Editorial June 27, 1959 Issue

THE FULLNESS OF CHRISTIAN FORGIVENESS

Helen Wood Bauman

Full forgiveness is an ideal of the true Christian. Like a bright thread, forgiveness runs through the record of those Old Testament characters who prefigured the coming of Christianity and advanced the true idea of worship. One notes the forgiving spirit in Abram's dealings with selfish Lot. This kindliness found further expression two generations later when Jacob and Esau settled their differences in a spirit of forgiveness. Jacob could say to his brother (Gen. 33:10), "I have seen thy face, as though I had seen the face of God, and thou wast pleased with me."

And Esau graciously accepted a gift from Jacob.

Few Scriptural incidents are more moving than those of Joseph forgiving his brethren, caring for their needs in time of famine, and providing security for them. Instead of retaliating for their crime of selling him into slavery, he said to his brothers (Gen. 45:5), "Be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life."

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