Mercy cannot get in where mercy goes not out. The outgoing makes way for
the incoming. God takes the part of humanity against the man. The man
must treat men as he would have God treat him. 'If ye forgive men their
trespasses,' the Lord says, 'your heavenly father will also forgive you;
but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your father
forgive your trespasses. And in the prophecy of the judgment of the Son
of man, he represents himself as saying, 'Inasmuch as ye have done it
unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.'

But the demand for mercy is far from being for the sake only of the man
who needs his neighbour's mercy; it is greatly more for the sake of the
man who must show the mercy. It is a small thing to a man whether or not
his neighbour be merciful to him; it is life or death to him whether or
not he be merciful to his neighbour. The greatest mercy that can be
shown to man, is to make him merciful; therefore, if he will not be
merciful, the mercy of God must compel him thereto. In the parable of
the king taking account of his servants, he delivers the unmerciful
debtor to the tormentors, 'till he should pay all that was due unto
him.' The king had forgiven his debtor, but as the debtor refuses to
pass on the forgiveness to his neighbour--the only way to make a return
in kind--the king withdraws his forgiveness. If we forgive not men their
trespasses, our trespasses remain. For how can God in any sense forgive,
remit, or send away the sin which a man insists on retaining?
Unmerciful, we must be given up to the tormentors until we learn to be
merciful. God is merciful: we must be merciful. There is no blessedness
except in being such as God; it would be altogether unmerciful to leave
us unmerciful. The reward of the merciful is, that by their mercy they
are rendered capable of receiving the mercy of God--yea, God himself,
who is Mercy.