November 25

Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.—LUKE vi, 36.

Wilt thou draw near the nature of the Gods?

Draw near them then in being merciful:

Sweet Mercy is Nobility's true badge.

SHAKESPEARE.

Kneel not to me:

The power that I have on you, is to spare you;

The malice toward you, to forgive you; live,

And deal with others better.

IBID.

Let not the sun go down upon thy wrath, but write thy wrongs in ashes. Draw the curtain of night upon injuries, shut them up in the tower of oblivion, and let them be as though they had not been. To forgive our enemies yet hope that God will punish them, is not to forgive enough. To forgive them ourselves, and not to pray God to forgive them, is a partial act of charity. Forgive thine enemies totally and without any reserve.

SIR THOMAS BROWNE.

Does any man wound thee? Not only forgive, but work into thy thought intelligence of the kind of pain, that thou mayest never inflict it on another spirit.

MARGARET FULLER.