World Affairs Institute

FORGIVENESS AND THE LOVE OF OUR ENEMIESAuthor(s): THOMAS C. UPHAMSource: Advocate of Peace (1847-1884), New Series, Vol. 2, No. 21 (SEPTEMBER 15, 1870), p. 278Published by: World Affairs InstituteStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27904782 .

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278 THE ADVOCATE OF PEACE. Sept., 1870.

Tor the Advocate of Peace.

FORGIVENESS AND THE LOVE OF OUR ENEMIES.

BY PROP. THOMAS C. TJPHAM.

" I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that deepitefully use you and persecute you." Matt. v. 44,

Such is the true Christian doctrine. It stands out clear and emphatic as a part of the announcements of the great Teacher. Man is required, as the result and the evidence of his highest spiritual development, to forgive injuries, to love his enemies, to do good for eviL We are sometimes told, that the doctrine of forgiveness

and of love, extending so far as to embrace our enemies, though not destitute of the beauty which attaches to

mere sentimentalism, is not in accordance with the dictates of sound reason, and is therefore a doctrine without a phi losophical foundation. In other terms, but essentially equivalent in meaning, these persons affirm that this glori ous doctrine will be found wanting in those characteristics of justice and permanency, which necessarily inhere in all Absolute Religion.

But the teachings of Christ cannot justly be made the

subject of such criticisms as these. Christ, in uttering these sublime precepts, did not merely utter a command which claimed obedience on the ground of its being uttered alone; but one which harmonized with moral principles, and carried with it the authority of justice. The view which we take of the subject is this: The doctrine of

forgiveness and love, carried to the extent of embracing our enemies, is addressed to Christians, to those who are

supposed to understand the precepts and to possess the

spirit of Christ ; to those who are developed under the lead ings of the Holy Spirit from the restrictions and exclusive ness of self-hood to what may be called perhaps universal hood or that state of mind which loves our neighbor as our selves. Now in this high position to which Christ aimed to bring humanity, and to which, in his foresight of the future, h? knew they would ultimately be brought, it might still remain a question, whether the great command to love our neighbor as ourselves, necessarily implies and requires that we should love our enemies and return good for evil. But Christ, who more than all others and above all others, is the great Teacher, and who sees things in their founda tions and their absolute relations, does not allow us to stop here. In other words, he does not allow our enemies and those who injure us, to be exceptions to the universality of the law of love.

Our neighbor, as he exists in the mind of Christ, is not

only one who is discriminated by the outward incidents of a different name, or tribe, or nation or language, but who is still more deeply and essentially separated by inward and

personal hostility. His design, therefore in bringing men to a true celestial life, is to raise humanity to the high po sition of loving even such men, a position which the wisdom and practice of heathenism, even in the advanced forms of Greek and Roman civilization, neither realized nor con ceived. And in support of a doctrine so repugnant to the

prevalent tendency of human thought, he brings one grand argument. The import of his language is this: In en

joining upon you the precept of love to your enemies, I set before you the example of your heavenly Father, who, in

bidding his sun to arise and his rains to descend, on the evil and the good, establishes a principle which finds its.

justification in infinite wisdom, and which therefore it is both wisdom and duty to follow. In taking God for your example, who cannot possibly mistake in the manifestations

of his character and acts, the path which you follow is nec

essarily one of truth, righteousness, and goodness. And this is not all. It is one characteristic of the his

tory of Christ, that he illustrates in his own life the practi cal principles which he lays down for the guidance of men.

Nothing can exceed the illustration of forgiveness and love to enemies, which he gave upon the cross. He not only forgave and prayed for his enemies, who were slaying him with a cruel death ; but he sustained his prayer by assign ing a reason, which places the sublime precepts in question upon the immutable foundations of right and justice. " Father, forgive them ; for they know not what they do" This, then, is the philosophical doctrine in this case,

which was first specifically and decisively announced by Christ upon the cross, that enmity to goodness is necessarily born of ignorance ; and that if we are truly good ourselves, as all Christians are required to be, and without which in our destitution of the requisites of a true judgment, we have no authority to judge and condemn others, then we may be sure that those who pursue us with their hostility do not understand us. Prejudice, which is born of ignorance, has blinded them. The Eoman soldiers, who insulted Christ and smote him with their spears, and put him to death, did not know him. They supposed, relying upon the statements made by others, that he was a bad man, that he was a violator of the laws, that he was a traitor to his country. Had they known him,?his truth, his purity, his benevolence, his self-sacrificing spirit,? they would have done, as did other Romans in later days ; and instead of

putting him to death, would have been willing to die with him.

Obviously, then, our first duty is to be good and true ourselves ; to be filled with all kind and loving principles acd feelings ; in a word to be like God. And standing on this vantage-ground of purity and love, it is equally obvi ous, in case of inimical and injurious attacks, that we must be patient and must return good for evil, not only because we are commanded to do so, but because we find the com

mand harmonizing with the claims of immutable reason. The attacks of those, who bear the name of enemies, and from which we greatly suffer, are not made against ourselves, but against the fictions of their own misled and perverted imaginations. Estimated in the light of a sound reason, our enemies, in their attacks upon us, need to be pitied ; and not to be attacked and smitten in return. And to re turn good for evil, when we have been the subjects of in jury, will not only be evidence of our forgiveness and pity ; but will open their eyes, as nothing else can do, to the true state of things, and will lead them to penitence, reconcilia tion, and enduring peace.

And those principles, which are thus applicable to indi viduals, are applicable also to nations. A nation is a con

gregated man. A nation is humanity embodied ; but hu

manity is not deprived, in consequence of its taking a na tional embodiment and form of the essential principles which constitute its nature, and which establish its obliga tions. Let nations, then, aim to reach the height which is prescribed to individuals, and return good for evil. And from that moment, the eyes of hostile nations being opened to the glory of goodness, the Millennium, so long seen in the distance, will cease to be prophecy, and will take its place in history.

Bishop Watson says, that " war has principles and prac tices peculiar to itself, which but ill quadrate with the rules

of moral rectitude, and are quite abhorrent from the benignity of Christianity."

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