The Monmouth inquirer., 1906-10-11

way In which you should welcome
some of your angelic visitors. These
are Christs words, not mine: Love
your enemies That means give them
the best places at your table and your
war1nesy welcome. "Bless them that
curse you" That means go out of your
way to speak kind word for those
who are denouncing you and trying to
undermine your character. DO good
to them who hate you and pray for
them which despitefully use you" Do
you hear it? My Lord and my God,
have we read thy words Alright? How
few, how very few of us have well
coined at our doors those who have re-
viled us and prosecuted us and have
said all manner of evil things against u.s.
Now, you have read many essays and
heard many sermons upon the theme,
"The Blessings of Having an Enemy"
but / want to tell you that the great
est blessing of an enemy after all Is to
teach us to forgive those people who
have trespassed against us as we ex-
pect God to forgive our trespasses.
Unless we can learn this lesson of for
giveness we can never learn to be like
Christ. Are you willing to live as that
famous Irishman lived who recently
passed away? Did you read the last
will and testament of Michael Davitt?
He did not have any money to give,
for he spent most of his life in the
struggle of home rule for the Emerald
Island SO he made up his last will
and testament thus-wise. I do wish
had it verbatim. He said in part:
"This is my last will and testament.
have not any money to give, but
leave my blessing to all mankind. i
first ask forgiveness from all those
whom may have injured in life or to-
ward whom have acted unjustly.
Then leave my forgiveness to all
those who have done me any injury.
Then I ask that when my literary ex-
ecutor publishes hereafter any of my
works he will Gull from them any Bit
ter words which might wound the
heart Of any living man or the hearts
Of the loved ones of any of my politi-.
cal foes" Did you ever read a senti
ment more beautiful and Christlike
than that7 My brother, you have
greeted many friends in your home.
They have dined with you and you
with them. But have you ever spoken
the words Of Davitt? Alas, If not,
then I fear you have shut out "angelic
visitors" who, If they should enter your
home, would bring to you the greatest
of spiritual blessings. These angelic
messengers may be men who have
spitefully used you. Cannot you give
them a loving welcome for Christ's
sake, as Abraham asked the three
strangers to rest with him under the
shadow of his eastern tent?
should Not End There.
But should our hospitality end here?
oh, no. If you turn to the fourteenth
chapter of Luke you find these words:
when thou makest feast or sup
per, call not thy friends nor thy breth-
rem, neither thy kinsmen nor thy rich
neighbors, lest they also bid thee again
and recompense be made thee. But
when thou makest a feast call the
DOOR, the MANNED, the lame, the blind
Now, who are the MANNED and the
lame and the blind? Are they simply
the poor who go around on clutches or
feel their way with staff? I think
not. Christ would not here say .'the
poor and the MANNED and the halt and
the blind" If that was the case.
think the MANNED and the halt and the
blind mean the moral cripples. I
think these words to a great extent
mean the spiritual outcasts. think
they mean those who are like the sew
en- deviled Mary and Zacchaeus, whom
honest people shun as the healthy
physical man would run from a laza-
retto or loathsome plague. Yes, we
are to give a cordial welcome even to
the vilest of sinners, such welcome
as Abraham gave the three strangers
at his home.
These words mean that we should go
forth In the name of Christ and try to
save those who have sunk SO low in
the quagmires of sin that, befouled and
reeking with immoral filth, like wild
beasts of prey, they seem to be stag
gering alone through dark wilder
ness of despair. They seem to be
alone, all alone in their crimes. When
the great Roman orator Cicero was
hurting his condemnation against the
sins of Catiline, SO overpowering was
the scene that no senator would sit by
the conspirator and destroyer of young
mems virtues. One by one they left
the bench upon which the cringing
Catiline crouched. There he trembled,
with no friend by his side, while the
Edmund Burke of Caesars reign was
denouncing him as Warren Hastings
centuries later was denounced in West
minister Thus as we see the wrong
doer crinsing under the lash as he sat
alone we can see the modern Catilines
Stunned and forsaken on account of
their sins. We can see the poor har-
lots, the brazen faced libertines and
the immoral lepers reeking with sin
Christ bids us to go to them, even to
the MANNED and the halt and the blind
and give them a gospel salutation, as
i IL Ia