be real and true. We may not forgive with
our lips, and bear malice in our hearts. Such sham forgiveness is only
too common. A man was lying on his sick bed, and the clergyman by his
side was urging him to be reconciled to some one who had injured him.
After much persuasion the man said, "If I die I will forgive him, but
if I live he had better keep out of my way." And again, our
forgiveness must be willing, not forced from us. As says our greatest
poet--

"the quality of mercy is not strain'd;
It droppeth, as the gentle rain from Heaven,
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blessed;
It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes:
Tis mightiest in the mightiest."

A boy, nearly broken-hearted with grief, stood by his mother's coffin.
"Oh! let me see my dear mother once more, only once more," he pleaded.
A man who was about to screw down the coffin-lid thrust him aside with
brutal violence, and even struck the orphan child. Years afterwards
that man stood in the dock, to be tried for his life as a murderer. He
had no counsel to defend him, but just as the case commenced a young
barrister rose in court, and offered his services to the prisoner. His
speech for the defence was so eloquent, and so convincing, that the
prisoner was acquitted. Outside the court he turned to thank his
preserver. The stranger looked at him steadily, and said, "Do you
remember years ago, driving a poor, broken-hearted boy from his
mother's coffin with a curse and a blow? I was that boy." The man was
overwhelmed with shame and confusion. "Why have you given me my life?"
he asked. "To show you," answered the other, "that I can forgive."

Oh! my brothers, if we would find pardon for our many sins, let us ask
Him who prayed for His murderers to teach us how to forgive.

"Walk with care 'mid human spirits,
Walk for blessing, not for ban;
'Twere better never to have lived,
Than lived to curse a deathless man.

SERMON LVIII.

THE FREEDOM OF THE CITY.

(Twenty-third Sunday after Trinity.)

PHIL. iii. 20.

"Our conversation is in Heaven."

People often fail to get at the meaning of this glorious text because
they mistake that word _conversation_. Really the text means--our
citizenship is in Heaven, we belong to the Eternal City. Once S. Paul
declared with pride that he was a Roman citizen; and when the Chief
Captain in surprise declared that he himself had purchased that
privilege at a great p