The Brookhaven leader., 1891-09-24
YALMAGE'S SERMON.
a Discourse on Kindness" by the
Brooklyn Preacher.
This Word Analysed and Dehned-1t
Stands for All that Is Good and Gen.
tie In Human Nature-Pessi-
mists and Optimists.

lyn tabernacle, kindness" predicat-
ing his remarks on the text:
The barbarous people showed us no little
tlndness.-Acts xviii ?.
Here we are on the island of Malta,
another name for Melita. This island,
which has always been an important
commercial center, belonging at differ
cnt times to Ph9nicia, 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 Mediterranean sea,
ard of such clarity of atmosphere that
Mount Etna, one hundred and thirty
miles away. can be distinctly seen. The
island is gloriously memorable, because
the knights of Malta for a long while
ruled there, but most famous because
of the apostolic shipwreck. The be-
stormed vessel on which Paul sailed
had laid to- on the starboard tack,
and the wind was blowing east-north-
east and the vessel, drifting, prob
ably, a mile and a half an hour, struck
at what is now called ST. Pauls bay.
Practical sailors have taken up the
Bible account and decided beyond con-
troversy the place of the shipwreck.
The island which has so rough coast
is for the most part a garden. Richest
fruits and a profusion of honey char
acterized it in Paul's time as well as
now. The finest oranges, figs and
olives grow there. When Paul and
his comrades crawled up on the
beach, saturated with the salt
water, and hungry from long alb
stinence 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 barcfootcd, barcheaded apostle and
ships crew were in condition to appre-
ciate hospitality. About twenty-five
such men a few seasons ago | found
in the lifc-statiOn near East llamp-
ton, Long Island. They had got
ashore in the night from the sea. and
not hat or shoe had they left. They
found out as Paul and his fellow-voy-
ayers found out, that the sea is the
toughest of all robbers. My text
finds the ships crew ashore on
Malta, and around hot fire dry
ing themselves, and with the
best provisions the islanders can
offer them. And they go into govern
mcnt quarters for three days to recu-
peratc, Publius, the ruler, inviting
them, although he had severe sickness
in the house at that time, his father
'.own with dysentery and typhoid
fever. Yea, for three months they
staid on the island watching for n ship,
and putting the hospitality of the is
landers to severe test. But it en-
dured the test satisfactorily, and it is
recorded for all the ages of time and
eternity to read and hear in regard to
the inhabitants of Malta: 1.-THE bar
barous people showed us no little kind
ness"
Kindness. All definitions of that null
tipotent word break down half way.
You say it is clemency, benignity, gen
crosby; it is made up of good wishes, it
is an expression of beneficcnce, it is a
contribution to the happiness of others.
Some one else says: why, can give
you a definition of kindness-it is sun
shine of the soul. 1t is affection peren-
NAL, it is Il climacteric grace, it is the
combination of all graces. 1t is com
passion. 1t is the perfection of gentle
manlineSs and womanliness." Are you
all through? You have made dead
failure in your definition. 1t can not
be defined. But we all know what it
is, for we all felt its 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 ont, which showed us no lit
tie kindness"
There is kindness of disposition,
kindness of word, kindness of act, and
there is Jesus Christ, the impersonation
of all of them. Kindness. You can not
affect it, You can not play it as part,
you can not enact it, you can not
dramatic it. by the grace Of God you
must have il inside you, an everlasting
summer, or rather combination of
June and October, the geniality of the
one ard the tonic of the other. 1t can
not dwell with arrogance or spite or
revenge or malevolence. At it's first
appearance in the soul all these Anna
lekites and Gergishites and Utilities and
Jebusites must quit, and quit forever.
Kindness wishes every body well-every
man well, every woman well, every
child well, every bird well, every horse
well, every dog well, every cat we'll.
Give this spirit full swing, and you
would have no more need of societies
for prevention of cruelty to animals, no
more need of protective sewing wom-
ems associations, and it would dull
every sword until it would cut skin
deep, and make gunpowder of no
more use in the world except for
rock-blasting or pyrotechnic celebra-
ton. Kindness is a spirit divinely i'm
planted, and in answer to prayer and
then to be sedulously cultivated until
it fills all the nature with perfume
richer and more pungent than migno-
nette, and, as if you put a tuft of that
aromatic beauty behind the clock on the
mautel or in some corner where nobody
can see it, you find people walking
about your room looking this way and
that, and you ask them: What are
you looking for?' and they answer:
"Where is that hower?" So if one has
in his soul this infinite sweetness of dis
position its perfume will whelm every
thing.
But are you waiting and hoping for
some one to be bankrupted or exposed,
or discounted, or in some way over