FORGIVING

Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.

—Philippians 4:5

1764 Inability To Think

In a recent chapel service bulletin from Chaplain Wendell C. Hawley, comes a classic illustration of forgiveness. When the Moravian missionaries first went to the Eskimos, they could not find a word in their language for forgiveness, so they had to compound one. This turned out to be: Issumagijoujungnainermik. It is a formidable-looking assembly of letters, but an expression that has a beautiful connotation for those who understand it. It means: “Not-being-able-to-think-about-it-anymore.”

—Minister’s Research Service

1765 Trampled Fragrance

A little boy, being asked what forgiveness is, gave the beautiful answer: “It is the odor that flowers breathe when they are trampled upon.”

1766 Maskepetoon The Indian Chief

One evening Maskepetoon was deeply moved by the missionary’s address on our Lord’s dying prayer, “Father, forgive Maskepetoon, the most powerful chief of his tribe of North American Indians.” This chief reveled in cunning ambuscades, midnight attacks, and all that goes to make savage warfare.

But the Gospel Herald once carried the following story of his conversion under the early Methodist missionaries:

One evening Maskepetoon was deeply moved by the missionary’s address on our Lord’s dying prayer, “Father, forgive them.” The next day a band of Indians was approaching, in which was the man who had murdered Maskepetoon’s only son. His son, sent into a secluded valley, had never returned; and the son’s companion said that he had fallen over a precipice, though in fact he had murdered him. Unknown to the murderer, the tragedy had been witnessed by some Indians who later rep rted it to the bereaved chief.

When the two bands were within a few hundred yards of each other, the eagle eye of the old chief detected the murderer, and, drawing his tomahawk from his belt, he rode up till he was face to face with the man who had murdered his son.

Maskepetoon, with a voice tremulous with suppressed feeling, yet with an admirable command over himself looking the man full in the eyes said: “You deserve to die. I sent him with you, his trusted companion. You betrayed my trust and cruelly killed my only son! You have done me and my tribe the greatest injury that is possible. You deserve to die; but for what I heard from the missionary at the camp fire last night, I would already have buried this tomahawk in your brains! The missionary told us that, if we expected the Great Spirit to forgive, we must forgive the greatest wrong.

“You have been my worst enemy, and deserve to die!” With deep emotion he continued, “As I hope the Great Spirit will forgive me, I forgive you.” Then, hastily pulling his war bonnet over his face, Maskepetoon bowed down over his horse’s neck and gave way to an agony of tears.

For years Maskepetoon lived a devoted Christian life. He preached to others. And after influencing many of his own tribe to turn from killing their enemies, the Blackfeet, he gave them no other weapon but the “Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.”

But a bloodthirsty chief of that vindictive tribe, remembering some of their fierce conflicts of other days, and, perhaps, having lost by Maskepetoon’s own prowess some of his relatives in those conflicts, seized his gun, and, in defiance of all rules of humanity, coolly shot down the converted chieftain.

Who can say that forgiveness is not a costly thing? Maskepetoon suffered a broken heart to forgive the murderer of his son. Then it cost him his life to forgive his enemies, to go to them unarmed and preach to them forgiveness of sin.

—Prairie Overcomer

1767 Success On “The Last Supper”

Leonardo da Vinci was one of the outstanding intellects of all history, for he was great as a draftsman, an engineer, and a thinker. Just before he commenced work on his “Last Supper” he had a violent quarrel with a fellow painter. So enraged and bitter was Leonardo that he determined to paint the face of his enemy, the other artist, into the face of Judas, and thus take his revenge and vent his spleen by handling the man down in infamy and scorn to succeeding generations. The face of Judas was therefore one of the first that he finished, and everyone could easily recognize it as the face of the painter with whom he had quarreled.

But when he came to paint the face of Christ, he could make no progress. Something seemed to be baffling him, holding him back, frustrating his best efforts. At length he came to the conclusion that the thing which was checking and frustrating him was the fact that he had painted his enemy into the face of Judas. He therefore painted out the face of Judas and commenced anew on the face of Jesus, and this time with the success which the ages have acclaimed.

You cannot at one and the same time be painting the features of Christ into your own life, and painting another face with the colors of enmity and hatred.

—C. E. Macartney

1768 Saved By His “Worse Enemy”

During the Revolutionary War there lived in Pennsylvania a pastor by the name of Peter Miller. Although Miller was greatly loved by everyone in the community, there was one man who lived near the church who hated him and had earned an unenviable reputation for his abuse of the minister. This man was not only a hater of the church, but it also turned out that he was a traitor to his country, and was convicted of treason and sentenced to death.

The trial was conducted in Philadelphia, and no sooner did Miller hear of it than he set out on foot to visit General Washington and interceded for the man’s life. But Washington told him, “I’m sorry that I cannot grant your request for your friend.”

“Friend!” Miller cried. “Why, that man is the worst enemy I have in the world!”

“What?” the general exclaimed in surprise. “Have you walked sixty miles to save the life of an enemy? That, in my judgment, puts the matter in a different light. I will grant him a pardon for your sake.”

