[Dec. 17th, 1854.]
I. A personal offense is anything whereby we are personally injured in our feelings, our reputation, our person or estate.
A public offense is one by which the Church or the community is injured in any of its interests.
II. The question is, what is our duty in reference to personal offenses?
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We should not cherish any malignant or revengeful feelings towards those who injure us.
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We should not retaliate, or avenge ourselves on our offenders. If the offense is of such a nature that the interests of society or of the Church require it to be punished, it is right in us to desire such punishment.
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We should cherish towards those who offend us, the feelings of kindness, regarding them with that benevolence which forbids our wishing them any harm.
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We should treat them in our outward conduct with kindness, returning good for evil, and acting towards them as though they had not injured us.
III. When are we to forgive?
There are two classes of passages which bear upon this subject. 1. Those which prescribe the condition of repentance. “If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him.” 2. Those in which no such condition is prescribed. “For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.” (Matt. 6:14.) “How oft shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him?” (18:21.) “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you.” (Matt. 5:44). So God does. “He maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust.” (Matt. 5:45). So Christ prayed for his crucifiers. So Stephen prayed. So is God in his dealings with us.
These passages are not inconsistent. The word forgiveness is used in a wider or a stricter sense. In the wider sense, it includes negatively, not having a spirit of revenge, and positively, exercising a spirit of kindness and love, and manifesting that spirit by all appropriate outward acts. This is forgiveness as a Christian’s duty in all cases. In a more restricted sense it is the remission of the penalty due to an offense. This is illustrated in the case of an offense against the Church. Repentance is the condition only of the remission of the penalty, not of forgiveness in the wider sense. There are penalties proper to private as well as to public offenses.
IV. Grounds of the duty.
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God’s command.
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God’s example.
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Our own need of forgiveness. Our sins against God are innumerable and unspeakably great.
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The threatening that we shall not be forgiven unless we forgive others.
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It is a dictate of Christian love.
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