National Baptist world., 1894-11-09
SING TO FORGIVE.
We Should Be as Willing to BestOw rs w
Are to Receive Mercy.

~ 0ilNo ~
We Should Be as Willing to BestOw As we
Are to Receive Mercy.
The quality of the Divine mercy is
not strained. 1t falls upon the wait
ing soul as gently as the dews of
Heaven. To the old and hardened,
who have broken all the command
ments repeatedly, who have filled their
years with wick kedness toward God and
cruelty toward their kind, it comes as
readily, as softly and sweetly as to
wayward youth when conscience ac-
cuses of guilt and leads to repentance.
When the chambers of the soul are
haunted with the shadows of sin the
thought of Gods mercy waiting to en-
ter and Danish them is like line of
safety suddenly thrown to the ship
wrecked and despairing mariner. 1t is
a JOY inexpressible.
What mercy we receive, that mercy
we should bestow. But we are more
willing to receive than to give. The
Divine pattern is too large for most of
us. We are slow to learn how to be
compassionate and forgiving to those
whose sins toward us are trivial in
comparison with our sins toward God
We accept His clemency, but we do
not manifest it in our dealings with
our neighbors. Christ knew that men
are hard-hearted and unforgiving, and
in His teachings are many exhOrta-
tions to have that love which is slow
to take offense and quick to forgive it.
tER1nScnH ho ,,1aroif,,1 - coi1.
and when asked whether brother
should be forgiven seven times He re-
piled: Not only seven times, but sew
enty times seven, or practically with
out limit.
1t is a monstrous sin to refuse to for
give, and it is sin unto death; for ''if
We forgive not men their trespasses,"
said our Lord, neither will your Fa-
ther forgive your trespasses. The
heart that is filled with hate and
thoughts of revenge toward another
can not have love toward God, whose
mercy is over all. Every day we may
see illustrations of this unlovely char
acteristic of unsanctifed human ma
ture, but not often so extreme and
pathetic a case as that which the FOL
lowing letter, taken from one of our
daily papers last week, indicates. 1t
was written by young girl of eigh-
teen to her father:
DEAR PAPA Won't you try to forgive me?
know it must have stunned you for a moment
to have seen me without any warming and
also know you did not mean to act the way you
did deserved it, own, for I ought not to
have left you the way did. But, papa, have
not done anything wrong since I left YOU I
have been travelling with theatrical companies
until recently when I left to go to work in
store downtown, where am now Dear father,
if ever you forgive me and wish to see me,
please put personal in the papers, and will
to you and try to atone for the past in the
future. Won't you try to forgive your loving
daughter? CARRIE.
This letter, which breathes humility
and contritiOn in every line, ought to
have touched the fathers heart: 1t
touches the heart of other fathers; but
it did not move that hard and self
righteous nature. He declared he would
never forgive or see her again; but he
sent the piteous letter to married
daughter, who quickly offered a home
to the young but penitent transgressor.
The sin of the child is small indeed,
compared with that of the father. Who
is he that he should assume that any
one could sin against him an unpardon-
able sin? Where is his fatherly affec-
ton? Where is his humanity? Where is
his sense of parental responsibility? He
can not hope for the Divine mercy for
his own sins of ingratitude and inhu-
manity until he learns himself to be
merciful.
The mercy of God is not limited; it
is only conditioned. Even such har-
dened, unloving father may become a
subject of it. The Everlasting Father
is the Father of mercies. He never
turns away repentant sons or daugh-
ters, no matter how long they may
have been SHINING, nor how deeply.
His mercy endureth forever, and it is
for all who are willing to receive it and
manifest it in their lives. Those who
have learned how merciful the Lord is
delight in being merciful themselves.
1t is a Divine attribute; but God means
US to possess it. and to show it in our
relations with one another, just as He
shows it to us. In being merciful we
obtain mercy, and become godlike---
N. Y. Independent.