The pardon was made out and signed by General Washington, and Miller proceeded at once on foot to a place fifteen miles distant where the execution was scheduled to take place that afternoon. He arrived just as the man was being carried to the scaffold, and when he saw Miller hurrying toward the place, remarked, “There is old Peter Miller. He has walked all the way from Ephrata to have his revenge gratified today by seeing me hung.” But scarcely had he spoken the words when Miller pushed his way through to the condemned man and handed him the pardon that saved his life.

—Bible School Journal

1769 Feast For Enemies

In the year 1818, Tamatoe, King of Huahine, one of the South Sea Islands, became a Christian. He discovered a plot among his fellow natives to seize him and other converts and burn them to death. He organized a band to attack the plotters, captured them unawares and then set a feast before them. This unexpected kindness surprised the savages, who burned their idols and became Christians.

—James Hastings

1770 John Selwyn’s Namesake

John Selwyn, who became the Bishop of the South Pacific, was renowned for his boxing skill in his university days. On a certain occasion he had to utter grave words of rebuke and warning to a professed convert. The man removed from savagery only by a generation or two, struck the Bishop a violent blow on the face with his clenched fist.

All Selwyn did in return was to fold his arms and look into his face. With his powerful arm and massive fist he could have easily knocked him down, but instead he waited calmly for another blow. It was too much for his assailant; he was ashamed and fled into the jungle.

Years afterward the Bishop came home seriously ill. One day the man who had struck him came to his successor to confess Christ in baptism. Convinced of the genuineness of his conversion, he was asked what new name he desired to take as a Christian. “Call me John Selwyn,” he replied, “for it was he who taught me what Jesus Christ is like.”

—Southport Methodist

1771 At Home With Son’s Killer

During the Korean war, a South Korean Christian, a civilian, was arrested by the communists and ordered shot. But when the young communist leader learned that the prisoner was in charge of an orphanage caring for small children, he decided to spare him and kill his son instead. So they shot the nineteen-year-old boy in the presence of his father.

Later the fortunes of war changed, and the young communist leader was captured by the United Nations forces, tried, and condemned to death. But before the sentence could be carried out, the Christian whose boy had been killed pleaded for the life of the killer. He declared that he was young, that he really did not know what he was doing. “Give him to me,” said the father, “and I’ll train him.”

The United Nations forces granted the request, and that father took the murderer of his boy into his own home and cared for him. Today the young communist is a Christian pastor.

—T. Roland Philips

1772 Caring For Family’s Killer

In 1946, Czeslaw Godlewski was a member of a young gang that roamed and sacked the German countryside. On an isolated farm they gunned down ten members of the Wilhelm Hamelmann family. Nine of the victims died, but Hamelmann himself survived his four bullet wounds.

Godlewski recently completed a twenty-year prison term for his crimes, but the state would not release him because he had nowhere to go. When Hamelmann learned of the situation, he asked the authorities to release Godlewski to his custody. He wrote in his request, “Christ died for my sins and forgave me. Should I not then forgive this man?”

—Gospel Herald

1773 Nixon Granted Full Pardon

Washington, Sept. 9 (AP)—President Ford granted Richard M. Nixon “a free, full and absolute pardon” for any criminal conduct during his presidency and Nixon responded with a statement of remorse at “my mistakes over Watergate.”

Announcing the pardon at a surprise appearance before newsmen and photographers, Ford said, “I feel that Richard Nixon and his loved ones have suffered enough.”

He said, “My conscience tells me clearly and certainly that I cannot prolong the bad dreams that continue to reopen a chapter that is closed. My conscience tells me that only I, as President, have the constitutional power to firmly shut and seal this book.”

1774 Niemoller’s Discovery

After languishing for months in Hitler’s prison Martin Niemoller emerged saying, “It took me a long time to learn that God is not the enemy of His enemies!”

1775 No Room For Injuries

King Henry VI of England had it said of him: “He never forgot anything but injuries.” Of Cranmer it was said: “If you want to get a favor from him, do him a wrong.” Emerson said of Lincoln: “His heart was as great as the world, but there was no room in it for the memory of a wrong.” Spurgeon gives this advice: “Cultivate forbearance till your heart yields a fine crop of it. Pray for a short memory as to unkindness.”

—Rev. David L. Currens

1776 The Best Gift

The best thing to give to your enemy is forgiveness; to an opponent, tolerance; to a friend, your heart; to your child, a good example; to a father, deference; to your mother, conduct that will make her proud of you; to yourself, respect; to all men, charity.

—Lord Balfour

1777 Epigram On Forgiving

•     The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because they are generally the same people.

•     Speak well of your enemies; remember you made them.

•     You may have noticed that every enemy you made has ten friends. And every friend you made has ten more friends!

•     The greatest conqueror is he who overcomes the enemy without a blow.

—Chinese Proverb

•     “A Christian is not perfect; he is FORGIVEN.”

—Car Bumper Sticker

See also: Love ; Kindness .