Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1896-10-22
ESSENTIAL TO FORGIVENESS.
ls Il Never Complete without Its Compile
ment, Repentance.

lt Il Never Complete without Its Compile.
ment. Repentance.
Forgiveness is never complete with
out its complement, repentance. An
aggrieved or injured person may ex-
ercise great patience, long-sufferirg,
charity; may repeatedly, even perIna-
nenty, forbear to visit penalty; may
have perfectly forgiving spirit; but
until his forbea-ance and readiness to
forgive are met on the other side by re-
pentance, the act of forgiveness cam
not be complete.
So God deals with us. He is very pa
tent. waits to see whether our wrong
doing indicates a firm purpose of orr
lives or is the result of ignorance or
the stress of overpowering temptation.
He is long-suffering, does not punish
for the first offense or for many Of
lenses, but gives every possible oppor-
tunity to retrace our steps and seek
right conduct. He is merciful, tender,
gentle, never breaking the bruised reed
nor quenching the smoking fax, al
ways ready to assist even the weakest
endeavor. For forgiveness, however,
most wonderful instance is that prayer
of Christ upon the cross for His MUIR
derers. Repeatedly during the three
years of His ministry had He pro-
claimed for one and another the for
giveness of their sins. In every case
He had seen the existence of repent
ance. In this, however, there was mani
fest no repentance. If repentance came
at all it must be later, as the full enormi-
ty of their deed came home to their con-
sciences. All He could do was to ask
the Father to forgive them, knowing
we'll that even His forgiveness could
have no effect except as it was met by
their repentance.
The same general principle holds
good in our dealings with one another.
The obligation which God imposes on
Himself to meet repentance with for
giveness becomes in our case a duty
to exercise the forgiving spirit whether
there is repentance or not. We are to
be patient, long-suffering, merciful,
tender, and also charitable; for with
our human limitations we are con-
stantly liable to err in our interpre Ia
ton of acts and words, and it may be
that, instead of being the offended, we
are, in truth, the offenders. Making,
however, full allowance for all such OBJ
legation, it remains true that in the re-
lations of man with man, as in those Of
man with God, forgiveness cannot be
complete without repentance; or, in
other words, the duty of repentance is
Just as great as the duty of forgiveness.
1t is just as necessary for the person
who finds out that he has wronged an
other to seek forgiveness by the mani
festation of repentance as it is the duty
of the other to be ready to forgive
whether repentance be made manifest
or not.
This repentance must be something
more than mere regret for corse-
quences. Comparatively little wrong
doing is intentional. Very few men
faunt disobedience in the face of God,
and few deliberately set about doing
harm to their fellows. Most of the
experiences in life that call for the ex-
ercise of forgiveness have been otca-
stoned by ignorance or heedlessness.
Some people seem 20 imagine that re-
pentance has to do only with deliberate
wrong-doing; that the great mass of
Gets or words that give offense can he
fully atoned for by a mere excuse me-"
g! did not mean to-" etc. Others act
as if there were some degradation in
the expression of repentance. Both
these Jaws are utterly false. The nan
who has injured his fellow-man in what
ever way or however unintentionally
is bound to make full reparation for
the wrong, and the least he can do
is to acknowledge the obligation. The
degradation is in refusing to acknowl-
edge it. The man who presumes on the
readiness to forgive, whether of God or
man, and refuses to seek the forgive
ness, has no right to claim that for
giveness.-N. Y. Independent.