The Clio messenger. (Clio, Mich.) 1907-current, 1913-09-26
When We Have
Been Wronged
From the Sunday School Times.
20 oEs any responsibility for max.

" son who has been wronged
by another, when the one
who has done the injury will offer
no apology? The question is not mere
ly one for class discussion; 1t enters
into ordinary experience constantly
and prominently. A bank president
in Ohio writes of its discussion in his
Sunday-school class:
Our class was divided over the
question Of our duty to the other fell
low, when he has wronged us, and
we feel certain that there has been
no wrong on our part. Some said we
are to- leave him alone until he is
ready TO confess that he has wronged
us. Others said that the verse, If
therefore thou art Offering thy gift
at the altar, and there rememberest
that thy brother hath aught against
thee means that we must try to be
reconciled to the brother who has been
offended (eyen when there has been
no wrong on our part) before our gifts
will be acceptable to God What is
the teaching OF that verse? Matt.
5:2S, 24."
1t is always safe to follow the ex-
ample of God in our principles of ac-
ton We have wronged God so ter
ribly by sin that we cannot, and would
not if we could, turn to God of our
own accord and seek reconciliation.
God is wholly in the right; yet God
does not leave US alone until we are
ready to confess and ask for reconcil-
iation. Instead, God seeks us out,
and, at a tragic and infinite cost to
himself and his Son, he simply loves
us into confessing and seeking recon
Citation. No man has ever turned
to God for forgiveness until after
God had won him to this by long
suffering, patient, loving entreaty and
kindness. Suppose God should leave
us alone" until we were ready to do
the right thing!
Must Forgive AS We Are Forgiven.
When we have finally yielded to his
love and accepted his pleadingly prof
fered forgiveness and life in Jesus
Christ his sacrificed Son, then he asks
US, who thus have been forgiven such
an unspeakably great debt, to forgive
others their little debts against US.
And he asks us to do 1t in his way
the same way that he used toward US.
He asks us to go out after them In
love: positive, aggressive, compelling,
winning love, love that makes the first
move, but that never makes the last
move, because it never ceases, never
faileth." If we simply lavish our love,
In positive ways, persistently and I'M
ceasingly upon one who has wronged
us, and never show that we have even
noticed the wrong, any hard feeling
is pretty sure to starve to death. There
Is pretty sure to be reconciliation,
whether or not the other fellow ever
does anything about it openly. To
be reconciled means, In the Greek,
to be changed throughout. 1t is that
sort of change that God would effect
by showing his love In us and through
us toward any one who needs recon
CLING toward US.
The Injunction in Matthew 5:23. "a
would seem to include all this. It
would reasonably seem to apply to
either an innocent or a guilty party
in such a matter. II man has
wronged another, and has not confess
ed and made restitution, then he GER
tainly ought to set things right before
going on with his religious duties. If
he has been wronged, and has not
done all that he might to effect
reconciliation, the obligation to do
SO lies just as heavily upon him as
upon the offending person. Though he
may have been innocent before, he
now becomes guilty of the quarrel IL
he does not sacrifice himself utterly
in loving effort to win the others
love; and his worship will not be &C.
ceptable to God until he does so.