"Think kindly of the erring!
Thou knowest not the power
With which the dark temptation came
In some unguarded hour;
Thou knowest not how earnestly
They struggled, or how well,
Until the hour of weakness came,
And sadly then they fell.
"Speak kindly to the erring!
Thou yet may'st lead him back
With holy words, and tones of love,
From misery's thorny track:
Forget not _thou_ hast often sinned
And sinful yet must be:--
Deal kindly with the erring one
As God hath dealt with thee!"
The duty of kindness was the third lesson Jesus taught in the
parables.
_A fourth lesson taught us in some of the parables of Jesus is_----
THE DUTY OF FORGIVENESS.
The apostle Peter came to Jesus one day, and asked him how often he
ought to forgive a brother that offended him; and whether it would be
enough to forgive him _seven_ times. The answer of Jesus was, "I say
not unto thee, until seven times, but until seventy times seven."
St. Matt. 18: 22. Then Jesus spoke the parable of the two debtors.
St. Matt. 18: 23-35. One of these owed his master ten thousand
talents. If these were talents of silver they would amount to more
than fifteen millions of dollars. If they were talents of gold, they
would amount to three hundred millions. This would show that his debt
was so great that he never could pay it. Then his master freely
forgave him. But not long after, he found one of his fellow-servants,
who owed him a hundred pence, or about fifteen dollars of our money.
The man asked him to forgive him the debt. He would not do it; but
put him in prison. When his master heard this he was very angry, and
put him in prison, where he should be punished until he had paid all
his great debt. And Jesus finished the parable by saying--"_so
likewise, shall my heavenly Father do unto you, if ye, from your
hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses_." And here
we are taught the great duty of forgiveness. And this same duty is
taught us in the Lord's Prayer, where he says--"Forgive us our
trespasses, as we also forgive those who trespass against us." If we
use this prayer without forgiving those who injure us, then, in so
using it, we are really asking God _not_ to forgive us. And Jesus
_practised_ what he _preached_. As he hung bleeding and agonizing on
the cross, while his enemies were cruelly mocking his misery, he
looked up to heaven, and uttered that wonderful prayer--"_Father
forgive them; for they know not what they do_." Here we have the best
illustration of forgiveness that the world has ever seen.
"Example of Forgiveness." In a school in Ireland, one boy struck
another. The offending boy was brought up to be punished, when the
injured boy begged for his pardon. The teacher asked--"Why do you
wish to keep him from being flogged?" The ready reply was--"Because I
have read in the New Testament that our Lord Jesus Christ said that
we must forgive our enemies; and therefore I forgive him, and beg
that he may not be punished for my sake."
"Good for Evil." At the foot of a street in New York, stood an
Italian organ grinder, with his organ. A number of boys had gathered
round him, but they were more anxious to have some fun than to hear
music. One of them said to his companions:
"See! I'll hit his hat!"
And sure enough he did. Making up a snow ball, he threw it with so
much force that the poor man's hat was knocked into the gutter. A
gentleman standing by expected to see him get very angry, and swear
at the boy. But, very different from this was the result that
followed. The musician stopped; stepped forward and picked up his
hat. Then he turned to the rude boy, and gracefully bowing, said:
"And now, I'll play you a tune to make you merry!" There was real
Christian forgiveness.
"The Power of the Gospel." Years ago some carpenters moved to the
Island of New Zealand, and set up a shop for carrying on their
business. They were engaged to build a chapel at one of the Mission
Stations. One of these carpenters, a pleasant, kind-hearted man,
engaged a native Christian to dig his garden for him. When the work
was done the man went to the shop for his pay. Another of the
carpenters there, who was a very ill-tempered man, told the native to
get out of the shop. "Don't be angry," was the gentle reply; "I have
only come to have a little talk with your partner, and to get my
wages from him." "But I _am_ angry." And then taking hold of the New
Zealander by the shoulder, he abused and kicked him in the most cruel
manner.
The native made no resistance till the carpenter ceased. Then he
jumped up, seized him by the throat, and snatching a small axe from
the bench, flourished it threateningly over his head. "Now, you see,"
said he, "your life is in my hand. You see my arm is strong enough to
kill you; and my arm is quite willing, but my heart is not. I have
heard the missionaries preach the gospel of forgiveness. You owe your
life to the preaching of the gospel. If my heart was as dark now as
it was before the gospel was preached here, I should strike off your
head in an instant!"
Then he released the carpenter without injuring him and accepted from
him a blanket as an apology for the insult. How faithfully this man
was practising the duty of forgiveness which Jesus taught!
