PARDON.
Reading edition
And Moses said unto the Lord, Pardon, I beseech Thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of Thy mercy, and as Thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.
And the Lord said, I have pardoned according to thy word.—Numbers, xiv. 13, 19, 20.
Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.—Isaiah, lv. 7.
But infinite in pardon is our judge. Milton.
What can we better do than prostrate fall Befort Him reverent, and there confess Humbly our faults, and pardon beg, with tears Watering the ground? Milton.
When with deep agony His heart was racked, Not for Himself the tear-drop dewed His cheek, For them He wept, for them to Heaven He prayed,— His persecutors—“Father pardon them; They know not what they do.” Charles Lamb.
O Time! O Life! ye were not made For languid dreaming in the shade, Nor sinful hearts to moor all day By lily-isle, or grassy bay, Nor drink at noontide’s balmy hours Sweet opiates from the meadow-flowers. O give me grace, dear Lord! to win Thy pardon for my youthful sin, For all the days, in woods embowered, When currents of sweet thought o’erpowered With pleasant force the sense of duty, And gentle nature’s harmless beauty, Too much adored, gave birth to throngs Of joys effeminate, and songs Which sprung from earth, and, like a breeze, Died wantonly among the trees, Without a moral or a mirth Above the passing bliss of earth! Frederic W. Faber.