1. No gift of Heaven has been more misunderstood than has forgiveness. 2It has, in fact, become a scourge; a curse where it was meant to bless, a cruel mockery of grace, a parody upon the holy peace of God. 3Yet those who have not yet chosen to begin the steps of prayer cannot but use it thus. 4Forgiveness’ kindness is obscure at first, because salvation is not understood, nor truly sought for. 5What was meant to heal is used to hurt because forgiveness is not wanted. 6Guilt becomes salvation, and the remedy appears to be a terrible alternative to life.
2. Forgiveness-to-destroy will therefore suit the purpose of the world far better than its true objective, and the honest means by which this goal is reached. 2Forgiveness-to-destroy will overlook no sin, no crime, no guilt that it can seek and find and “love.” 3Dear to its heart is error, and mistakes loom large and grow and swell within its sight. 4It carefully picks out all evil things, and overlooks the loving as a plague; a hateful thing of danger and of death. 5Forgiveness-to-destroy is death, and this it sees in all it looks upon and hates. 6God’s mercy has become a twisted knife that would destroy the holy Son He loves.
3. Would you forgive yourself for doing this? 2Then learn that God has given you the means by which you can return to Him in peace. 3Do not see error. 4Do not make it real. 5Select the loving and forgive the sin by choosing in its place the face of Christ. 6How otherwise can prayer return to God? 7He loves His Son. 8Can you remember Him and hate what He created? 9You will hate his Father if you hate the Son He loves. 10For as you see the Son you see yourself, and as you see yourself is God to you.
4. As prayer is always for yourself, so is forgiveness always given you. 2It is impossible to forgive another, for it is only your sins you see in him. 3You want to see them there, and not in you. 4That is why forgiveness of another is an illusion. 5Yet it is the only happy dream in all the world; the only one that does not lead to death. 6Only in someone else can you forgive yourself, for you have called him guilty of your sins, and in him must your innocence now be found. 7Who but the sinful need to be forgiven? 8And do not ever think you can see sin in anyone except yourself.
5. This is the great deception of the world, and you the great deceiver of yourself. 2It always seems to be another who is evil, and in his sin you are the injured one. 3How could freedom be possible if this were so? 4You would be slave to everyone, for what he does entails your fate, your feelings, your despair or hope, your misery or joy. 5You have no freedom unless he gives it to you. 6And being evil, he can only give of what he is. 7You cannot see his sins and not your own. 8But you can free him and yourself as well.
6. Forgiveness, truly given, is the way in which your only hope of freedom lies. 2Others will make mistakes and so will you, as long as this illusion of a world appears to be your home. 3Yet God Himself has given all His Sons a remedy for all illusions that they think they see. 4Christ’s vision does not use your eyes, but you can look through His and learn to see like Him. 5Mistakes are tiny shadows, quickly gone, that for an instant only seem to hide the face of Christ, which still remains unchanged behind them all. 6His constancy remains in tranquil silence and in perfect peace. 7He does not know of shadows. 8His the eyes that look past error to the Christ in you.
7. Ask, then, His help, and ask Him how to learn forgiveness as His vision lets it be. 2You are in need of what He gives, and your salvation rests on learning this of Him. 3Prayer cannot be released to Heaven while forgiveness-to-destroy remains with you. 4God’s mercy would remove this withering and poisoned thinking from your holy mind. 5Christ has forgiven you, and in His sight the world becomes as holy as Himself. 6Who sees no evil in it sees like Him. 7For what He has forgiven has not sinned, and guilt can be no more. 8Salvation’s plan is made complete, and sanity has come.
8. Forgiveness is the call to sanity, for who but the insane would look on sin when he could see the face of Christ instead? 2This is the choice you make; the simplest one, and yet the only one that you can make. 3God calls on you to save His Son from death by offering Christ’s Love to him. 4This is your need, and God holds out this gift to you. 5As He would give, so must you give as well. 6And thus is prayer restored to formlessness, beyond all limits into timelessness, with nothing of the past to hold it back from reuniting with the ceaseless song that all creation sings unto its God.
9. But to achieve this end you first must learn, before you reach where learning cannot go. 2Forgiveness is the key, but who can use a key when he has lost the door for which the key was made, and where alone it fits? 3Therefore we make distinctions, so that prayer can be released from darkness into light. 4Forgiveness’ role must be reversed, and cleansed from evil usages and hateful goals. 5Forgiveness-to-destroy must be unveiled in all its treachery, and then let go forever and forever. 6There can be no trace of it remaining, if the plan that God established for returning be achieved at last, and learning be complete.
10. This is the world of opposites. 2And you must choose between them every instant while this world retains reality for you. 3Yet you must learn alternatives for choice, or you will not be able to attain your freedom. 4Let it then be clear to you exactly what forgiveness means to you, and learn what it should be to set you free. 5The level of your prayer depends on this, for here it waits its freedom to ascend above the world of chaos into peace.