416 / Christianity and War

"left us an example that we should follow his steps." The ungodly cannot love their enemies, neither can they follow Christ's steps; but to love their enemies is the characteristic of all true Christians. The next command in the verse under consideration is: "Bless them that curse you." But how, some one may say, can we bless them that curse us? I answer; just as Jacob blessed his angry brother Esau, when on his journey, returning to his father-land, he heard that Esau was coming to meet him with 400 men; and fearing that Esau intended to do him harm, he prepared a great gift and sent it to Esau: and as he approached him, Jacob bowed down before him to the ground seven times; "and Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him; and they wept." And Esau said to Jacob, "What meanest thou by all this drove which I met? And he said, these are to find grace in the sight of my Lord;" but Esau declined to take the gift. But Jacob said, "Take, I pray thee, my blessing that is brought to thee."-Thus Jacob blessed his brother with a gift, and by so doing, heaped coals of fire on his head, which so melted him that he became as a lamb before his brother. Thus we must overcome evil with good.-Thus Joseph also blessed his brethren who had sold him into Egypt.-Peter says: "Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing, but contrariwise, a blessing."

The next command in the verse is: "Do good to them that hate you." The apostle Paul bids us to "Do good unto all men," which includes those also that hate us. It is wicked to hate any one, therefore Christians should not be like those that hate them; but contrariwise, do them good-do good to their souls. Do them good in any, and in every way they can.-In this way we may appease and overcome their hatred towards them, but to hate them likewise in return, and do them all the evil they can besides; but this is contrary to the teachings of Christ-contrary to the spirit of the Gospel, and in direct opposition to the example of Christ, for in this also Christ "left us an example that we should follow his steps."

We must also pray for those who "despitefully use us, and persecute us." Now, no man can pray in sincerity for his persecutors, while at the same time he is aiming to take their lives; such a prayer is an open mockery in the sight of God. Stephen, the first Christian martyr, when his persecutors were stoning him to death, kneeled down and cried with a loud voice, saying: "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.''-Christ in his bitterest agony on the cross, cried: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do," thus in this also "leaving us an example, that we should follow his steps."

These foregoing commandments we must fulfill that we may be the "children of our Father which is in heaven," and in doing, and fulfilling these commandments we prove, and make it manifest that we are God's children: "And if children, then heirs; heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ." Rom. 8:11. But on the other hand, those who hate their enemies, curse those that curse them, do evil to those that hate them, and pray not for those that despitefully use and persecute them; prove, and make it manifest, that they are the children of their father the devil; as Christ said to those disobedient Jews: "And the lusts of your father ye will do; he was a murderer from the beginning." Jn. 8:44. When Christ sent messengers before his face, and they entered into a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him, and the