The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-07-13

4
These were among the words of
Christ in his talk with his disciples
after he had put to rout the mer-
| chants and the money-changers who
were defiling the temple in Jerusalem.
They present an admonition that
needs must be needed by all humans
if there is to be anything like true
peace and happiness upon earth, if
men and women would do unto 9TH
ers as they wish to be done by.
There is scarcely an individual who
is so wonderfully constituted that he
can go through so much as a single
day without saying a word or COM
hitting some act that is not offensive
in some way to some other person.
Many transgressions of this sort do
not amount to much. Any quantity of
them are the result of nothing more
than thoughtlessness. Nothing much
is meant by them. But that does not re-
lieve them of their stings. And as al
most everybody is offering affronts of
this sort, it necessarily follows that
almost everybody is being annoyed,
or injured or displeased by them to
greater or less extent. Surely the man
who gives offense to another through
carelessness is most anxious to be for
given. And for that very reason it is
incumbent on him that he should just
as willingly forgive the individuals
who have wronged or annoyed him.
1t is not exceedingly difficult to for
get and forgive the little, the inconse-
quential misdeeds that are perpetrat-
ed against one. The rub comes,
though, in excusing the wrong or the
injury that is of serious moment.
Many of them are actually criminal
i'll their scope, and for which the pun
ishment devised by law should lie
meted out. The criminal must be
punished, not to avenge his act, but
for the protection of society. And 1t
is not reasonable to believe that Christ
contemplated the forgiveness of real
crime to the extent of it's being per-
mitted to go unpublished. His dictum,
in the words quoted above, would
rather seem to relate to the feelings
of the persons against whom the
crimes and misdemeanors are direct
ed. To them, he urges that they alb
solve the wrongdoers from blame:
that they hold nothing like a grudge
or spite against them. In many cases
it is exceedingly difficult for people
to forgive some of the serious of
lenses of others against them. Many
of these overt acts and indignities
may mean the wrecking of a happy
home, the snuffing out Of the life
of a membe of a family, or the theft
of the savings of a lifetime. 1t is well
nigh impossible to forget such things
And the remem brance of them makes
them troublesome to pardon. But
even in such serious cases the effort
should be made to do so just the
same. Its accomplishment will mean
an requirement of that desirable peace
of mind which can be brought about
in no other way. The greater the in
jury that has been done, the stronger
should be the effort to forgive it.
AS Shakespeare so tersely and
graphically puts it: ITO err is human,
to forgive is divine And as Christ
points out in the words. which are
quoted above, one who does not for
give the offensive words and acts of
his brother cannot hope for the for
giveness of his own trespasses when
the time comes for the final account
ing-when all men and women are to
be judged according to their deserts.