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Poems and Short Features Joseph’s “Revenge” H ow beautiful the revenge! Joseph heaped upon his brethren unasked forgiveness and expressions of sympathy. Alas, how few Christians under similar circumstances would have been so noble! And yet Christians have much advantage every way over Joseph, in that they have been begotten of the Holy Spirit and have the instructions of the Scriptures. How beautifully Joseph represented in type Christ and His Spirit. How evidently our creeds of the Dark Ages misled us when they taught us to believe that all the Jews, the brethren of Christ, were to be eternally tormented because they had crucified Jesus instead of accepting Him and becoming His disciples!Now in the better light shining from one page to another of the Bible,God’s people are seeing that instead of Messiah’s purposing the eternal torture of the Jews, He purposes the contrary—that they shall obtain divine mercy and forgiveness. This mercy will be extended to them very shortly, after Messiah’s kingdom shall have been established, as St. Paul points out in Romans 11:25-33: “They shall obtain mercy through your mercy.” The same thought is expressed by the prophet, saying of Israel, “They shall look upon Him whom they pierced, and shall mourn for Him.” (Zechariah 12:10.) Theirs will be a mourning of true sorrow, as they shall realize the grievous wrong committed more than eighteen centuries ago. But instead of their being punished with an eternity of torture, the Lord will be gracious to them, as He declares, “And I will pour upon [them] the spirit of grace and of supplications.” —Reprints, p. 5234Mercy and Truth For one to keep the principles of truth and of righteousness before his own mind, is to be a thoroughly upright man or woman, one in whom truth, purity, goodness, will be in control. But a person who has merely these principles in control should cultivate more and more the quality of mercy. We should bind these about our neck. The thought is that of a necklace, or ornamental band. As a man puts around his neck a cravat, with a jewel in it as an ornament, placed where it will be displayed, so these qualities of character are jewels. Give them a prominent place; for they will help to make you better, help to make you more acceptable to the Lord. The preferable place for the display of a jewel is the neck. There a jewel is especially conspicuous and ornamental. So we should fasten these noble qualities of charac-ter where they will be manifest in all the affairs of life. Whether we buy or sell, or what ever we do, we should wear these ornaments. They will show what is the character of the man or woman—right on the outside, in the very front. They should be seen as we meet others. More than this, we are to write mercy and truth in our hearts. We are to remember that originally God wrote the Divine Law in Adam’s heart. We know that in the Divine heart, the Divine character, are the qualities of Truth and Mercy. God is merciful, kind and loving. And as God has these traits of character, so when He made man in His own image, His own likeness, man was created with these qualities in his character. Man was not created an unrighteous, an untruthful being. But man fell from his original perfection. With the centuries of falling and imperfection of mind and body, and with every interest pressing for self-gratification at the expense of others, these principles of mercy and truth have become largely effaced from our hearts, just as the constant dropping of water, and the general wear and tear of the weather would tend to efface the original inscription on a stone. In time one could scarcely discern the characters. So we see in mankind that some have apparently lost all sense of justice, all sense of mercy, nearly all sense of patience, gentleness, brotherly kindness and love. All these qualities that belong to the heart, as originally placed there by God, have been more or less effaced—in some more than in others. Under the terms of the New Covenant and through the ministrations of Christ’s Kingdom, God purposes to re-write upon the heart of man the original character which was in his heart,and which has been effaced by selfishness. “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a New Covenant with the House of Israel, and with the House of Judah. … I will put My Law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts” (Jeremiah 31:31-33). “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26). God’s Law is the Law of truth and mercy. Truth would include every thing righ teous, toward God and toward man. Mercy includes all the graces of character. The Millennium will be the time for the re-writing of these qualities in the character. And this work of re-writing the Divine character in the heart, which will progress in the world by and by, for a thousand years, is already begun in the Church. We write these qualities within our own hearts. We declare that we desire to have these lessons written in our hearts; and to attain this end, we submit ourselves to the great Teacher. Then, by the various providences of our lives, He shows us where we have not yet engraved these qualities within our hearts. As we pray for patience, He gives us lessons of experience that will engender this quality in our hearts, and that will strengthen it more and more. As we pray for love, He gives us tests of love. As we pray that we may develop mercy, we find more opposition, which will develop mercy. Thus God gives us opportunities for the writing of truth and mercy in our hearts. —Reprints, p. 5309
Asleep in Jesus
The Quality of Mercy
—William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice
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