Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 July 1891 — Forgiveness. [ARTICLE]

Forgiveness.

Texas Siftings. There is no bravery like that involved i» the forgiveness of injuries. ■The man who forgives has two victories—one over himself, one over the person who has injured him. Men are not slow to appreciate and to applaud virtues they are not so ready tp imitate. They will understand that the sublimest human act is that of forgiveness. But to appreciate a noble act is a great deal easier than to perform one precisely like it, just as it is comparatively easy to look upon the sublime heights of a mountain; but it requires a powerful,longcontinued effort to reach and stand upon those heights. The man of meanest capacity makes himself more than the peer of the man of the loftiest capacity, if he forgives him. He who revenges an injury makes himself the inferior, not only of his enemy, but of all other's, because he has stooped to a base act. Revenge is generally disproportionately severe, even if a man’s judgment is taken as a standard, and he who practices it has laid up for himself a long harvest of regret and remorse, while the man who forgives is at peace with himself and all the world, and has transformed his enemy into a friend.