Chap. I.]

FORGIVENESS OF INJURIES.

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is not overcome of evil, but seeks to overcome evil with good.Which is rewarded with real pleasure, the spirit of resentmentand retaliation, or that of forgiveness and good-will ? While theone, like the deep fires of a volcano, burns and rages within, theother is inspired with calmness, serenity, and satisfaction of mind.

On the one side, we see an individual who has been injured.He is devising a way by which he can retaliate ; his mind isroused by resentment, and, by some return of evil, he is seekingsatisfaction. On the other side, we see another individual, towhom an equal injury has been done ; but he, in the spirit of for-giveness and good-will, is meditating how he can benefit the manwho has injured him. Which is the more to be envied in theevent of success ? I need not advert to the case of him, who,haggard in countenance, tortured in heart, and stricken in con-science, has satiated his burning vengeance by the assassinationof his victim. I need not call to mind the case of the victoriousduellist who has laid his antagonist low in the dust; nor the caseof him, who, by any overwhelming stroke of retaliation, has suc-ceeded in inflicting ruin on his enemy. In these cases, the mis-ery of success is too manifest to need remark. Observe himwho is intent on retaliation in any of the more common ways, bywhich injury is returned, by evil insinuation, by the whisper ofdetraction, by dark surmises, or by public abuse and the viru-lence of invective ; observe him, looking upon the object of hisresentment under the consciousness, that he has triumphed, thathe has tarnished his reputation and blasted his hopes for the fu-ture ; can we believe that the peace of Heaven attends his suc-cess ? On the other hand, observe him, who, by returning goodfor evil, has disarmed and overcome the aggressor, and, frombeing his enemy, has made him his friend. Does he not, musthe not, from the constitution of his nature, enjoy a peace andtranquillity of mind, an inward satisfaction, to which the other isa stranger ? The rule of forgiveness, then, is adapted to themoral constitution of man.

Nor is the argument derived from the effect which the malig-nant passions exert upon the health and the physical constitutionof man generally, without great weight. In this respect, also,the rule of the Gospel is admirably suited to the nature of man.