Should envious tongues some malice frame,
To soil and tarnish your good name,
Live it down!
Grow not disheartened; 'tis the lot
Of all men, whether good or not:
Live it down!
*Him not in answer, but be calm;
For silence yields a rapid balm:
Live it down!
Go not among your friends and say,
Evil hath fallen on my way:
Live it down!
Far better thus yourself alone
To suffer, than with friends bemoan
The trouble that is all your own:
Live it down!
What though men _evil_ call your _good!_
So CHRIST Himself, misunderstood,
Was nailed unto a cross of wood!
And now shall you for lesser pain,
Your inmost soul for ever stain,
By rendering evil back again?
Live it down!