Forgive Us Our Debts

Hab. 1:12, 13 (to :)
12¶ Art thou not from everlasting, O Lord my God, mine Holy One? we shall not die. O Lord, thou hast ordained them for judgment; and, O mighty God, thou hast established them for correction.
13Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity:


Ps. 38:3-15
3There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger; neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin.
4For mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me.
5My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness.
6I am troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long.
7For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease: and there is no soundness in my flesh.
8I am feeble and sore broken: I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart.
9Lord, all my desire is before thee; and my groaning is not hid from thee.
10My heart panteth, my strength faileth me: as for the light of mine eyes, it also is gone from me.
11My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore; and my kinsmen stand afar off.
12They also that seek after my life lay snares for me: and they that seek my hurt speak mischievous things, and imagine deceits all the day long.
13But I, as a deaf man, heard not; and I was as a dumb man that openeth not his mouth.
14Thus I was as a man that heareth not, and in whose mouth are no reproofs.
15For in thee, O Lord, do I hope: thou wilt hear, O Lord my God.


Ps. 86:1-7
1Bow down thine ear, O Lord, hear me: for I am poor and needy.
2Preserve my soul; for I am holy: O thou my God, save thy servant that trusteth in thee.
3Be merciful unto me, O Lord: for I cry unto thee daily.
4Rejoice the soul of thy servant: for unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.
5For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee.
6Give ear, O Lord, unto my prayer; and attend to the voice of my supplications.
7In the day of my trouble I will call upon thee: for thou wilt answer me.


Ps. 103:1-8, 10-18
1Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
2Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:
3Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;
4Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;
5Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
6The Lord executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed.
7He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel.
8The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.
10He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
11For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.
12As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.
13Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.
14For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.
15As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.
16For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.
17But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children’s children;
18To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them.


Ps. 121:1-3, 7, 8
1I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.
2My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.
3He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.
7The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.
8The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.

Luke 4:14 Jesus, 15
14Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about.
15And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all.

Luke 5:17-25
17And it came to pass on a certain day, as he was teaching, that there were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by, which were come out of every town of Galilee, and Judæa, and Jerusalem: and the power of the Lord was present to heal them.
18¶ And, behold, men brought in a bed a man which was taken with a palsy: and they sought means to bring him in, and to lay him before him.
19And when they could not find by what way they might bring him in because of the multitude, they went upon the housetop, and let him down through the tiling with his couch into the midst before Jesus.
20And when he saw their faith, he said unto him, Man, thy sins are forgiven thee.
21And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, Who is this which speaketh blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?
22But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answering said unto them, What reason ye in your hearts?
23Whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Rise up and walk?
24But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power upon earth to forgive sins, (he said unto the sick of the palsy,) I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy couch, and go into thine house.
25And immediately he rose up before them, and took up that whereon he lay, and departed to his own house, glorifying God.

John 13:31, 34, 35
31¶ Therefore, when he was gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him.
34A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
35By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

I John 2:8-12
8Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.
9He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now.
10He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him.
11But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.
12I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name’s sake.

II Cor. 5:20 1st we, 21
20we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.
21For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.





SH 340:23
One infinite God, good, unifies men and nations; con-
stitutes the brotherhood of man; ends wars; fulfils the
Scripture, “Love thy neighbor as thyself;” annihilates
pagan and Christian idolatry, — whatever is wrong in
social, civil, criminal, political, and religious codes;
equalizes the sexes; annuls the curse on man, and leaves
nothing that can sin, suffer, be punished or destroyed.

SH 447:20-9 (to 2nd .)
Expose and denounce the claims of
evil and disease in all their forms, but realize no
reality in them. A sinner is not reformed merely
by assuring him that he cannot be a sinner because
there is no sin. To put down the claim of sin,
you must detect it, remove the mask, point out the
illusion, and thus get the victory over sin and so prove
its unreality. The sick are not healed merely by
declaring there is no sickness, but by knowing that
there is none.
Wicked evasions
    A sinner is afraid to cast the first stone. He may
say, as a subterfuge, that evil is unreal, but to know it,
he must demonstrate his statement. To assume that
there are no claims of evil and yet to indulge them, is
a moral offence. Blindness and self-righteousness cling
fast to iniquity. When the Publican’s wail
went out to the great heart of Love, it won his
humble desire. Evil which obtains in the bodily senses,
but which the heart condemns, has no foundation; but if
evil is uncondemned, it is undenied and nurtured. Under
such circumstances, to say that there is no evil, is an evil
in itself. When needed tell the truth concerning the lie.

SH 6:18-24, 26-7
Mercy without partialityTo
suppose that God forgives or punishes sin
according as His mercy is sought or un-
sought, is to misunderstand Love and to make prayer
the safety-valve for wrong-doing.

    Jesus uncovered and rebuked sin before he cast it
out. He came teaching and
showing men how to destroy sin, sickness, and death.
He said of the fruitless tree, “[It] is hewn down.”

    It is believed by many that a certain magistrate,
who lived in the time of Jesus, left this record: “His
rebuke is fearful.” The strong language of our Mas-
ter confirms this description.

    The only civil sentence which he had for error was,
“Get thee behind me, Satan.” Still stronger evidence
that Jesus’ reproof was pointed and pungent is found
in his own words, — showing the necessity for such
forcible utterance, when he cast out devils and healed
the sick and sinning. The relinquishment of error de-
prives material sense of its false claims.


