Twenty-first Sunday After Pentecost.
Mercy.
"Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us." — Matt. vi. 12.
SYNOPSIS.
Ex.: I. Shakespeare. II. Mercy should beget mercy. III. Beatitude.
I. History: 1. Peter's query. 2. Individual and priest. 3. Sinners God's debtors.
II. Rare virtue : 1. Measure for measure. 2. Mercy's eulogy. 3. Bearing wrongs patiently.
III. Judgment: 1. Parity. 2. Revival of guilt. 3. Foolish merchant.
Per. : Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
SERMON.
Briefly stated, dear Brethren, that is the subject of to-day's Gospel. It teaches that divine clemency and human gratitude should join in indissoluble wedlock, and bring into this world the lovely virtues of mercy and charity. Shakespeare compares mercy to the " gentle rain from heaven," that gentle downpour that renews the face of the earth — that steals through all earth's devious windings back to the ocean, and thence back to the skies whence it came. So, too, divine mercy if it beget not in us love and mercy one for another — that mercy " that reacheth from end to end mightily, and ordereth all things sweetly; " if it be not exhaled and returned whence it came, by grateful hearts, the heavens become as unyielding as polished metal, and God's earthly kingdom an arid waste. For,
