"UNTIL SEVENTY TIMES SEVEN"

Peter glimpsed but faintly the true idea of Love when he asked Jesus (Matt. 18:21), "Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?" The Master's reply made it clear that Peter, placing a limit on forgiveness, did not fully understand the infinite all of Love. Jesus' answer ruled out every element of self: "I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven."

Love can never express less than love. The realization of this fact enabled Jesus to pray for his enemies even in the hour of crucifixion with the words (Luke 23:34), "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." In "Miscellaneous Writings" Mary Baker Eddy says (p. 124): "The last act of the tragedy on Calvary rent the veil of matter, and unveiled Love's great legacy to mortals: Love forgiving its enemies. This grand act crowned and still crowns Christianity: it manumits mortals; it translates love; it gives to suffering, inspiration; to patience, experience; to experience, hope; to hope, faith; to faith, understanding; and to understanding, Love triumphant!"

Love, one of the seven synonyms for God revealed by Christian Science, is vitally important in its theology; and forgiveness is indissolubly linked to the true idea of Love. Through her great love Mrs. Eddy was enabled not only to present Christian Science to the world in her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," but to forgive her persecutors and rise above opposition to the establishment of this religion which is healing and redeeming thousands.

Many specialists in the medical and allied professions now agree that love helps in the solution of problems of delinquency, crime, and war, and that it is an aid in mental and even physical disorders. They realize that it is necessary to probe beyond mere personal love to find the love that forgives and transforms. These specialists are doing much for humanity, and their efforts are to be commended. The pinnacle of love and forgiveness, however, cannot be scaled until the great fact is recognized and understood that God is Love and that the real man is the expression of His perfect being. Then will the supreme good be practiced in our institutions, and true forgiveness in our daily living.

There is no substitute for the divine. To believe in any measure less than the infinite All-power leaves us standing on insecure footing. A personal sense of love is too often changed into a stubborn, unforgiving self-interest, which obscures our apprehension of the fullness of God's love and care. Human forgiveness may leave the offender free to sin again; divine forgiveness destroys all desire to offend. Unjust treatment loses its seeming power to offend or harm when it is recognized, not as a personal affront, but instead as aggressive mental suggestion attempting to obscure the eternal well-being of man.

We have evidences that many sufferers from cancer and other insidious diseases have been quickly healed through Christian Science treatment when they have been willing to forgive an actual or fancied wrong. When one young student of Christian Science who had healed herself of a serious foot disease was asked how she had treated her case, she replied: "I worked to forgive someone. I felt that an old friend had done me a gross injustice. I prayed for the understanding that would enable me to overcome all resentment." Then she explained that on realizing how impossible it would be for man in the image and likeness of God to think or do evil, it became clear that any seeming injustice was a mesmeric lie attempting to arouse animosity and separate friends. Brotherliness, charitableness, and forgiveness took on a new meaning. All sense of wrong vanished, a wondrous outpouring of love permeated her consciousness, the foot trouble disappeared, and a former friendship was soon restored.

Thus we see that forgiveness promotes healing, and its influence is reaching deep into human relationships. As the true meaning of God's fatherhood and man's brotherhood is understood, healing will be based entirely on divine Principle, and humanity will rise above all that needs forgiveness and will rejoice in freedom from suffering.

In order to understand fully the meaning of true brotherhood, we all must learn how to forgive. Edwin Markham aptly expresses the value of one method of true forgiveness in the lines:

To take an enemy into the circle of our forgiveness is to understand that in reality we have no enemy, for all reflect God's love. This scientific application of the truth of Love's allness and of man as divine reflection dispels antagonism and turns hostility into friendship.

Correcting any false notion we may have entertained of another is not a mere gesture; it evidences an activating force, its power being felt in release from the barbs of erroneous thinking and in the influence of divine Love, which brings health, harmony, and happiness. Forgiveness and the understanding of universal goodness, opening the door for the healing Truth to enter consciousness, bring the reward of peace. Forgiveness is not difficult when we understand that God, divine Love, governs His creation rightly. This knowledge counteracts injustice, removes fear, and destroys evil. Divine consciousness knows no condemnation, no human domination, nought that needs remission; and all who come within its orbit are blessed.

We come within this influence when we awaken to Love's omnipresence. This awakening also opens the channel for the purifying stream of Love to reach the one being forgiven—even the most hardened sinner who may have been living in a world of illusive promises. When the great fact of God's love and forgiveness reaches his opening thought, it helps soften and remove the crust of his mistaken philosophy. It tends to turn him to his true self, in the light of which all satisfaction in evil must be lost in the radiance of Truth.

Mrs. Eddy makes this clear in "No and Yes" where she states (p. 30): "The law of Life and Truth is the law of Christ, destroying all sense of sin and death. It does more than forgive the false sense named sin, for it pursues and punishes it, and will not let sin go until it is destroyed,—until nothing is left to be forgiven, to suffer, or to be punished." When one who appears to be controlled by evil learns to love as Love's reflection, he will be lifted into a fuller and happier experience than he could ever know while adventuring in the uncertainties of the material world. He ceases to be tormented by the canker of malice and hate and awakens to the consciousness of omnipresent good.

To some this influx of love, great enough to forgive and forget, comes quickly as thought awakens; to others slowly, depending on the apparent tenacity of the mortal belief. But slow or fast, it carries us on to the recognition of our eternal home, where we may partake of all the Father has.

In Jesus' parable of the prodigal, the father expressed the acme of forgiveness when he saw his son returning a great way off and ran to embrace him. He did not see a wayward mortal, but only his beloved son; and the son manifested the humility which proved his worthiness to receive the blessings in store for him. Are we not all prodigals returning to our Father's house, to the consciousness of divine perfection, where error is unknown? Let us watch then that we are not, as the elder brother, sulking, unforgiving, blinded by self-justification, refusing to enter into the feast of love and joy. And note how tenderly and forgivingly the father met the elder brother's self-righteousness with the words (Luke 15:31), "Son thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine." What more can anyone ask than access to all that the Father has, access to the love and the blessings available for those who have purified their thinking of all that needs to be forgiven?

He who has reached this state of progress not only has learned to forgive until seventy times seven, but has learned to overcome until all that is unlike good disappears from consciousness. He has learned to walk in that high place of spiritual understanding where love, joy, peace, and health have complete dominion.

The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry .... The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles. The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. ... The Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants: and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate.—Psalm 34:15—19, 22.