Well! and what was the _price of pardon_? I can tell you what it cost God. It cost God the death of His own, His only Son. The Cross was necessary to make pardon possible. “Without shedding of blood there is no remission.” That is what your forgiveness and mine cost God, it cost Him the blood of His Son. But what will it cost us? What will it cost? It will cost us _nothing_. As I said, when speaking of the previous petition, God does not sell, God _gives_. Some have tried to buy forgiveness by fasts and vigils and penances and rigid self-discipline. That is how Luther, when he was a monk at Erfurt, and Thomas Bilney, when he was a student at Cambridge, tried to obtain pardon and peace. Some have even believed that pardon was to be bought with money, so the boxes of the Indulgence sellers in Germany were filled with the coins of men and women who wanted forgiveness. But pardon is not to be bought, neither with money nor with penances nor vigils nor fasts. Forgiveness is to be had for nothing. Pardon is given without money and without price. All that is required is that you should _ask_ for it. “Ask and ye shall receive.” Zacchæus asked, and he received it. Mary of Magdala asked, and she received it. The thief on the cross asked, and he received it. Come and ask, and you too shall receive it. Why will ye be stricken any more? Why will ye die, O house of Israel. Come and ask, and you shall hear the answer fall on your ears like sweetest music, “Son, daughter, thy sins are forgiven thee, go in peace.” That is what this petition teaches us to do. It bids us come and ask. For Jesus recognizes that we are all of us “debtors.” But the debt will be remitted for the asking. Therefore He teaches us to pray “Forgive us our trespasses.” The ground of forgiveness is not in ourselves. It is not because of our own merit that the debt is cancelled. We are saved not by works, but by grace. We are forgiven because of the boundless love that fills the heart of God, the love that found expression in the Cross of Christ. Our confidence lies in the fact that God is our Father. Let us trust the Father! Let us believe the message of the Cross! Let us not hang back through doubt or fear! Let us go with boldness to the throne of grace just as we are—guilty, sin-stained, and vile. He will cast none of us out, but He will forgive us freely; His anger will be turned away and He will comfort us, and peace like a river shall flood our troubled souls!