Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1862-04-04
The Forgiven are Forgiving.

What ne feel God is to us becomes very
much the determining tone of our eharac-
ter to others. That person who looks up
to God as an angry and reyengeful judge,
ever exacting, will look forth upon his fellow
men in the same spirit, ever exacting also,
and never giving. But he who is taught
to look up to God as forgiving and giving,
and that continually, will 60 forth the ex-
ponent of the same holy and beautiful
spirit forgiving one another even as God
for Christ's sake has forgiven US. Let ME
explain, however, that this forgiveness of
your brother, this forgiveness of injury, is
not mere sitting of temper. There are
men constitutionally of a proud, naughty
spirit, who may have received great in
jury !; their spirit is chafed, they are irri-
tated vexed, but such is their pride that
they do not show it. They dwell upon the
offence-they cherish the revenge in their
own hearts; and would not show that they
were chafed or irritated, or let an express
sion escape their lips that they are So
This is not forgiving one another forgive
ness Of one another is in the hea art, it lies
in the subduedness of the heart, the warm
ing of the affections, the sanctifying of all
the feelings. 1t is not silence without,
but inner kindness. II is not management
for the sake Of appearance, but it is love
in the inmost recesses. Is it not, now,
one of the striking incidental proofs of the
divine origin of this blessed Book, that ev-
erythlng it recommends so far contributes
to the present happiness of man, and ev-
erything 1T dissuades from so far discour-
ages what would do man injury? Fallen
as our nature is, it feels that all the ma
llgnant passions are springs of wretched-
ness. Revenge, envy, hatred, malice, all
uncharitableness, are stings that enter to
the very quick, intolerable and miserable.
And, on the other hand, fallen as we are,
difficult as 1t may be, love, charity, peace,
forgivng one another, thinking tie best of
everybody, wishing well to every human
Being, are emotions so far frought with
happiness And if there be one hanpv
emotion upon earth, it is first the sense
that we are forgiven, and only second, our
spirit of forgiveness to all our brothers of
mankind. The great poet has reflected
the same sentiment when he said
: The quality of mercy is not stain'd
1t droppeth, as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. it is twice bless'd;
tblesseth him that gives and him that takes
is mlghtiest in the mightiest; it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown. y
50 true is 1t, blessed are, or happy
are the merciful.' We see in these truths
the true extinction of war, national. So
cial, universal. 1t is not Peace Society,
or feaee Society prescriptions, that will ev-
er arrest the ravages of war. 1t is human
passion, not gnnpowder that gives the can
non its dread mission. 1t is mans evil
heart, not the frebrand or the match, that
lgnltes the gunpovder. And the reform
that Is to end In universal peace is the re-
generation of every heart; and only when
every heart is regeneratcd, and not till
then, will war cease. Terrible as war is
terrible as 1t is in our present experience,
yet 1t is, and will be. and will blaze more
until man personally becomes man forgiy-
en- ana through the force of that forgive
ness learns to forgive as be is forgiven. l
do not say that every war is result of
passion upon our part. No doubt there
are sinfulness and imperfeetion in it The
only war that this blessed gospel admits
is defencige one; and even such war is
exceptional. it provides for it as tbino
that-wlll be, 1t does not insist upon it as a
thing that must be. When kings on their
thrones, when cabinet ministers in their
cabinets, when fathers In their families
shall all pray from the very depth of their
hearts. = forgive US our debts as we for
give our debtors, then and only then
then and only then--when Christ shall
come, and the kingdom shall be his, and
his glory shall tighten every land the sword
shall be beaten into the plowshare and the
spear into the pruning-book, and the ma.
tions shall learn war no more--Dr. Can
niings ncw gork.
81 L. i uta4od .. iEasL.n.4o., A..