Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1877-10-17
Kindness.

must or ought to be twin sisters.
All sorrow, pain, trouble, care, van
ish at its subtle breath. All hope, love,
joy, step TO the front and welcome the
stranger-for stranger, indeed, it seems
to be in this cold, cheerless, heartless
world.
Have any Of you ever lived through a
grief, through a series of life's discom-
forts, through living existence that
savored of death, through seeming
heaven that worked out a hell and
never experienced the balm or comfort
there was in one little act of kindness?
If you have not, then all words are
powerless to impress upon you its
worth.
Think, II you can, OF men and women
who pass their days and nights in the
attempt to alleviate or lessen the sor-
rows and conditions of others. Think
of all the damnable accusations, the
thrusts of malice, envy, ignorance,
superstition, custom and corrupt human
nature that are thrown over, above,
below and about them. ThiI of those
who ought to sustain and assist them
turning in with the jeerers and sneer
ers. Think of the obloquy, shame, dis
appointment and chagrin such true,
whole souled people are subjected to for
the sake of principle, and then meas
ure, if you can, the power, the depth,
the breadth and height of one little
tender word of kindness; why, an
earthquake could hardly sweep away
Objectionable things as do the words, or
deeds, of generous, loving hearts, bring
ing back TO our own all the goodness
that had been laid away or crushed out
by ill-usage.
Oh. l think II God or the angels ever
rejoice, it is when some good, kind
hearted man or woman lifts TO higher
altitude, a soul that has been hunted
down and abused almost beyond all hu-
man recognition. How many such We
all know, how many sach God knows,
how many such devils know and rejoice
over, and hell yawns TO receive; all be-
cause of the want of kindness, encour-
agement, and love.
The main origin or source of unkind-
ness is many times in homes, schools,
and society. Selishness, pride, hatred,
and the degradation of their fellow be-
ings, seem to be the principles in
culcated by parents, teachers. and asso
ciates. Not that such things are in
tended, but am sorry to say that the
general character of influences brought
10 bear upon the younger branches in
our day, frequently tend to harden the
heart, obliterating whatever good, true
impulse nature had planted or bestowed
upon them; proving conclusively the
old adage that ''as the tree, so is and
will be the fruit thereof"
Need | say that homes have the first |
chances of forming characters, the first
chances of converting children into
either angels or devils, and the supreme
or undivided chance of peopling either |
heaven or hell. We are not all fitted /
for tine next world by churches. |
"Home, sweet home" has more to do |
with such things than the unthinking
portion of the community can conceive,
Imagine home full of love, full of
kindness, joy, hope, care, patience, ten
derness and fOrbearance, and you get a
picture of home that reaches out far
away beyond almost all sublunary
things, fitting us for the abode we hope
for hereafter.
In such homes we are sure to find
culture, taste, peace, rest, unity, and a
love of the beautiful. Why do we gather
from art its masterpieces to decorate or
embellish our walls? Why group TO-
gether the marble statues that seem but
living realities of all our souls need
yearn for? Why do we cultivate our
taste for music and song? Why do we
plant, design and lay out beautiful
flower beds, shrubbery, groves, grot-
toes, about our earthly habitations?
Why do we treasure up the faces Of the
dead?
The LOCKS Of hair We all have treasured, a;
As we would m glitten e gem,
Round our hear ; eacu curl Is woven, | [
Telling OF our early loving,
or our hope our mir b, our fears, 4
Or our sunny, youth vi yt ars. a
Why do we put away a little, worn d
out shoe or torn and faded garment? r
Why do we stand, as it were, face to n
face with all these things in life if it +
were not for the hope of finding them d
again in the hereafter? The homes in ;
which We find all these things are the c
wherein love and kind h
ness are generated-and they generally a
have enough blossoms TO spare to d
brighten and beautify the homes of their Q
friends and neighbors. Look, on the n
other hand, at the dwellings that are "
levOid of these acquisitions, and we v
find real hot beds of iniquity-places
where ell kinds of designs are being
worked into the daily patterns of life;
places from which our children, neigh Ii
,ors and friends emerge, to become the in
inmates of jails and penitentaries; la
places from which the congregations of d.
lewis are augmented, both in this ii
world and the next. W
How then can we wonder at the SO
want of kindness and love, when the m
ashamed class of homes are in the lie
scendancy, or belong to the majority a
Perhaps, however, they are not al W
ogether to blame, as ill-feeling, conten- CO
ion and want of taste are handed down ve
rom one generation to another, just as e'
re all our other propensities. W
How incumbent, then, should it be sf
pom us to cultivate the attributes of OF
oye, the spirit of kindness, and thus do th
nto others as we wish they should do in
nto US. In this way We can dissem- TO
nate, or strew over the hearts of hu- te
lanity, these principles. Not that we, nj
rho have homes, are responsible for all w
nkindness. No; churches. schools, Ia
nd society have their share of the 10
linp to sbouider az from tbapo va-,, Gu