Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1891-09-24

some one 70 oe Jan frupted or exposed or
or IN ar & way oyerthrown, then
kindness has not AIKEN possession of your
nature. You h'Ie wrecked on a Malta
where there s.re no oranges. You are ell
terJaining quest so unlike kindness that
kindness wfl not come and dwell under
the same roof. The most exhausting and
unhealthy and ruinous feeling on earth Is
a rever rgeful spirit or retaliating spirit, AZ
| know by experience, for have tried il
FIVE or ten minutes at time When some
mean thing has been done me or said about
me have felt 81 will pay him in his own
coin | will show him up The migrate!
The traitorl The Iiarl The villainP'
But five or ten minutes Of the feeling
has been so unnerving and exhausttng
that have abandoned it, and cannot un |
derstand how people can go about tortur
ing themselves five or ten or twenty years,
trying to get even with somebody The
only way you will ever triumph over your
enemies is by forgiving them and wishing
them all good and no evil. AS malevo
lence is the most uneasy and proftless ami
dangerous feeling, kindness is the most
healthful and delightful. And this is not
an abstraction As | have tried little OF
the retaliation, so | have tried little OF
the forgiving.
| do not want to leave this world until
have taken vengeance upon every man that
ever did me wrong by doing him kind
ness In most of such cases have already
succeeded, but there are few malignants
whom | am yet pursuing, and shall not
be content until have in some wise helped
them or benefited them or blessed them.
Let us all pray for this spirit Of kindness.
It will settle a thousand questions. 1t will
change the phase of everything. 1t will
mellow through and through our entire
nature. It will transform lifetime 1t is
not a feeling cotton up for occasions, but
perennial
That is the reason like petunias better
than morning glories. They look very
much alike, and If | should put in your
hand petunia and a morning glory you
could hardly tell which is the petunia and
which the morning glory; but the morning
glory blooms only a few hours and then
shuts up for the day, while the petunia is
in as widespread a glow at twelve O'Clock
at noon and six o'clock in the evening as
at sunrise. And this grace of kindness is
not spasmodic, is not intermittent, is not
for little WHILE but it irradiates the
whole nature all through and clear on
till the sunset of our earthly existence,
Kindnessl am resolved to get it. Are
you resolved to get itf 1t does not come by
haphazard, but through culture under the
divine help Thistles grow without cul.
ture. Rocky mountain sage grass grows
without culture. Mullen stalks grow
without culture But that great red rose
In the conservatory, it's leaves packed on
leaves, deep dyed as though 1t had been
obliged to fight for its beauty and it were
still reeking with the carnage OF the battle,
| that rose needed to be cultured, and
through long years its floral ancestors were
cultured o God, implant kindess in all
our souls, and then give us grace to watch
it, to enrich it, to develop it'll
The king of Prussia had presented to
him by the empress of Russia the root of a
rare flower, and it was put in the royal
gardens on an island, and the head gar
dener, Herr Fintelmann, was told to watch
it. And one day 1t put forth its glory,
Three days of every week the people were
admitted to these gardens and young
man, probably not realizing what wrong
thing he was doing, plucked this flower
and put it in his buttonhole, and the gal
| O6DeF AITeSU6u ulLI1 ttS ne was CEOSSlu8 dt viz
ferry, and asked the king to throw open nc
more his gardens to the public The king
replied "Shall ! deny the thousands o1
good people of my country the privilege oi
seeing this garden because one visitor has
done wrong? No, let them come and SCI
the beautiful grounds"
And when the gardener wished to give
the king the name of the offender who hac
taken the royal flower, he said, mo, my
memory Is very tenacious and | do moi
want to have in my mind the name of thu
offender, lest it should hinder me granting
him favor some other time" Now,
want you to know that kindness Is a roya
flower, and blessed be God, the King O.
mercy and grace, that by a divine gift ant
not by purloining, we may pluck this roya
flower and not wear it on the outside O.
our nature, but wear 1t in our soul ant
wear it forever, it's radiance and aroma no
more wonderful for time than wonderful
for eternity.
KIND WORDS CAN NEVER DIE"
Still further, must speak of kindness o
word. When you meet any one do yo1
say pleasant thing or an unpleasants d
you tell him of agreeable things you hav
heard about him, or the disagreeable
, When he leaves you does he feel better o
I does he feel worses Oh, the power of tn
!, tongue for the production of, happiness o
: raiseryl One would think from the wa
the tongue is Gagged in we might take th
hint that it has a dangerous power. First
it is chained to the back OF the mouth b.
strong muscles. Then it is surrounded b
the teeth of the lower jaw, so many ivor
, bars, and then by the teeth Of the uppe
, Jaw, more ivory bars Then outside of a.
: are the two lips with the power of com
, preston and arrest, and yet notwithstand
/ ing these four imprisonments or Hmtts
tions, how many take no hint In regard t
, the dangerous power of the tongue, an
the results are laceration, specification an
damnation.
There are those If they know a goo
+ thing about you and a bad thing, will mer
ton the bad thing and act as though the
/ had never heard the good thing. No'
q there are two sides to almost every one
character, and we have the choice OF ovel
+ hauling the virtue or the vice. We ca
greet Paul and the ships crew as the
come up the beach of Malta with th
words: "What sorry looking set you ar
J. How little of navigation you must kno'
Q to run on these rocksl Didn't you kno'
8 better than to put out on the Mediterri
mean this wintry month"; 1t was not muc
v of ship anyhow, or it would not hay
4 gone to pieces so soon as that. Well, whs
do you want2 We have hard enough wor
IS to make living for ourselves, withor
O having thrust on us two hundred and se'
# enty-six ragamuffins."