When Jesus said： “Love your enemies”， He was also telling ushow to improve our looks. I know women—and so do you—whosefaces have been wrinkled and hardened by hate and disfiguredby resentment. All the beauty treatments in Christendomwon’t improve their looks half so much as would a heart full offorgiveness， tenderness， and love.
Hatred destroys our ability to enjoy even our food. The Bibleputs it this way “Better is a dinner of herbs where love is， than astalled ox and hatred therewith.”
Wouldn’t our enemies rub their hands with glee if they knewthat our hate for them was exhausting us， making us tired andnervous， ruining our looks， giving us heart trouble， and probablyshortening our lives?
Even if we can’t love our enemies， let’s at least love ourselves.
Let’s love ourselves so much that we won’t permit our enemies tocontrol our happiness， our health and our looks. As Shakespeareput it：
Heat not a furnace for your foe so hotThat it do singe yourself.
When Jesus said that we should forgive our enemies “seventytimes seven”， He was also preaching sound business. Forexample， I have before me as I write a letter I received fromGeorge Rona， Fradegata’n 24， Uppsala， Sweden. For years，George Rona was an attorney in Vienna; but during the SecondWorld War， he fled to Sweden. He had no money， needed workbadly. Since he could speak and write several languages， he hopedto get a position as correspondent for some firm engaged inimporting or exporting. Most of the firms replied that they had no need of such services because of the war， but they would keep hisname on file … and so on. One man， however， wrote George Ronaa letter saying： “What you imagine about my business is not true.
You are both wrong and foolish. I do not need any correspondent.
Even if I did need one， I wouldn’t hire you because you can’t evenwrite good Swedish. Your letter is full of mistakes.”
When George Rona read that letter， he was as mad as DonaldDuck. What did this Swede mean by telling him he couldn’twrite the language！ Why， the letter that this Swede himself hadwritten was full of mistakes！ So George Rona wrote a letter thatwas calculated to burn this man up. Then he paused. He saidto himself： “Wait a minute， now. How do I know this man isn’tright? I have studied Swedish， but it’s not my native language， somaybe I do make mistakes I don’t know anything about. If I do，then I certainly have to study harder if I ever hope to get a job.
This man has possibly done me a favour， even though he didn’tmean to. The mere fact that he expressed himself in disagreeableterms doesn’t alter my debt to him. Therefore， I am going to writehim and thank him for what he has done.”
So George Rona tore up the scorching letter he had alreadywritten， and wrote another that said： “It was kind of you to go tothe trouble of writing to me， especially when you do not need acorrespondent. I am sorry I was mistaken about your firm. Thereason that I wrote you was that I made inquiry and your namewas given me as a leader in your field. I did not know I had madegrammatical errors in my letter. I am sorry and ashamed ofmyself. I will now apply myself more diligently to the study of theSwedish language and try to correct my mistakes. I want to thankyou for helping me get started on the road to self-improvement.”
Within a few days， George Rona got a letter from this man，asking Rona to come to see him. Rona went—and got a job.
George Rona discovered for himself that “a soft answer turnethaway wrath.”
We may not be saintly enough to love our enemies， but， forthe sake of our own health and happiness， let’s at least forgivethem and forget them. That is the smart thing to do. I once askedGeneral Eisenhower’s son， John， if his father ever nourishedresentments.“No，” he replied， “Dad never wastes a minutethinking about people he doesn’t like.”
There is an old saying that a man is a fool who can’t be angry，but a man is wise who won’t be angry.
That was the policy of William J. Gaynor， former Mayor ofNew York. Bitterly denounced by the yellow press， he was shot bya maniac and almost killed. As he lay in the hospital， fighting forhis life， he said： “Every night， I forgive everything and everybody.”
Is that too idealistic? Too much sweetness and light? If so， let’sturn for counsel to the great German philosopher， Schopenhauer，author of Studies in Pessimism. He regarded life as a futile andpainful adventure. Gloom dripped from him as he walked; yet outof the depths of his despair， Schopenhauer cried： “If possible， noanimosity should be felt for anyone.”
I once asked Bernard Baruch—the man who was the trustedadviser to six Presidents： Wilson， Harding， Coolidge， Hoover，Roosevelt， and Truman—whether he was ever disturbed by theattacks of his enemies. “No man can humiliate me or disturb me，”
he replied. “I won’t let him.”
No one can humiliate or disturb you and me， either—unlesswe let him.
Sticks and stones may break my bones，But words can never hurt me.
“Throughout the ages mankind has burned its candles beforethose Christlike individuals who bore no malice against their enemies. I have often stood in the Jasper National Park， inCanada， and gazed upon one of the most beautiful mountainsin the Western world—a mountain named in honour of EdithCavell， the British nurse who went to her death like a saint beforea German firing squad on October 12， 1915. Her crime? She hadhidden and fed and nursed wounded French and English soldiersin her Belgian home， and had helped them escape into Holland.