he will go then to thy Lord, and say to Him, “Lord, I have prayed my fellow-servant to forgive me, and he would not; do Thou forgive me.” Hath not the Lord power to release his servant’s debts? So he, having obtained pardon from his Lord, returns loosed, whilst thou remainest bound. How bound? The time of prayer will come, the time must come for thee to say, “Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors;” and the Lord will answer thee, Thou wicked servant, when thou didst owe Me so great a debt, thou didst ask Me, and I forgave thee; “shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow-servant, even as I had pity on thee?”2002 These words are out of the Gospel, not of my own heart. But if on being asked, thou shall forgive him who begs for pardon, then thou canst say this prayer. And if thou hast not as yet the strength to love him in his violence, still thou mayest offer this prayer, “Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.” Let us pass on to the rest. 18. “And lead us not into temptation. Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debt- ors,”2003 we say because of past sins, which we cannot undo, that they should not have been done. Thou canst labour not to do what thou hast done before, but how canst thou bring about, that that which thou hast done should not be done? As regards those things which have been done already, that sentence of the prayer is thy help, “Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.” As regards those into which thou mayest fall, what wilt thou do? “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,” that is, from temptation itself. 19. Now these three first petitions, “Hallowed be Thy Name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done as in heaven so in earth,” these three regard the life eternal, for God’s Name ought to be hallowed in us always, we ought to be in His kingdom always, we ought to do His will always. This will be to all eternity. But “daily bread” is necessary now. All the rest that we pray for from this article, regards the necessities of the present life. Daily bread is necessary in this life; the forgiveness of our debts is necessary in this life. For when we shall arrive at the other life, there will be an end of all debts. In this life there is temptation, in this life the sailing is dangerous, in this life something is ever stealing its way in through the chinks of our frailties, which must be pumped out. But when we shall be made equal to the Angels of God; no more need to say and pray to God to forgive us our debts, when there will be none. Here then is the “daily bread;” here the prayer that our “debts may be forgiven;” here that we “enter not into temptation;” for in that life temptation does not enter; here that we may be “delivered from evil;” for in that life there will be no evil, but eternal and abiding good. 2002 Matt. xviii. 32, 33. 2003 Matt. vi. 13. 595 On the Lord’s Prayer in St. Matthew’s Gospel, Chap. vi. 9, etc. to the …