Besides thankfulness, there is the request for forgiveness and mercy. The effects of this are also to be seen in our daily life. A servant or child or young man who is abrupt will push against you and never say, "I am sorry." But another person says, "I am sorry," and at once you have forgotten the harm that he has inadvertently done to you. That is the effect which his request for forgiveness has produced.

In some countries and among some people (as, for instance, in France) there is a custom that when a person meets you at the door or on the stairs he shall take off his hat and say, "Pardon." There is no reason why he should do so except that he chanced to meet you, and he thinks that perhaps he should be forgiven. We find that the sensitiveness of man's heart is so delicate that even the presence of a stranger causes a jar. But by saying, "Pardon," that uncomfortable feeling is at once removed, and, in the place of that, the good feeling of friendship is introduced.

However great a fault may be, if this person only comes and says, I am very sorry; I will never do it again; pray forgive," the friendship at once comes back. On the other hand, however trivial and slight the fault may have been, if pride prevents the man from asking forgiveness and pardon, perhaps he will lose that friendship for the rest of his life. His pride prevents him from asking pardon. The fault may have been very small, and he may say, "I do not care about it," and yet the friendship is broken. How many there are who would be ready to forgive if only the person came and said, "I am sorry." But everybody will not do it; they will not admit they have been in fault.

To ask forgiveness of another produces a proper sense of justice in one's mind. He perceives the need for asking God to pardon his faults. When he asks for forgiveness, that forgiveness develops in his nature too, and he becomes ready to forgive others. Christ says in His prayer, "Forgive us as we forgive others." The virtue, the secret, is in that. By asking forgiveness of God, you give up the desire to demand forgiveness from your fellow man, and you desire to give forgiveness to him. We see this with the Arabs and Bedouins in Mecca and the desert. They are so ready to fight one another and kill each other. They may be fighting, and actually have their knives drawn to kill one another, and yet if a third person comes and says, "Forgive, for the sake of God and the Prophet," as soon as they hear these words they both throw away their knives and shake hands, and the handshake is the seal of friendship. Though the Bedouin has no education, yet he has such a devotion to God and His Prophet that no sooner does he hear these words than he at once offers his hand, and from that day there is no spite nor evil thought in his heart.

If we only had that! With all our education and learning, with all the claims of civilization that we make, we are not as good as these. We retain the bitterness in our hearts. We never reflect what a poison it is. The very person who would shudder at the idea of having something in his body that is decayed and offensive--something that should not be there, but should be taken off or cut out or removed--will tolerate that poison of bitterness in his mind: he will not take it out; he will foster it. Had he not lacked the sense of forgiveness and had he not neglected to cultivate the habit of asking forgiveness, he would have become ready to forgive and forget.

Have you ever experienced the joy when two friends, who have quarreled, have mutually asked forgiveness of one another? It is as if there were no more possibility of ill feeling. It is the most delightful feeling. It feels as if the doors of heaven were open for both. When the bitterness has gone, it is as if a mountain had gone, and the heart were free again.