asked, "Is there anything more you want to tell me?" Then she went out and left you, with that lie, your first lie, to be your companion. Do you remember how that lie stood like a ghostly fear at the foot of your little trundle-bed? How terror arched black and sable wings above your pillow? How you tossed to and fro, until at last, broken by your mother's love, you sprang up, felt your way through the dark hall, opened the door, flung yourself into your mother's arms, sobbed out your confession, and was forgiven, utterly and squarely and forever forgiven? Don't analyze your mother's forgiveness—accept it and be healed thereby. Redemption is a passion flower, crimsoned with the blood of God's heart. Don't pick this passion flower to pieces, lest you lose it. The roots of God's tree of life are fed with red rain, but the leaves of that tree, and the blossoms, heal the wounds of sinners.—N. D. Hillis.
(1133)
Mr. H. J. Whigam, a war correspondent during the Boxer troubles, tells the following incident:
A Christian Chinaman was shot by a Cossack,
and, as he lay on his dying bed, a squad
of Cossacks was marched up before him that
he might identify the murderer. "I am
dying," he said. "What does it matter?"
"But," said the officer, "we are not going to
kill your assailant. We are only going to
punish him, so that he shall not kill any
more of your people." The dying Chinaman
opened his weary eyes and made answer:
"When he knows that I have forgiven him,
he will not kill again."
(1134)
John H. De Forest, in his book, "Sunrise in the Sunrise Kingdom," says that the relation of lord and retainer is the main controlling principle that has shaped the destiny of Japan. It is natural that ideal lords should have ideal retainers whose lives were devoted to their masters. He says occasionally this devotion took the form of rebuking the lord for some unworthy act, even when the advice would bring death to the faithful servant.
For example, an aged retainer of a young
Shogun saw with deep anxiety his youthful
lord's frivolous life, his love of games and
dances and flowers, and determined to arouse
him to his duties as a ruler. So going to
the palace, he noticed a most exquisite
dwarfed cherry-tree in full blossom in a
splendid flower-pot. He rather bluntly
asked his lord to give him the cherry-tree.
On being refused he seized the pot and
dashed it, flowers and all, on the stone steps,
saying: "You care more for things than for
men." He expected death, but his lord saw
the earnest purpose of his servant and repenting
of his own frivolous life, forgave
him.
(1135)
FORGIVENESS, CONDITIONS OF
Lorenzo de Medici made confession to
Savonarola, on his death-bed, of three special
sins, involving plunder done by him to
Florence and its citizens. While he confest,
Savonarola consoled him by repeating,
"God is merciful." When Lorenzo had
finished, he demanded three things of him
before absolution could be given. First, that
he should have a living faith in God's mercy.
Lorenzo replied that he had such a faith.
Second, that he should restore what he had
unjustly acquired. Lorenzo, after hesitating,
consented. Then Savonarola drew himself
up and said, "Give Florence back her liberties."
Lorenzo turned his face to the wall
and uttered not a word, and Savonarola left
the room without granting the absolution
desired. (Text.)
(1136)
Forgiveness of Sin—See Sin Consciousness.
FORGIVENESS, TIMELY
That we should forgive the faults of friends while they are in the flesh and can appreciate it is the lesson taught by Mrs. Marion Hutson in this verse:
Somewhere in the future, my lone grave
Will lie where flowers bloom and mosses wave,
And friends will stand beside it, speaking low
Of things I said and did so long ago.
My faults and follies all forgotten—dead—
And buried with me in my lowly bed.
Oh, loved ones! why not bury them to-day,
And let me feel forgiven while I may.
<poem>
(1137)
FORM VERSUS REALITY
During the Civil War the late Colonel
Bouck organized a regiment, says Everybody's Magazine, which he controlled as a
dictator. It was while the army was resting
after the colonel's first campaign that an
itinerant evangelist wandered into camp and,
