One night， years ago， as I was travelling through YellowstonePark， I sat with other tourists on bleachers facing a dense growthof pine and spruce. Presently the animal which we had beenwaiting to see， the terror of the forests， the grizzly bear， strodeout into the glare of the lights and began devouring the garbagethat had been dumped there from the kitchen of one of the parkhotels. A forest ranger， Major Martindale， sat on a horse andtalked to the excited tourists about bears. He told us that thegrizzly bear can whip any other animal in the Western world，with the possible exception of the buffalo and the Kadiak bear；yet I noticed that night that there was one animal， and only one，that the grizzly permitted to come out of the forest and eat withhim under the glare of the lights： a skunk. The grizzly knew thathe could liquidate a skunk with one swipe of his mighty paw.
Why didn’t he do it？ Because he had found from experience thatit didn’t pay.
I found that out， too. As a farm boy， I trapped four-leggedskunks along the hedgerows in Missouri； and， as a man， Iencountered a few two-legged skunks on the sidewalks of NewYork. I have found from sad experience that it doesn’t pay to stirup either variety.
When we hate our enemies， we are giving them power overus： power over our sleep， our appetites， our blood pressure， ourhealth， and our happiness. Our enemies would dance with joyif only they knew how they were worrying us， lacerating us and getting even with us！ Our hate is not hurting them， but our hate isturning our own days and nights into a hellish turmoil.
Who do you suppose said this： “If selfish people try to takeadvantage of you， cross them off your list， but don’t try to geteven. When you try to get even， you hurt yourself more thanyou hurt the other fellow”？ ... Those words sound as if theymight have been uttered by some starry-eyed idealist. But theyweren’t. Those words appeared in a bulletin issued by the PoliceDepartment of Milwaukee.
How will trying to get even hurt you？ In many ways. Accordingto Life magazine， it may even wreck your health. “The chiefpersonality characteristic of persons with hypertension [highblood pressure] is resentment，” said Life. “When resentment ischronic， chronic hypertension and heart trouble follow.”
So you see that when Jesus said： “Love your enemies”， Hewas not only preaching sound ethics. He was also preachingtwentieth-century medicine. When He said： “Forgive seventytime seven”， Jesus was telling you and me how to keep fromhaving high blood pressure， heart trouble， stomach ulcers， andmany other ailments.
A friend of mine recently had a serious heart attack. Herphysician put her to bed and ordered her to refuse to get angryabout anything， no matter what happened.
Physicians know that if you have a weak heart， a fit of anger cankill you. Did I say can kill you？ A fit of anger did kill a restaurantowner in Spokane， Washington， a few years ago. I have in front ofme now a letter from Jerry Swartout， chief of the Police Department，Spokane， Washington， saying： “A few years ago， William Falkaber，a man of sixty-eight who owned a café here in Spokane， killedhimself by flying into a rage because his cook insisted on drinkingcoffee out of his saucer. The cafe owner was so indignant that he grabbed a revolver and started to chase the cook and fell deadfrom heart failure—with his hand still gripping the gun. Thecoroner’s report declared that anger had caused the heart failure.”
When Jesus said： “Love your enemies”， He was also telling ushow to improve our looks. I know women—and so do you—whosefaces have been wrinkled and hardened by hate and disfiguredby resentment. All the beauty treatments in Christendomwon’t improve their looks half so much as would a heart full offorgiveness， tenderness， and love.
Hatred destroys our ability to enjoy even our food. The Bibleputs it this way “Better is a dinner of herbs where love is， than astalled ox and hatred therewith.”
Wouldn’t our enemies rub their hands with glee if they knewthat our hate for them was exhausting us， making us tired andnervous， ruining our looks， giving us heart trouble， and probablyshortening our lives？
Even if we can’t love our enemies， let’s at least love ourselves.
Let’s love ourselves so much that we won’t permit our enemies tocontrol our happiness， our health and our looks. As Shakespeareput it：
Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot
That it do singe yourself.
When Jesus said that we should forgive our enemies “seventytimes seven”， He was also preaching sound business. Forexample， I have before me as I write a letter I received fromGeorge Rona， Fradegata’n 24， Uppsala， Sweden. For years，George Rona was an attorney in Vienna； but during the SecondWorld War， he fled to Sweden. He had no money， needed workbadly. Since he could speak and write several languages， he hopedto get a position as correspondent for some firm engaged inimporting or exporting. Most of the firms replied that they had no need of such services because of the war， but they would keep hisname on file ... and so on. One man， however， wrote George Ronaa letter saying： “What you imagine about my business is not true.
You are both wrong and foolish. I do not need any correspondent.
Even if I did need one， I wouldn’t hire you because you can’t evenwrite good Swedish. Your letter is full of mistakes.”
When George Rona read that letter， he was as mad as DonaldDuck. What did this Swede mean by telling him he couldn’twrite the language！ Why， the letter that this Swede himself hadwritten was full of mistakes！ So George Rona wrote a letter thatwas calculated to burn this man up. Then he paused. He saidto himself： “Wait a minute， now. How do I know this man isn’tright？ I have studied Swedish， but it’s not my native language， somaybe 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.