The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1910-07-28
A LESSON ON
FORGIVENESS
Sunday School Lesson for July 81, 1910
Specially Arranged for This Paper

LESSON TExT.-Matthew 1S::21-S5
Memory verses 81, e.
GOLDEN TExT.-"If you forgive men
their trespasses, your Heavenly Father
will also forgive you."-Matt. 6:H
TIME.-Autumn of A. ID. 20.
PLACE.-Capernaum, near the Sea OF
Galilee.
Suggestion and Practical Thought.
The Occasion of Peters Question:
Matt. 1S: 1-20. After the return from
the TRANSPORTATION scene, when Jesus
with his disciples were together in a
house In Capernaum, Jesus gave them
some practical teaching and training
on how they should feel and act In
time of growing opposition from un-
godly men among whom they must
live and work.
First of all they must cease ambi.
tious striving for place and honor.
They must fling away ambition, by
that sin fell the angels" This self
seeking spirit was exactly opposite to
the kingdom OF heaven, and II they
did not overcome II, their lives would
be failures. II also tended to awaken
hard feelings between brethren. Cut
OF your foot pluck out your eye, II
you must. but hold on to the spirit of
the kingdom.
The second lesson was from their
Heavenly Fathers seeking not to de-
stroy those who hate and revile and
disobey him, but to give himself to
seeking and saving the lost.
The third lesson was upon the way
they should carry out this divine spirit
toward those who sinned against
them.
Peters Question and Jesus Answer,
Concerning the Duty of Forgiving En-
emies.-Vs. 21, %. "The Rabbls, who
had been the disciples teachers hith-
erto, required an offender to go to
the injured party and obtain forgive
ness by owning his fault; but Jesus
told them that among his disciples
the person wronged was to go to the
wrongdoer, that such humility and
love might strengthen his own graces,
and win the guilty one to contrition."
-Maclaren.
This was a hard saying, but by
united prayer this spirit, as well as
every other blessing, could be OBJ
tanned. But wrongs to others, real or
fancied, are very common, and Peter
naturally asks how long one must
carry ut'this instruction toward those
who keep on SHINING and apparently
repenting.
Jesus illustrates His Teaching by a
Parable.-Vs. 23-34. Contrasting the
debt sinful man owes to God with
what any man wronging his fellow
man owes to the one he has injured
II therefore God forgives freely the
great debt, forgiven man certainly
should forgive the little debt.
The Two Methods of Treating the
Debtors. 25. Commanded him to be
sold and all that he had"
30 In Syria now, when the debt grows
till II equals in value the entire prop
erty Of the debtors, the creditor seizes
all they possess.
"The same servant went out" From
his kings presence. He acted in the
very heat Of his own experience of re.
lease. "And found one OF his fellow
servants" An inferior officer. "Owed
him an hundred pence" When the
common translation of the Bible was
made the pennies were all silver, cop
per pennies not being coined till 1877.
Took him by the throat" Literally.
went to choking him. "Thus Livy
CIV, 53) relates how, a difficulty hav-
Ing arisen between the consul
Valerius and one Menenius. the
tribunes put an end to the contest,
and the consul ordered into prison
(collum torsisset, twisted the neck)
the few who appealed. And Cicero
(Pro Cluentio. XXI): Lead him to
the judgment-seat with twisted neck
(collo obtorto).' Compare Cicero in
Q. Verrem. ~, 10."-vincent.
Fell down at his feet,
will pay thee ALL" The very act and
words he himself had so lately en-
ployed to his creditor.
"And he would not: but went"
(went away 1and cast him into
prison"
He had reasons In his own mind,
as (1) that the man deserved the pun
ishment; (2) 1t was his own fault
that he was In debt; (3) 1t was not
good for the community that such
men go unpublished. But not one OF
these did he want applied to himself.
The Lesson In Daily Life.-V. 85. 1.
The Punishment of Those Who Refuse
to Forgive Those Who Injure Them.
80 likewise shall my heavenly Father
do also unto you" The torments must
follow to you IF ye from your hearts,, -
really and not merely in words, "for-
give not every one his brother their
trespasses." Every such person is 60
Ing in the straight road to the tor.
mentors.
There is no greater torment than
those conscience and the working out
OF the laws OF nature and of spirit
produce in order to make the way OF
transgressors so hard that they may
be persuaded to turn, and repent and