"Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." These words from the Lord's Prayer indicate what may be termed the law of reciprocity in human and divine relations. The activity of this law of reciprocity or mutuality is set forth still more clearly in Jesus' further statement, "For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." It is plain that all trespassing begins in wrong thinking. We trespass against Spirit when thought bases itself in matter; to allow corporeal sense to hold sway is to trespass against Soul; the argument of death, retained in consciousness, is a trespass against Life; to permit fear, self-will, self-love to control thought is a trespass against Love. Erroneous thinking, feeling, and acting are trespasses against both God and man. Christian Science clearly teaches that since it is impossible for Truth to pardon error, such trespasses can be forgiven only as they cease to be. We must "cease to do evil," and "learn to do well."
The terms "debts" and "debtors" are much used in the world of commerce. What do I owe? and, What is due me? are important considerations in the life of every merchant. He looks to his accountants to supply promptly full information on these points, whenever required. No solvent merchant expects his creditors to cancel or forgive his debts without compensation. He satisfies himself as to what he owes; and then pays in full. Many a merchant has discovered a law of reciprocity in the world of finance. When, in a time of financial distress, yielding to fear, and because of insufficient preparation to meet the emergency, he becomes less prompt in meeting his obligations, he finds also a corresponding difficulty in collecting what is due him. A prudent merchant provides adequate capital for such emergencies. Invested capital is supplemented by bank credits, this emergency capital having been made available by carrying "good balances" with his bankers. Being thus prepared, he pays what he owes in full when due, without regard to any temporary slowness in collecting what is due himself. No business could long survive where the question of "pushing collections" was uppermost; and where, at the same time, only spasmodic effort, if any, was given to ascertaining what was owing, and payments were made only to the most insistent creditors. Such are the symptoms of impending failure; and they indicate either dishonesty, or inefficiency, or a great lack of resources.
That "the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light" is still seen to be true, when we reflect how slow we are to apply the well-established and successful rules of business to the greater problem of right thinking as the basis for right acting in the multifarious relations of life, looking beyond, of course, matters merely financial. In the effort to gain happiness, many mortals overwork "the collection department." What is due me? is too often the prime consideration.