SH 11:1-11 Jesus'
Jesus’ prayer,
“Forgive us our debts,” specified also the terms of
forgiveness. When forgiving the adulterous woman he
said, “Go, and sin no more.”
Remission of penalty
    A magistrate sometimes remits the penalty, but this
may be no moral benefit to the criminal, and at best, it
only saves the criminal from one form of
punishment. The moral law, which has the
right to acquit or condemn, always demands restitu-
tion before mortals can “go up higher.” Broken law
brings penalty in order to compel this progress.


SH 411:27
Unspoken pleading    Always begin your treatment by allaying the fear
of patients. Silently reassure them as to their exemp-
tion from disease and danger. Watch the re-
sult of this simple rule of Christian Science,
and you will find that it alleviates the symptoms of every
disease. If you succeed in wholly removing the fear,
your patient is healed. The great fact that God lovingly
governs all, never punishing aught but sin, is your stand-
point, from which to advance and destroy the human fear
of sickness. Mentally and silently plead the case scien-
tifically for Truth. You may vary the arguments to meet
the peculiar or general symptoms of the case you treat,
but be thoroughly persuaded in your own mind concern-
ing the truth which you think or speak, and you will be
the victor.


SH 366:12-29
The true physician    The physician who lacks sympathy for his fellow-
being is deficient in human affection, and we have the
apostolic warrant for asking: “He that loveth
not his brother whom he hath seen, how can
he love God whom he hath not seen?” Not having this
spiritual affection, the physician lacks faith in the divine
Mind and has not that recognition of infinite Love which
alone confers the healing power. Such so-called Scien-
tists will strain out gnats, while they swallow the camels
of bigoted pedantry.
Source of calmness
    The physician must also watch, lest he be over-
whelmed by a sense of the odiousness of sin and by the
unveiling of sin in his own thoughts. The
sick are terrified by their sick beliefs, and
sinners should be affrighted by their sinful beliefs; but
the Christian Scientist will be calm in the presence of
both sin and disease, knowing, as he does, that Life is
God and God is All.

SH 201:17-5
    The way to extract error from mortal mind is to pour
in truth through flood-tides of Love. Christian perfec-
tion is won on no other basis.

    Grafting holiness upon unholiness, supposing that sin
can be forgiven when it is not forsaken, is as foolish as
straining out gnats and swallowing camels.

    The scientific unity which exists between God and man
must be wrought out in life-practice, and God’s will must
be universally done.

SH 572:6-17
“Love one an-
other” (I John, iii. 23), is the most simple and profound
counsel of the inspired writer. In Science we are chil-
dren of God; but whatever is of material sense, or mor-
tal, belongs not to His children, for materiality is the
inverted image of spirituality.
Fulfilment of the Law
    Love fulfils the law of Christian Science, and nothing
short of this divine Principle, understood and demon-
strated, can ever furnish the vision of the
Apocalypse, open the seven seals of error with
Truth, or uncover the myriad illusions of sin, sickness,
and death.


SH 18:13
Human reconciliation    The atonement of Christ reconciles man to God, not
God to man; for the divine Principle of Christ is God,
and how can God propitiate Himself? Christ
is Truth, which reaches no higher than itself.
The fountain can rise no higher than its source. Christ,
Truth, could conciliate no nature above his own, derived
from the eternal Love. It was therefore Christ’s purpose
to reconcile man to God, not God to man. Love and
Truth are not at war with God’s image and likeness.
Man cannot exceed divine Love, and so atone for him-
self. Even Christ cannot reconcile Truth to error, for
Truth and error are irreconcilable. Jesus aided in recon-
ciling man to God by giving man a truer sense of Love,
the divine Principle of Jesus’ teachings, and this truer
sense of Love redeems man from the law of matter,
sin, and death by the law of Spirit, — the law of divine
Love.


SH 670:20-32 (np)
MORALLY AND PHYSICALLY HEALED
    I did not accept Christian Science on account of any
healing of my own, but after seeing my mother, who was
fast drifting toward helplessness with rheumatism, restored
to perfect health with only a few treatments in Christian
Science, I thought surely this must be the truth as Jesus
taught and practised it, and if so it was what I had been
longing for.

    This was about ten years ago and was the first I had
ever heard of Christian Science. We soon got a copy
of Science and Health and I began in the right way to
see if Christian Science were the truth. I had no thought
of studying it for bodily healing; in fact, I did not think
I needed it for that, but my soul cried out for something
I had not yet found. This book was indeed a key to the
Scriptures.

    It was not long after I began reading before I dis-
covered that my eyes were good and strong, I could
read as much as I wished, and at any time, which was
something I could not do before, as my eyes had always
been weak. The doctors said they never would be very
strong, and that if I did not wear glasses, I might lose
my sight altogether. I never gave up to wearing glasses,
and now, thanks to Christian Science, I do not need them,
my work for the past two years as a railway mail clerk
being a good test. At the same time my eyes were healed,
I also noticed that I was entirely healed of another ail-
ment which had been with me all my life, and which was
believed to be inherited. Since that time my growth
has seemed to me slow, yet when I look back and view
myself as I was before Christian Science found me, and
compare it with my life as it now is, I can only close my
eyes to the picture and rejoice that I have been “born
again” and that I have daily been putting off “the
old man with his deeds,” and putting on “the new
man.”

    Some of the many things that have been overcome
through the study of Science and Health, and through
realizing and practising the truth it teaches, are pro-
fanity, the use of tobacco, a very quick temper, which
made both myself and those around me at times very
miserable, and such thoughts as malice, revenge, etc.  — 
O. L. R., Fort Worth, Tex.


SH 542:19-21
Retribution and remorseLet Truth uncover and destroy error in God’s
own way, and let human justice pattern the
divine.

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