The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-10-26

q necessary concomitant. You have
redemption through His blood" your
sins are forgiven, and we are sancti-
fed, we are justified in the name of
the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of
our Lord" Note the words .'in" and
by" Among the results of his Nigh
ty, marvellous change is the spirit of
forgiveness. Writes the Apostle Paul
in Ephesians: And be We Iii ore to
another, tender-hearted, forgiving one
another, wen as God for Christ's sake
hath forgiven YOU" But there is a
forgiveness that does not forgive. II is
spurious, unsound, %ruinous. When you
forgive truly you forget also. You COM
pletely Danish all ~wickedness, or re-
venge, all disposition to injure or retail
ate or punish. You make a clean
breast Of all, wiping from the book of
your own remembrance all evil pur-
poses or desires and would bless and
help instead of curse and harm. That
very gifted and able southern Baptist
preacher. Rev. DR.. J. B.. Hawthorne. Of
now. has often a keen edge
to his blade when he would slash
wrong. In a sermon he preached in
Atlanta nearly two years ago he said
his most justly and strikingly:
There Is a sort of %porcupine for
giveness that has a thousand needles
on 1t, and in which there is more vim
~dlctlveness than love. You take a man
who has fende you and set him
down before the blow pipe Of your in
dignation, and scorch him from head
In fOOf- and then Won fOroiuo hiro x,,;kI
the solemn admOnition that if he should
ever repeat the offense you will incin-
crate him. Sin is not covered by such
charity. How unlike this was the
forgiveness Of the father in the parable.
who saw the prodigal afar off, ran and
for joy.
1.-The noblest and the most Godlike
response to an enemy is, I forgive you
.Polyargus heard himself abused in a
theatre. Unable to e the indignity
he went out and hanged himself. When
the Greek comedians tried to offend
by making him appear ridicu-
1ous, he laughed at them. When the
Pasquins pronounced their bitter invec-
t1ves against Augustus, he would not
them. But when Jesus was !
robed in mock royalty, spit upon, buff |
fetted, and nailed to a cross, he said, |
Father, forgive Them
An educated young man, a Methodist |
we think, some few weeks since, told
us that he had heard, as a matter of |
censure, we suppose, that we believed
in the second coming of Christ. We |
pity the man who does not So believe, !
for there is possibly more said in the |
Bible as to the second coming of the |
Saviour than was said of His first COM
ing until the Advent was an accom-
plished fact. Read Acts 1, II. (which !
also said, Ye men of Gali1ee, why |
stand we gazing up into heaven? This
Jesus, which is taken UP from |
into heaven, shall so come in like !!
manner as We have seen him go into
Then turn to Johns Gospel, |
3: And if I go and a place !
FOR you, 1 will come again and receive
unto myself; that where 1 am,
there We may be also" Yes, He will |
again and in great glory, but we
do not pretend to know the time. What
do not you forget it. AS far back as
1851 the eminent Biblical scholar and
theologian, the Rev. Da-
vid Brown, professor of theology
IN Aberdeen university, Scotland. |
published a work on Christ Sec
md Advent" He was a post
and said this: with
them Ohe pre-millenialists), we affirm
hat the Redeemer's second appearing
Is the very pole-star of the Christ"
are not concerned here with the
w theories-the pro and pre-. We
say the Bible is perfectly clear
rs to the second coming. Christ him
self said that He was coming again
ma he said it in John xiv, 2, 33; John
xxi, %; Mark viii, So; Mark xiv, 81, 81:
Paul asserted it in I Thes., iv, 16, and
n Rev. i, z, John states it.