The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1891-09-22

sight and you resume your voyage.
Here, let me put bandage on your
forehead, for that is an ugly cash you
got from the floating timbers, and here
is man with broken arm. We will
have a doctor come to attend to this
fracture" And though for three
months the kindness went on, we have
but little more than this brief record,
The barbarous people showed us no
little Kindness"
Oh! say the cordial thing! Say the
useful thing! Say the hOspitable thing!
Say the helpful thing! Say the Christ
like thing! Say the kind thing! | adj
NIT that this is easier for some tempera.
ments than for others. Some are born
pesslluists, and some are born optlmsts,
and that demonstrates itself all through
everything. 1t is cloudy morning.
You meet pessimist and you say,
"What weather today?" He answers,
ITS going to storm" and umbrella
under arm and waterproof overcoat
show that he Is honest in that utter.
ance. On the same block, minute af-
ter, you meet an optimist, and you say,
"What weather today" Good wealth
er; this is only fog and will soon scat.
ter" The absence of umbrella and alb.
sence of waterproof overcoat show il is
an honest utterance.
On your way at noon to luncheon you
meet an optimistic merchant and you
say, "What do you think Of the com.
mercial prospects," and he says:
"Glorious. Great crops must bring
great business. We are going to have
such an autumn and winter of prosperity
as we have never seen." On your way
back to your store you meet pessimis.
tic merchant. "What do you think OF
The commercial prospects?" you ask.
And he answers: swell, L don't know.
So much grain will surfeit the country.
Farmers have more bushels but less
prices, and the grain gamblers will get
their fist IN. There is the Mckinley bill,
and the hay crop is short in some places,
and in the southern part of Wisconsin
they had a hailstorm, and our business
Is "a dull as 1t ever was" You will
find the same difference in Judgment of
character. A man of good reputation
is assailed and charged with some evil
deed. at the first story the pessimist
will believe in guilt. "The papers said
so, and that's enough. Down with
hlm!"
OPTIMIST AND PESSIMIST.
The optimist will say: II don't be-
lieve word of it. 1 don't think that a
man that has been es useful and seem
ingly honest for twenty years could have
got off the track like that. There are
two sides TO this story. and will wait
to hear the other side before condemn
him." My hearer, it you are by nature
a pesslmist, make special effort by the
grace of God to eXtirpate the dolorous
and the hypercritical from your DISPOSE
ton. Believe nothing against anybody
until the wrong is established by at least
two witnesses ofintegrity. And if guilt
be proved, find out the eXtenuating cir
cumstances if there are any.
And then commit to memory so that
you can quote for yourself and quote for
others that exquisite thirteenth chapter
of First Corinthians about charity that
suffers long and is kind, and hopeth all
things and endureth all things. BY
pen, by voice, in public and in private,
say all good about people you can think
OF, and if there be nothing good, then
tighten the chain of muscle on the back
end of your tongue, and keep the ivory
bars OF teeth on the lower jaw and the
ivory bars of teeth on the upper jaw
locked and the gate OF your lips tightly
closed and your tongue shut up.
What place Brooklyn would be to
live in, and all the other cities and
neishborhoods to live IN, if charity DOM
mated! What it all the young and old
gossipers were dead! The Lord hasten
their funerals! What if tittle-tattle and
whispering were out of fashion! What
If in cipherlng out the value OF other
peoples character, in our moral arith-
metic, we struck to addition instead of
satisfaction! Kindness! Let us morn
ing, noon and night pray for it until we
get it. When you can speak good
word for some one speak it. If you can
conscientiously give letter or commen-
dation, give it. Watch for opportunities
for doing good fifty years after you arc
dead.
All my life has been affected by the
letter of introduction that the Rev. DIR.
Van Vranken, of New Brunswick Tho
illogical seminary, wrote for me, boy
under him, when l was seeking set
tlement in which to preach the Gospel.
The letter gave me my first pulpit. DR..
Van Vranken has been dead more than
thirty years, yet feel the touch of that
magnificent old professor. Strange SEN
sation was it when 1 received kind
message from Rev. Thomas Guard, OF
Baltimore, the great Methodist orator,
Blk weeks after his death. BY way OF
the eternal world? Oh, no, by way OF
this world. did not meet the friend to
whom he gave the message until nearly
two months after Thomas Guard had as.
cended. So you AN start word about
some one that will be on its travels and
vigorous long after the funeral psalm
has been sung at your obsequles. Kind
ness! Why, if fifty men all aglow with
1t should walk through the lost world,
.ne,hinks they would almost abolish
perdltion.
TOUCHING ANECDoTE OF ABRAHAM
LINCOLN.
Furthermore, there is kindness of &C.
tion. That is what Joseph showed to
his outrageous brothers. That is what
David showed to Mephibosheth for his
father Jonathan's sake. That is what
Cnesiphorus showed to Paul in the Ro
man penitentiary. That is what Will.
liam Cowper recognized when he said
he would not trust man who would
with his foot needlessly crush a worm
That Is what our assasslnated President
Lincoln demonstrated when his private
secretary found him in the Capitol
grounds trying to get bird back to the
nest from which it had fallen, and which
quality the illustrious man exhibited
n