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The Noblest Answer to Reproach

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Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Jul 8, 1875

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 1, No. 35.

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The Noblest Answer to Reproach

"If any one speaks ill of thee," says Epictetus, "consider whether he hath truth on his side, and if so, reform thyself, that his censures may not affect thee." When Alexander was told that the very boys laughed at his singing, he said; "Ah, then I must learn to sing better." Plato, being told that he had many enemies who spoke ill of him, said: "It is no matter; I shall live so that none will believe them." Hearing at another time that an intimate friend had spoken detractingly of him, he said: "I am sure he would not do it if he had not some reason for it." This is the surest as well as the noblest way of drawing the sting out of reproach, and the true method of preparing a man for the great and only relief against the pains of calumny.