FORGIVENESS.

 

FORGIVENESS is not selfishness. It is not unwise. It is not works of injury. It is not violation of law. It is not offering encouragement to vice. It is not with holding justice to offenders. It is not secreting another's crimes. It is not concealing another's wrongs. It is not in words, but in deeds. Deeds of right remove wrongs. When wrongs have been done, the doer needs forgiveness. He needs the removal of the wrong. He may not ask forgiveness, but his good demands often what he does not seek. He may not demand good, but his happiness demands it. It demands what he does not ask—the forgiveness of sins. When he demands good, he is forgiven. He is removed from his sins, and his sins are remembered no more. He may revert to them, but he remembers not to continue in them. He remembers them only to loathe, only to abhor, and only to refrain from them. He demands others to do as he has done, "go and sin no more." When be demands others to put away their wrongs, he asks them to forgive his wrongs. When they do not put away their wrongs, they do not forgive him; and when they do not forgive him, he is not forgiven.

 

Forgiveness is to take away wrong. To take away implies a taker. It supposes another person is engaged in the removal, since a thing can not remove what it has no will or desire to remove. The wrong must be overcome. It must be removed, or he will suffer in the wrong. If it must be removed, who will remove it? Will the doer remove his own wrongs? That is repentance. That is reform. It is the work of reformers. They abandon their wrongs. They forsake their sins. They cease to do evil, and learn to do well. Is that to take away? Is it the same to put away, as it is to take away? Does not one imply an act of the possessor, while the other implies an act of another? The removal separates the possessor from the evil removed. When he is separated from the evil, repentance is wrought. When repentance is wrought, forgiveness is demanded. When forgiveness is demanded, it is not always extended. When it is not extended to the penitent, the penitent suffers—suffers not on account of his own wrong, but on account of the unforgiving wrong of another. While he feels the unforgiving wrong of another, he will suffer as others suffer who are aggrieved. Forgiveness is, therefore, the taking away of grievance. It is an act of the injured party.

 

When a wrong is done, the doer needs repentance. When the doer repents, be needs forgiveness. But of whom? Of the person injured. The person wronged is the one to forgive. He takes away the wrong of censure. It is not in the power of the guilty to forgive censure. He who censures must take it away, or it will remain. The act of removing condemnation is forgiveness. Condemnation is what sin receives. When the sinner repents, he ceases to do evil. When he ceases to do evil, it is unjust to condemn him. When it is unjust to condemn him, it is just to forgive him. When it is just to forgive him, it is unjust not to forgive him. What justice requires, law requires; and what law requires, it is a sin to withhold. Hence, the obligation of forgiveness is binding on men. It is binding on the person who has been wronged and if be will not forgive, he is worse than we will write. He will forgive, when he understands his duty. He will forgive, when he sees the wisdom of forgiveness. He will not judge wrong, when he sees the judgment is a wrong to himself. He will change the decision. He will forgive the sin. He will do justly and love mercy. He will remember the iniquity no more. He will love the offender as a brother. He will confide in him as a friend. He will respect him as a citizen. He will uphold him in righteousness. He will do him good, and not evil. He will not condemn or censure him. He will not detest or bate him. He will not scorn or abuse him. But he will advise and counsel him. He will be his friend and not his enemy. He will take away the wrong of unjust judgment, and the forgiveness will be felt by the person forgiven. It will create mutual kindness. It will remove mutual distrust. It will take away mutual wrong. It will overcome mutual fear. It will restore mutual happiness. It will make mutual friends. It will give mutual peace. It will advance mutual progress. Both minds will feel happier. Both hearts will rejoice. Both souls will do right. Wrong is removed. Sin is taken away. Jealousy disturbs no quiet. Revenge has no habitation, and love sweetens the, cup of forgiveness.

