Probably there are few of us who have not found forgiveness to be a hard problem. Some time or other it comes to each of us; and none can escape having it to solve. Forgiveness in the highest sense is not a verbal granting of pardon, nor yet an emotional confession on the part of the one, with a corresponding condonation on the part of the other; neither is it a "talking over" with a consequent "patching up" of the breach. It is a step in spiritual growth, a baptism in divine Love. Many times, forgiveness is the cross which bears us up to a nearer approach to the stature of Christ; for it patterns after God, and is a blessing direct from Him.
In striving to reach the altitude of divine forgiveness, there is the necessity for thoroughly going over the whole question in hand mentally, and removing from consciousness every lingering seed of inharmony, every fear, vague or defined, relating to the particular case. Sometimes these are deeply hidden; often they are masked as if they were something of value; or else they claim to be harmless. However, we must continue our work of uprooting error's harvest through knowing that Truth uncovers all error, unmasks every sin, pierces every disguise of evil, and lays bare every subtle snare of self,—thus destroying them; for the unquenchable light of Truth reveals what needs forgiveness; and Love gives us its gracious tenderness, its unyielding purity, enabling us to forgive and to be forgiven, so that Life's eternal energies, inflooding and o'erflooding all, leave not a mark or a stain to show where wrong once claimed to be. Through forgiveness, we can hasten the day of the final destruction of evil, when nothing will be left needing forgiveness. This is the day when the kingdom "at hand" will fill all our thoughts with an abiding sense of God. Its coming is announced by the "still small voice" of Love now crying in the innermost recesses of human thought, "Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand;" repent, that ye may forgive and be forgiven.
The thirty-first and thirty-second verses of the fifth chapter of Acts teach that God brings about both repentance and forgiveness. Through revelation and unfoldment, we learn that unless we are willing to be forgiven, we cannot be forgiven. The one without the other is impossible; they are two aspects of one indivisible activity. In either one alone we have a divided garment, bereft of beauty and usefulness. Willingness to be forgiven prostrates the contrite, broken heart at the feet of divine Love, purifies and blesses it, and enables it to be forgiven.
