury, to withhold through animosity any office of kindness, or mark of brotherly love which it is in his power to render, how shall he bear the gaze of that eye, which will no longer invite with a look of Mercy, "since it is the time of Justice;" the eye of HIM Who aforetime looked down from His painful Cross upon those who inflicted, or at least rejoiced in, His bleeding tortures, and Who, forgetting His own misery in their wretchedness, besought that they might be forgiven, since what they did was done in ignorance ? How shall he who has shown no mercy to his fellow, hope to obtain it from a Master Whose lessons of mercy he has thus thanklessly despised? Be ye wiser, brethren. If any injury, done to you by any, rankle in your breast, cease not your selfdiscipline until you are fully reconciled. Let not Easter dawn upon you and find you unforgiving, or else its bright sun shall have no healing on its wings for you. What if the injury or indignity you have suffered is great? Is it greater than that which CHRIST forgave, and so forgave as to seek blessings for those by whom it was inflicted? Be it, that you have been the benefactor of those whose wrongful dealing to yourself you harbour in your mind: have you shown any such love for them to reject and despise, as that which He Who prayed, “FATHER, forgive them" was, at the very moment of their guilt, showing to those for whom He thus interceded? Verily, he who will not practise forgiveness of injuries, with such an Example of forgiveness as this before him, may not himself hope to be forgiven in that dread day when all will stand so much in need of mercy. Pass we now from the consideration of this prayer as setting forth a duty of human obligation, to the aspect in which it declares to us a fundamental doctrine of the Gospel, an article of the Creed in which all our hopes as sinners are involved. As in CHRIST's example we read the duty of forgiving injuries, so by the object of His prayer we are taught that with God there is mercy, and that with HIM, though we have sinned, there is yet forgiveness. We could not be more forcibly taught the doctrine of the remission of sins, than by this prayer of our LORD for those who were crucifying HIM, the LORD of Glory. For though they knew not the whole of their guilt, yet was their sin surpassingly great. If we suppose the Roman soldiers to have been those for whom CHRIST prayed, then had they much need of forgiveness; for we may not doubt but that they who in the common hall of judgment mocked HIм, buffeted HIM, spat upon HIм, and smote HIM on the head encircled already with thorns, would with merciless rigour execute that which was the sentence passed upon HIм through Jewish malice. Their hardness of heart and wanton delight in the cruel duties of their stern office kept them far from the kingdom of heaven, and the merciful goodness must be great which could find a way of pardoning such as they. Yet for them we learn that there is forgiveness; they at least were included in the prayer, "FATHER, forgive them ;" and HE by Whom that prayer was offered would not have uttered it had He not known, and did HE not wish us to know, that for sin there is remission. But we may well believe that for the Jews, no less than for the Romans, was this prayer put up. They too were ignorant of what they did; and yet their guilt was such that they could not be forgiven, if for sin there were no pardon. They had said, "This is the heir, let us kill HIM :" they knew that they were murdering an innocent man; and therefore, except there were remission of sin, they could not hope to share God's mercy. At the same time, let us bear in mind that the wilful sins of Christians are even more awful than were the sins of those who were "I wot that through parties to the death of JESUS. ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers," is the testimony of St. Peter.' "Had they known it they would not have crucified the LORD of Glory," declares St. Paul. And our LORD HIMSELF in this very prayer bears them like witness," they know not what they do." They knew CHRIST only as the Son of Man, and not as the Son of GOD, nor had HE as such been fully manifested to them; and therefore their sin was not such wilful grieving of the HOLY SPIRIT as our transgressions are, seeing that we are by that HOLY SPIRIT sealed unto the day of redemption. Still our Church has the warrant of Holy Scripture, as interpreted by the Holy Church throughout the world, for declaring that "not every deadly sin willingly committed after Baptism is sin against the HOLY GHOST and unpardonable. And therefore, in this very prayer of our LORd, we may see set forth the doctrine of the remission of sins in respect of the Church at large, and receive assurance, by the very mercy here displayed, that there is a power in the Blood of CHRIST to cleanse from 1 Acts iii. 17. 3 Ephes. iv. 30. 2 1 Cor. ii. 8. 4 Article XVI. 994 |