 

Hence, the taking away of wrong is relief. It is not only relief to him who takes it away, but it is relief to the mind from which it is taken. He feels relieved of the burden of censure and condemnation. He sees a brother who asks forgiveness, and he gives the needed demand. The minds of the giver and receiver are blessed. The law of affinity is recognized, respected, and obeyed. But while the mind forgives not, while the mind is not forgiven the wrong of mutual unkindness, mutual distrust, and mutual suspicion, will continue to annoy and disturb the social good will of minds, which might otherwise enjoy the tranquillity of wisdom. and felicitate in each other's society. Hence, the duty of minds, disturbed by the wrongs of others, is clear. Nothing can contribute so much to restore the harmony of minds, as the forgiveness of offenders. Nothing regales the soul or the forgiven, or the forgiver, with so much of the luxury of true goodness, as the exercise of forgiveness. And yet men and women have a great lesson to learn in the rudimental sphere. They have a reform to make before they can enter into the joys of the kingdom of Jesus. They may write and say what they will about the forgiveness of God, but we see what they have neglected. Who forgives his brother, as be asks to be forgiven of God? Is not God more wilting to forgive him, than he is to forgive his brother? Is it not mockery for minds to ask God to forgive them their sins, when they are unwilling to forgive the offences of their brethren? Can God forgive a sin, while the sinner continues in his sin? Can he forgive a wrong, while the doer harbors and practices the wrong? Spirits will answer. No sin, or wrong, can be forgiven of God, while the sin and wrong are practiced by the doer. God can not forgive a wrong without removing it, since the removal is the forgiveness. How, then, are evil doers to expect forgiveness? How are they to realize the removal of their sins and errors? Jesus has come, and retired. He has delivered his message, and sealed it with his blood. Who expects his return to take away the sins of the world? Who would receive him, were he to offer his assistance? Who would not reject him? He might lay his hands on the sick, and they might recover, but would it not be said, He is aided by an evil spirit? Would not the healing be attributed to mesmerism? Would it be reliable and satisfactory proof of the divinity of his mission? Let those answer who cavil with the work of spirits, in healing diseases in the present age? But the caviling mind asks, Did he not raise the dead? Go and do likewise, and we will believe. We shall see. Are not the dead raised now, as then? Have not the dead, as minds call the living spirits of this sphere, been seen by more than five hundred witnesses? Have not the spirits conversed with their relatives? Have they not spoken to them in messages of kindness that proved their identity? And have these minds been persuaded, though their friends have risen from the dead? What do they say? What do they ask? and what do they expect, which they have not received? But they are not forgiven. Why? We will answer. They have not repented, neither have they asked to be forgiven. They stilt love the wrong. They still blush to own the truth! They still deny the truth. They still continue in unbelief. Who forgives? The wrong is not removed. Can God remove it? We shall not say what God can, or can not, do. We know he has not done it. What he has not done is consistent with his government. If consistent, to do some thing different would be inconsistent. Spirits assent to no doctrine which involves inconsistency in the divine role of God. Spirits know that God forgives sin, but they do not know that he forgives sin without the repentance of the sinner. They do not know that God forgives a wrong, and yet suffers the wrong to be. They do not know how he can forgive, or take away, and yet not remove. They do not know that he ever has removed any wrong, while the mind loved the wrong and resisted its removal. He forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin; but he forgives as is consistent with his government. He forgives as the good of mind requires. But the good of mind does not justify the removal of divine disapprobation while the wrong exists. Even others' good would forbid it. While the wrong exists, is loved, and acted upon, it would be wrong to encourage it. Does not the idea of forgiving sin, under these circumstances, encourage a false hope? Would not the mind, acting under the delusive expectation of for in the wrong, be negligent of repentance? the good of the sinner be promoted without repentance?

 

We have said, God forgives as the good of mind requires. He forgives only as such good requires. The good of the sinner requires that the divine disapprobation should be manifest against works of unrighteousness. His good requires it, because were no such disapprobation manifested, the distinction between virtue and vice would be lost, and no mind would realize the just reward of works. The good of mind must be realized by progress, but when the distinction between right and wrong, good and evil, is destroyed by removing the judgment of God, so that no sanction of the one, nor disapprobation of the other, shall be manifest to the doer, mind may well despair of any reform or change advantageous to its welfare. When God ceases to loathe sin, men may do the same. And when mind recognizes no difference between right and wrong, all reform, and all increase in the wisdom of heaven, will be cut off But this will never be. The wisdom of God will forgive, when the correction of the sinner is attained. It will withdraw divine disapprobation when that disapprobation shall be no longer necessary to reform the guilty, and protect the innocent. Not till then, need the sinner expect the forgiveness of God. Not till then need the evil doer hope for pardon. Not till then need the impenitent flatter himself with the expectation of relief from the condemnation of his wrongs.

