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Christ’s Object Lessons
rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him.”
Luke 17:3
. Do not hold
him off as unworthy of your confidence. Consider “thyself, lest thou
also be tempted.”
Galatians 6:1
.
If your brethren err, you are to forgive them. When they come
to you with confession, you should not say, I do not think they are
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humble enough. I do not think they feel their confession. What right
have you to judge them, as if you could read the heart? The word
of God says, “If he repent, forgive him. And if he trespasses against
thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee,
saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him.”
Luke 17:3, 4
. And not only
seven times, but seventy times seven—just as often as God forgives
you.
We ourselves owe everything to God’s free grace. Grace in the
covenant ordained our adoption. Grace in the Saviour effected our re-
demption, our regeneration, and our exaltation to heirship with Christ.
Let this grace be revealed to others.
Give the erring one no occasion for discouragement. Suffer not a
Pharisaical hardness to come in and hurt your brother. Let no bitter
sneer rise in mind or heart. Let no tinge of scorn be manifest in the
voice. If you speak a word of your own, if you take an attitude of
indifference, or show suspicion or distrust, it may prove the ruin of a
soul. He needs a brother with the Elder Brother’s heart of sympathy
to touch his heart of humanity. Let him feel the strong clasp of a
sympathizing hand, and hear the whisper, Let us pray. God will give
a rich experience to you both. Prayer unites us with one another and
with God. Prayer brings Jesus to our side, and gives to the fainting,
perplexed soul new strength to overcome the world, the flesh, and the
devil. Prayer turns aside the attacks of Satan.
When one turns away from human imperfections to behold Jesus, a
divine transformation takes place in the character. The Spirit of Christ
working upon the heart conforms it to His image. Then let it be your
effort to lift up Jesus. Let the mind’s eye be directed to “the Lamb of
God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”
John 1:29
. And as you
engage in this work, remember that “he which converteth the sinner
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from the error of his way, shall save a soul from death, and shall hide
a multitude of sins.”
James 5:20
.
“But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Fa-
ther forgive your trespasses.”
Matthew 6:15
. Nothing can justify an