The Claims of Mercy

By Robert R. Meyers

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     I read a touching story in the David Lipscomb College bulletin some months ago. A boy who attended most of his four years of college was obviously going to be unable to complete the required work before he died of a fatal disease. It had long been his fondest dream to earn a degree from Lipscomb.

     The president and dean huddled and decided to award the degree to the boy anyway. They explained that although he had not fulfilled the letter of the law, he had certainly done so in spirit. So they gave the young man his diploma.

     It would be a hard man indeed who would contend that they did the wrong thing and were weakening the whole structure of the college. The boy wanted desperately to finish his work, he intended to do so to the best of his ability, and he was kept from it only by circumstances beyond his control. In spirit, he had met all the requirements.

     I could not help being struck by the disparity between this clear and compassionate reasoning and the religious outlook which many of us have. It is hard for us to understand that millions of men are prohibited by various kinds of circumstances from arriving at either our mea-

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sure of knowledge or our degree of obedience to God. If we could understand this, we would not be afraid to say that such men will be judged by God in terms of what was in their heart, and the extent to which heredity, environment, health and opportunities conspired to keep them from what we would consider a perfect obedience. It would not be necessary to be quite so nervous--even neurotic--about the awesome masses of unbaptized men.

     A young minister of my acquaintance is struggling with a severe case of ulcers and a strange concept of God. He says, "If I were on my way to be baptized, I would drive very carefully so as to avoid having a wreck, for if I got killed on the way I could not be saved." With such a view of God, the ulcers are understandable. The insecurity and tension in such a man must be all but unbearable. He worships a stern Deity for whom only the perfect fulfillment of the letter of the law counts. He fears that if circumstances keep him from literal obedience, his God will make no exception. The motives of his spirit will not be sufficient.

     The Lipscomb authorities did the compassionate and merciful thing. And all of us may thank God that His servants are not better than He is. He, too, recognizes the claims of mercy. He, too, will know how many men in all times and places have been kept by various kinds of circumstances from fulfilling the letter of his law. And some of us who are not at all surprised by the gracious Lipscomb action will doubtless be greatly amazed on Graduation Day to see many folk get their diplomas whom we had long ago dismissed as having no chance at it.

     (Editor's Note: Bro. Meyers was for five years a Professor in the English Department at Harding College and is now at Friends University in Wichita, Kansas. He can be addressed at 867 Spaulding Avenue, in that city).