“And now, I’ll play you a tune to make you merry!” There was real Christian forgiveness.

“The Power of the Gospel.”  Years ago some carpenters moved to the Island of New Zealand, and set up a shop for carrying on their business.  They were engaged to build a chapel at one of the Mission Stations.  One of these carpenters, a pleasant, kind-hearted man, engaged a native Christian to dig his garden for him.  When the work was done the man went to the shop for his pay.  Another of the carpenters there, who was a very ill-tempered man, told the native to get out of the shop.  “Don’t be angry,” was the gentle reply; “I have only come to have a little talk with your partner, and to get my wages from him.”  “But I am angry.”  And then taking hold of the New Zealander by the shoulder, he abused and kicked him in the most cruel manner.

The native made no resistance till the carpenter ceased.  Then he jumped up, seized him by the throat, and snatching a small axe from the bench, flourished it threateningly over his head.  “Now, you see,” said he, “your life is in my hand.  You see my arm is strong enough to kill you; and my arm is quite willing, but my heart is not.  I have heard the missionaries preach the gospel of forgiveness.  You owe your life to the preaching of the gospel.  If my heart was as dark now as it was before the gospel was preached here, I should strike off your head in an instant!”

Then he released the carpenter without injuring him and accepted from him a blanket as an apology for the insult.  How faithfully this man was practising the duty of forgiveness which Jesus taught!

The only other thing of which we shall now speak, as taught by our Saviour in the parables, is—­THE INFLUENCE OF GOOD EXAMPLE.

The parable which teaches this lesson is that of the lighted candle.  It is one of the shortest of our Lord’s parables, and yet the truth it teaches is very important.  We first find this parable in the sermon on the mount.  These are the words in which it is given:  “Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.  Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”  Matt, v:  15.  This parable is so important that we find it repeated in three other places.  Mark iv:  21, Luke viii:  16, and xi:  33.

We find the same idea taught by one of England’s greatest writers.  Looking at a candle shining through a window, he says: 

    “How far yon little candle throws its beam! 
    So shines a good deed in a naughty world.”

And the lesson we are here taught is that we should always set a good example by doing what we know to be right, and then, like a candle shining in a dark place, we shall be useful wherever we go.  Let us look at one or two incidents that illustrate this.