C

XIII.

FORGIVENESS.

HARLES SUMNER, a man who

makes the name of Senator illustrious; who has been truer to the Republic

than she has been to herself, inasmuch as, while she has sometimes faltered in the way, suffering herself to be overborne by wicked counsels to her own misdoing, he has known no wavering in his allegiance, but has always been " 'true to truth and brave for truth"; who, free from the vulgar ambition of place, is fired with the noble ambition of power, but of power based only on what is excellent in himself, and bearing only on what is excellent in others; who has approved the majesty of right as well as the calm steadfastness of genius, by returning, after years of enforced absence, to the battle-ground, and taking up the sword on the same spot where rage and cowardice and wounded iniquity had wrested it from his grasp; who, deserving well of the Republic for

services faithfully rendered, and sufferings heroically borne, deserves not less for this, that he has brought down into the arena of politics the culture of the scholar, the courtesy of the gentleman, and the catholicity of the Christian, demonstrating thereby that a nation's work needs not to be done with unwashen hands, but that the most devoted patriotism may consist with the widest learning, the truest refinement, and the purest morality, Charles Sumner, referring, in a recent speech before a popular assembly, to the aggressions of the slave power upon the rights of man, said: "Forgiving those who trespass against us, I know not if we should forgive those who trespass against others. Forgiving those who trespass against us, I know not if we should forgive those who trespass against the Republic. Forgiving those who trespass against us, I know not if we should forgive those who trespass against God."

The duty of forgiveness is inculcated in the Bible with no more distinctness than is the fact asserted that certain conditions must precede it. This part we are very apt to forget in theory, and though it will hardly be conceded that men in general are too ready to forgive injuries, and therefore need to have the conditions clearly defined, yet all theoretical flaws produce more or less mischief in practice. The particular harm occasioned by this oversight is, that a certain indiscriminate and wholesale forgiveness is enjoined, against which

healthy minds revolt; the result is that they, with equal indiscrimination, reject the whole. Consequently, to many, forgiveness is synonymous with meanness and cowardice. It is attributed either to a want of spirit enough to feel an insult, or of courage enough to resent it; undoubtedly, a good deal of what passes for forgiveness and amiability is only this; but this is not forgiveness any more than the hide of the rhinoceros, or the horns of the deer, are forgiveness; and by as much as forgiveness is a noble, manly, and Christian virtue, by so much should its character be understood and rescued from the imputation of being milk and

water.

When the sun goes down behind the hills tonight, the listening ears of angels, and the always open ear of Christ, will hear thousands and thousands of sweet child-voices lisping, "Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us," and as the little night-gowned babies kneel by mothers' knees, and rest in mothers' arms, and smile in happy sleep, it will seem as if no being ever could be so cruel as to trespass against their innocence, and that even the pure eye of the Son of God, looking into those little hearts, will scarcely find any trespass there; but when the white-robed cherubs get up in the morning, the angelhood ebbs, and humanity sets in strong. They are no longer a choir of shining ones, but a troop of Johnnys and Susys and

Franks, who do not like to be washed, and see no beauty in smooth hair, and have a special aversion to old frocks when new ones are hanging in the closet, and a special knack at setting each other by the ears whenever opportunity does or does not offer. Consequently, the differences that arise are numberless, and armed interference on the part of parents becomes a continually recurring necessity. Here the matter begins. In the nursery the battles of life are fought, the perplexities of life are encountered, the drama of life is enacted. Here the great, moral principles that should guide and harmonize life are brought into play and strengthened for future use, or (alas! too often) stretched and strained and ruined. Here the theory of forgiveness in all its ramifications needs to be thoroughly understood and correctly applied, or incalculable confusion will arise in a thousand forming minds. Mary will not pull Willie's hair if her mother bids her not, though it seems to her that it would be no more than strict poetic justice in return for his pulling hers; nor will the verse that she is made to repeat about rendering evil for evil, make all the crooked places straight before her. Harry cannot see why grown-up men put into jail those who rob them of their property, while he is expected to forgive and forget Bob's running away with his ball. Nor do we, his father and mother, see quite clearly through the whole subject ourselves. An injury has been done or

attempted against us. We feel that we must forgive, because it is right and Scriptural and Christian to do so; yet we cannot feel towards the offender just as we did before, because it is not natural or possible to feel so; and we compromise between ought and is, and say, "We will forgive, but we never can forget."

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But look into this matter a little. We want no compromise with wrong or right. If anything is right, do it wholly, if wrong, do it not at all. At all events let us know where we are. If it is not possible to forgive and forget, it is not our duty to do it; for God never did and never will require us to do what it is not possible for us to do. Ability is the limit of duty. If it is our duty to do it, we can do it, and we must do it, and we will do it!

The New Testament draws a parallel between man's forgiveness of his brother, and God's forgiveness of man. If ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Even as Christ forgave you, so also There must, therefore, be a similarity between the two acts. How, then, does God forgive us? The Bible furnishes plenty of answers.

do ye.

"If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways: then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”