When George Rona read that letter，he was as mad as Donald Duck.What did this Swede mean by telling him he couldn’t write the language！Why，the letter that this Swede himself had written was full of mistakes！So George Rona wrote a letter that was calculated to burn this man up.Then he paused.He said to himself：“Wait a minute，now.How do I know this man isn’t right？I have studied Swedish，but it’s not my native language，so maybe 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’t mean to.The mere fact that he expressed himself in disagreeable terms doesn’t alter my debt to him.Therefore，I am going to write him and thank him for what he has done.”
So George Rona tore up the scorching letter he had already written，and wrote another that said：“It was kind of you to go to the trouble of writing to me，especially when you do not need a correspondent.I am sorry I was mistaken about your firm.The reason that I wrote you was that I made inquiry and your name was given me as a leader in your field.I did not know I had made grammatical errors in my letter.I am sorry and ashamed of myself.I will now apply myself more diligently to the study of the Swedish language and try to correct my mistakes.I want to thank you 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 turneth away wrath.”
We may not be saintly enough to love our enemies，but，for the sake of our own health and happiness，let’s at least forgive them and forget them.That is the smart thing to do.I once asked General Eisenhower’s son，John，if his father ever nourished resentments.“No，”he replied，“Dad never wastes a minute thinking 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 of New York.Bitterly denounced by the yellow press，he was shot by a maniac and almost killed.As he lay in the hospital，fighting for his life，he said：“Every night，I forgive everything and everybody.”Is that too idealistic？Too much sweetness and light？If so，let’s turn for counsel to the great German philosopher，Schopenhauer，author of Studies in Pessimism.He regarded life as a futile and painful adventure.Gloom dripped from him as he walked；yet out of the depths of his despair，Schopenhauer cried：“If possible，no animosity should be felt for anyone.”
I once asked Bernard Baruch—the man who was the trusted adviser to six Presidents：Wilson，Harding，Coolidge，Hoover，Roosevelt，and Truman—whether he was ever disturbed by the attacks 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—unless we 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 theirenemies.I have often stood in the Jasper National Park，in Canada，and gazed upon one of the most beautiful mountains in the Western world—a mountain named in honour of Edith Cavell，the British nurse who went to her death like a saint before a German firing squad on October 12，1915.Her crime？She had hidden and fed and nursed wounded French and English soldiers in her Belgian home，and had helped them escape into Holland.As the English chaplain entered her cell in the military prison in Brussels that October morning，to prepare her for death，Edith Cavell uttered two sentences that have been preserved in bronze and granite：“I realise that patriotism is not enough.I must have no hatred or bitterness toward anyone.”Four years later，her body was removed to England and memorial services were held in Westminster Abbey.Today，a granite statue stands opposite the National Portrait Gallery in London—a statue of one of England’s immortals.“I realise that patriotism is not enough.I must have no hatred or bitterness toward anyone.”
One sure way to forgive and forget our enemies is to become absorbed in some cause infinitely bigger than ourselves.Then the insults and the enmities we encounter won’t matter because we will be oblivious of everything but our cause.
As an example，let’s take an intensely dramatic event that was about to take place in the pine woods of Mississippi back in 1918.A lynching！Laurence Jones，a coloured teacher and preacher，was about to be lynched.A few years ago，I visited the school that Laurence Jones founded—the Piney Woods Country School—and I spoke before the student body.That school is nationally known today，but the incident I am going to relate occurred long before that.It occurred back in the highly emotional days of the First World War.A rumour had spread through central Mississippi that the Germans were arousing the Negroes and inciting them torebellion.Laurence Jones，the man who was about to be lynched，was，as I have already said，a Negro himself and was accused of helping to arouse his race to insurrection.A group of white men—pausing outside the church—had heard Laurence Jones shouting to his congregation：“Life is a battle in which every Negro must gird on his armour and fight to survive and succeed.”