_The only other thing of which we shall now speak, as taught by our
Saviour in the parables, is_--THE INFLUENCE OF GOOD EXAMPLE.
The parable which teaches this lesson is that of the lighted candle.
It is one of the shortest of our Lord's parables, and yet the truth
it teaches is very important. We first find this parable in the
sermon on the mount. These are the words in which it is given:
"Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a
candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let
your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works,
and glorify your Father which is in heaven." Matt, v: 15. This
parable is so important that we find it repeated in three other
places. Mark iv: 21, Luke viii: 16, and xi: 33.
We find the same idea taught by one of England's greatest writers.
Looking at a candle shining through a window, he says:
"How far yon little candle throws its beam!
So shines a good deed in a naughty world."
And the lesson we are here taught is that we should always set a good
example by doing what we know to be right, and then, like a candle
shining in a dark place, we shall be useful wherever we go. Let us
look at one or two incidents that illustrate this.
"A Boy's Influence." Two families lived in one house. In each of
these families there was a little boy about the same age. These boys
slept together. One of them had a good pious mother. She had trained
him to kneel down every night, before getting into bed, and say his
prayer in an audible voice, and to repeat a text of scripture which
she had taught him. Now the first time he slept with the other little
boy, who never said any prayers, he was tempted to jump into bed, as
his companion did, without kneeling down to pray. But he was a brave
and noble boy. He said to himself--"I am not afraid to do what my
mother taught me. I am not ashamed for anybody to know that I pray to
God. I'll do as I have been taught to do." He did so. He let his
light shine. And see what followed from its shining!
The little boy who had never been taught to pray learned his
companion's prayer, and the verse he repeated, by hearing them, and
he never forgot them. He grew up to be an earnest Christian man. When
he lay on his deathbed, quite an aged man, he sent for the friend,
whose prayer he had learned, to come and see him, and told him that
it was his little prayer, so faithfully said every night when they
were boys, which led him to become a Christian. He repeated the
prayer and the verse, word for word, and with his dying lips thanked
his friend for letting his light shine as he did, for _that_ had
saved his soul.
Here is another illustration of a Christian letting his light shine
and the good that was done by it. We may call it:
"The Shilling Bible, and what Came of It." Some years ago a
Christian gentleman went on a visit for three days to the house of a
rich lady who lived at the west end of London. After tea, on the
first evening of his arrival, he called one of the servants, and
telling her that in the hurry of leaving home he had forgotten to
bring a Bible with him, he requested her to ask the lady of the house
to be kind enough to lend him one.
Now that house was beautifully furnished. There were splendid
pictures on the walls, and elegantly bound volumes in the library and
on the tables in the parlor; but there was not a Bible in the house.
The lady felt ashamed to own that she had no Bible. So she gave the
servant a shilling and told her to go to the book store round the
corner and buy a Bible. The Bible was bought and given to the
gentleman. He used it during his visit, and then went home, little
knowing how much good that shilling Bible was to do.
When he was gone the lady at whose house he had been staying said to
herself:
"How strange it is that an intelligent gentleman like my friend could
not bear to go for three days without reading the Bible, while I
never read it at all, and don't know what it teaches. I am curious
to know what there is in this book to make it so attractive. I mean
to begin and read it through." She began to read it at first out of
simple curiosity. But, as she went on reading she became deeply
interested in it. It showed her what a sinner she was in living
without God in the world. It led her to pray earnestly for the pardon
of her sins; and the end of it was that she became a Christian. Then
she desired that her children should know and love the Saviour too.
She prayed for them. She talked with them, and taught them the
precious truths contained in that blessed book. And the result was
that, one by one, they were all led to Jesus and became Christians.
And so _that whole family were saved by means of that shilling
Bible_.
When that gentleman asked for the use of a Bible in the house where
he was visiting, he was setting a good example. He was putting his
candle on a candlestick and letting it shine. And the result that
followed gives us a good illustration of the meaning of our Saviour's
words when he said:--"Let your light so shine before men, that they
may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven."
And so, when we remember the parables that Jesus taught, among other
things illustrated by them, we can think of these,--_the value of
religion;--Christ's love for sinners;--the duty of kindness;--the
duty of forgiveness;--the influence of a good example_.
I know not how to finish this subject better than in the words of the
hymn:
"Father of mercies! in thy word,
What endless glory shines!
Forever be thy name adored
For these celestial lines.
O, may these heavenly pages be
My ever dear delight;
And still new beauties may I see,
And still increasing light."