 

We see minds in the body deceived. They are deceived by others. They have been deluded into the error, that all forgiveness was confined to the mind in the body. We see minds wronged by this mistaken opinion. Indeed if sinners be willing to repent, are they not needing forgiveness? Ought not the judgment of condemnation to be removed when they repent? And when the judgment of condemnation for wrong is removed, are they not forgiven? Would not the continuance of condemnation, when the sinner had repented, he unjust? And if it be unjust to continue it, will God continue an act of injustice? Spirits see spirits forgiven. Those who have been in the lowest circle of wisdom, in the lowest hell of which we have any knowledge, repent, reform, become better, and God removes the judgment which their condition required to discipline them into the path of true wisdom. There are many minds in the body, who need repentance and forgiveness of sins. There are many minds who are indulging a hope of forgiveness through Christ when they Teach this sphere. We would not have them expect in heaven a forgiveness they may not gain on earth. The divine law of God by which forgiveness is extended, is the same in both spheres. If they are not forgiven in the body, it is because they have not repented. If they have not repented, it is weakness to ask forgiveness of God. If they have not received forgiveness, it is certain that they have not repented. It is certain that the reform is not of that character which is required by impartial justice. It is not of the character to justify the forgiveness of the sinner. When the sinner is forgiven, the wrong of sin will not remain. It will be removed, and, when it is removed, it will not trouble him. When it troubles him, he may know that the work of repentance is not complete; for what is complete will not lack. Incomplete repentance lacks the removal of judgment, or condemnation of wrong.

 

Minds embittered with sectarian strife not only need repentance, but they need forgiveness. And they will find that their zeal in opposing each other is not a virtue in the sight of God. They will find that the wrongs, which they have not corrected in the body will remain wrongs until they are corrected. They will find many, very many spirits in the lowest circle of enjoyment, who have been called away from the body in these wrongs. They were not penitent. They would not repent. They would not love their brethren as God has commanded, and they were not forgiven. True, they were professors of religion, but they were sinners. They wronged their neighbors. They reviled, they scorned, they condemned; and they justified themselves in these wrongs, because their brother was not just like themselves. He believed, but not as they. They believed, but not as he. We see minds of this character. We see them in both spheres. We see they are not forgiven. The law demands reform; but reforms are progressive. The mind would be forgiven, but it does not forgive. When it does not forgive, it is unjust that it should be forgiven. That which it metes to others, must be meted to it in return. The wisdom of God is not wisdom of men. When a mind refuses to forgive the offender who has repented, it refuses to others what it asks for itself. When it refuses to others what it asks for itself, it is wrong. It is selfish. It will not do unto others, as it would have others do unto it. When it will not give what it asks, it does not love its neighbor as itself; and when it does not love its neigh bur as itself, it is in need of repentance. When it is in need of repentance, it is not forgiven. When it is not forgiven, it is unhappy. No mind can be happy only as it is forgiven of God. Men may forgive, spirits may forgive, but if God does not forgive, both men and spirits are deficient in wisdom.

 

But when God forgives, and men do not, then the wrong is with the unforgiving. The removal of wrong is the only just rule of forgiveness. This removal is sometimes necessary on the part of those who censure. We see who censures the truth. We see who censures those engaged in the work of reform. We see they need repentance and forgiveness. They are unhappy in their condemnation. They see no fault in this man. They see no evil in the truth he advances for the benefit of mind. But they denounce him. They condemn him. They speak evil against him. They wrong him. They do not repent. They do not ask forgiveness. They pass into this sphere. But to what circle? We will answer, To that circle for which their minds are prepared. They were full of condemnation against minds in the body, and they are prepared to taste the cup which they have so profusely offered to others. He who would avoid the evil of condemnation must not violate the law of heaven, and abuse his brethren; otherwise the reward of his own hands, the judgment which he metes out to others, will be his portion, unless repentance shall cleanse his soul, and the forgiveness of God silence the condemnation of guilt.