The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1891-09-23

ssYet Uncorrupted. and So the Prolnpt-
inSs of Nature Ruled Them kindness
aRoyaI Flower OF Gods Goodness.
BROOKLYN, Sept. l3.-Brookiyn
Tabernacle today contained many stran.
gers on their way home from the water
ing places and foreign lands. MANY OF
the members absent from the city dur
ing the summer were in their places.
The church building and the organ, which
have been almost continually under
brush and hammer since the dedication
last spring, are now about completed.
The sermons today were full of congra-
tulation and were attended by the usual
throngs. DR. Talmaye's morning SER
mon was on Kindness from the text.
Acts xviii, .: The barharous people
showed Us no little kindness"
My text puts US On the Island OF
Malta. another name for Melita. This
island, which has always been an i'm
portant commercial center, belonging at
different times to Phenicia, to Greece,
to Rome, to Arabia, to Spain. to France,
now belongs to England. The area OF
the island IS about one hundred square
miles. 1t is in The Mediternean sea, and
ofsuch clarity of atmosphere that Mount
Etna, one hundred and thirty miles
away, can be distinctly seen. The Island
is sioriously memorable, because the
Knights of Malta for long while ruled
there, but most famous because Of the
apostolic shipwreck.
The bestormed vessel on which Pau!
sailed had 'laid to'' On the starboard
tack. and the wind was blowing east
northeast, and the vessel drifting proc
ably mile and a half an hour ere she
struck at what's now called St. PauPs
bay. Practical sailors have taken up
the Bible account and decided beyond
controversy the place of the sh!pwreck.
Bus the island which has so rough a
coast is tor the most part garden.
Richest fruit and profusion Of honey
characterized it in Paui's time as well
as now. The finest oranges, figs and
olives grow there. When Paul and his
comrades crawled up on the beach, sat-
urated with salt water and hungry from
long abstinence from food and chilled to
the bone, the islanders though called bar
barians because they could not speak
Greek, opened their doors to the ship
wrecked unfortunates.
Everything had gone to the bottom OF
the deep, and the barefooted, barehead-
ed apostle and ships crew were IN cou-
dition to appreciate hospitality. About
twenty-five such men few seasons ago
Hound in the life station near Easthamp-
ton, Long Island. They had got ashore
in the night from the sea, and not a hat
nor shoe had they left. They found
out, as Paul and his fellow voyagers
found out, that the sea is the toughest of
all robbers. Ny text finds the ships
crew ashore on Malta, and around a hot
fire drying themselves, and with the best
provision the islanders can offer them.
And they 60 into government quarters
for three days to recuperate, Publius,
the ruler, inviting them, although h he had
severe sickness in the house at that
time-his father down with dysentery
and typhoid fever. Yea, for three
months they staid on the is,and watch
ing for ship and putting the hospltali-
ties of the ISLANDERS to severe test.
But they endured the test satisfactorily,
and it is recorded tor all the ages oftime
and eternity to read and hear in regard
to the inhabitants of Malta, ''The bar
barous people showed Us 20 little kind
ness"
BIBLE EXAMPLES OF KINDNESS.
Kindness! What great word that IS.
It would take reed as long as that
which the apocalyptic angel used to
measure heaven to tell the length, the
breadth, the height OF that munlicent
word. It is a fayorlte Bible word, and
it is early launched IN the look of Gen
esis, caught up N the book of Joshua,
embraced in the book Of Samuel, crowned
in the book of Psalms, and enthroned in
many places IN the New Testament.
Kindness! A word no more gentle than
mighty. I expect it will wrestle me
down before get through with it. lis
strong enough to throw an archangel.
But 1t will be well for US to stand around
it, and warm ourselves by its glow as
= aOI SAO kAS 4CiioW wy oVOSS
arouns the fire on the Island of Malta,
where the NJ altese made themselves im-
mortal in my text by the way they treat
ed these victims Of the sea. The bar
barous people showed US no little kind
ness"
Kindness! All definitions Of that
multipotent word break down half way.
You say it is clemency, benignity, gen
erosity; it is made up of good wishes, it
is an expression OF benefcence, it is
contribution to the happiness Of others.
Some one else says: ''Why, can give
you definition of kindness: It's sun
shine of the soul, it is affection perennial,
it is crowning grace. it is the COM
bination ofall graces, 1t is compassion,
it is the perfection OF gentle manliness
and womanliness." Are you all through
You have made a dead failure in your
definition. 1t cannot be defined. But
we all know what it is, for we all felt It's
power. Some Of you may have felt it as
Paul felt it, on some coast of rock as
the ship went to pieces, but more OF US
have again and again in some awful
stress of life had either from earth or
heaven hands stretched out, which
showed Us no little Kindness"
There is kindness Of ofdisposition, kind
ness Of word, kindness OF act, and there
is Jesus Christ, the impersonation Of all
Of them. Kindness! You cannot affect
it, YOU cannot play it as part, you can
not enact it. you cannot dramatizs it.
By the grace Of Godyou must have it
inside you, an everlasting summer, or
rather combination OF June and Octo-
Der, the genlality of the one and the
tonic of the other. 1t cannot dwell with
arrogance or spite orrevenge or maievo-
lenee. At its first appearance in the
soul all these Amalekites and Gerglshltes
and Hittitcs and Jebusites must cut,
and quit forever.
y ~