President Joseph F Smith:
--we cannot give excuses to for those who hurt us
I FORGIVE ALL MEN.
I feel in my heart to forgive all men in the broad sense that God requires of me to forgive all men, and I desire to love my neighbor as myself; and to this extent I bear no malice toward any of the children of my Father. But there are enemies to the work of the Lord, as there were enemies to the Son of God. There are those who speak only evil of the Latter-day Saints. There are those—and they abound largely in our midst—who will shut their eyes to every virtue and to every good thing connected with this latter-day work, and will pour out floods of falsehood and misrepresentation against the people of God. I forgive them for this. I leave them in the hands of the just judge. Let him deal with them as seemeth him good, but they are not and cannot become my bosom companions. I cannot condescend to that. While I would not harm a hair of their heads, while I would not throw a straw in their path, to hinder them from turning from the error of their way to the light of truth; I would as soon think of taking a centipede or a scorpion, or any poisonous reptile, and putting it into my bosom, as I would think of becoming a companion or an associate of such men.
CHAPTER XVIII “LOVE YOUR ENEMIES” in Gospel Doctrine: Selections from the Sermons and Writings of Joseph F. Smith
JOHN A. WIDTSOE, JOSEPH F. SMITH
President Joseph F. Smith, Gospel Doctrine, p. 337; October Conference Report, 1907, pp. 5-6.
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