---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 3
number: 5
published: 1900-03
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Forgiveness," *Improvement Era* 3, no. 5 (March 1900): 362.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera35unse
  transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers.
  identifier: improvementera35unse
start_page: 362
end_page: 362
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1900-03)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera35unse
  publication_year: 1900
  note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1900, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# Forgiveness

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FORGIVENESS.

 To forgive a man in any circumstances costs us nothing. Say that he has defrauded me, injured my reputation, attempted my life; and suppose such an enemy in my power, what does it cost me to forgive him? Let us see: — To reduce him to poverty, would make me no richer; to destroy his peace, would not restore my own; to hurt him, would not heal me; or to cast a blot on his reputation, would restore no lustre to my name; to take his life, saying, "nothing smells so sweet as the dead body of an enemy," would not insure me against the stroke of death, nor lengthen my life by a single hour.

 It is a happy memory that remembers kindness and forgets offenses. It is far more noble to conquer one's passion, than to crush a foe; and sweeter than gratified revenge, are his feelings, who, when his enemy hungers, feeds him; when he thirsts, gives him drink. In so doing, man exhibits somewhat of the nature, and tastes something of the happiness, of God.