nite place
where obligation ceases, and where the moral strain may be released. The
Apostle Peter wished his Master to draw such a line in the matter of
forgiveness. "Lord, how oft shall I forgive? Till seven times?" He wanted
a tiny moral rule which he could apply to his brother's conduct.

Not so the Lord. Our Master tells His disciple that in those spiritual
realms relations are not governed by arithmetic. We cannot, by counting,
measure off our obligations. Our repeated acts of forgiveness never bring
us nearer to the freedom of revenge. No amount of sweetness will ever
permit us to be bitter. We cannot, by being good, obtain a license to be
evil. The fact of the matter is, if our goodness is of genuine quality,
every act will more strongly dispose us to further goodness. It is the
counterfeit element in our goodness that inclines us to the opposite camp.
It is when our forgiveness is tainted that we anticipate the "sweetness"
of revenge.

APRIL The Twenty-fifth

_THE HIDDEN FOES_

MATTHEW v. 21-26.

Our Lord always leads us to the secret, innermost roots of things. He does
not concern Himself with symptoms, but with causes. He does not begin with
the molten lava flowing down the fair mountain slope and destroying the
vineyards. He begins with the central fires in which the lava is born. He
does not begin with uncleanness. He begins with the thoughts which produce
it. He does not begin with murder, but with the anger which causes it. He
pierces to the secret fires!

Now, all anger is not of sin. The Apostle Paul enjoins his readers to "be
angry, and sin not." To be altogether incapable of anger would be to offer
no antagonism to the wrongs and oppressions of the world. "Who is made to
stumble, and I burn not?" cries the Apostle Paul. If wrong stalked abroad
with heedless feet he burned with holy passion. There is anger which is
like clean flame, clear and pure, as "the sea of glass mingled with fire."
And there is anger which is like a smoky bonfire, and it pollutes while it
destroys.

It is the unclean anger which is of sin. It seeks revenge, not
righteousness. It seeks "to get its own back," not to get the wrong-doer
back to God. It follows wrong with further wrong. It spreads the devil's
fire.

APRIL The Twenty-sixth

_GOLIATH VERSUS GOD!_

1 SAMUEL xvii. 1-11.

Goliath seemed to have everything on his side _except_ God. And the things
in which he boasted were just the things in whi