Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1891-09-14
THE POWER OF KINDNESS



The traitorl The liarl The villainP'
But five or ten minutes of the feeling
has been so unnerving and exhAustiDg
that have abandoned it, and cannot I'M
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 Ii by forgiving them and wishing
them all good and no evil. As malevo-
lence Is the most uneasy and prohtless and
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 q 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
becontent until have in some wise helped
them or benefited them or blessed them
Let US all pray for this spirit of kindness
lt will settle a thousand questions. 1t will
change the phase of everything 1t will
mellow through and through our entire
nature. 1t will transform lifetime. tbs
not 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 few hours and then
shuts up for the day, while the petunia Is
in as widespread n glow at twelve O'Clock
ut 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 it2 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, its leaves packed on
leaves, deep dyed as though it had been
Obliged to fight for it's 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
rare flower, and 1t was put in the royal
gardens on an island, and the head gar
dener, Herr Fintelmann, was told to watch
1t. And one day it 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 1t in his buttonhole, and the gal
dener arrested himas he was crossing at the
ferry, and asked the king to throw open no
more his gardens to the public. The king
replied: Shall deny the thousands Of
good people of my country the privilege Of
seeing this garden because one visitor has
done wrong2 No, let them come and see
the beautiful grounds"
And when the gardener wished to give
the king the name of the offender who had
taken the royal flower, he said mo, my
memory is very tenacious and do not
want to have in my mind the name of the
offender, lest it should hinder me granting
him favor some other time" Now,
want you TO know that kindness is a royal
flower, and blessed be God, the King of
not by purloining we may pluck this royal
flower and not wear it on the outside of
our nature, but wear it in our soul and
wear it forever, its radiance and aroma not
more wonderful for time than wonderful
for eternity.
KIND WORDS CAN NEVER DIE"
Still further must speak of kindness of
word. When you meet any one do you
m ali Z No
you tell him of agreeable things you have
heard about him, or the disagreeabe2
When he leaves you does he feel better or
does he feel worseP Oh, the power of the
tongue for the production of happiness or
misery One would think from the way
the tongue is Gagged in we might take the
hint that it has dangerous power, First,
It Is chained TO the back of the mouth by
strong muscles Then it is surrounded by
the teeth of the lower jaw, SO many ivory
bars, and then by the teeth of the upper
jaw, more ivory bars. Then outside of all
are the two lips with the power of com
preston and arrest, and yet notwthstand
ing these four imprisonments or limita-
tions, how many take no hint in regard to
the dangerous power of the tongue, and
the results are laceration, specification and
damnation.
There are those If they know good
thing about you and bad thing, will men
ton the bad thing and net MS though they
had never heard the good thing. Now
there are two sides to almost every ones
character and we have tho choice of over
hauling the virtue or the vice, We can
greet Paul and the ships crew as they
come up the beach of Malta with the
words: what a sorry looking set you arel
How little of navigation you must know
to run on these rocksl Didn't you know
better than to put out on the Mediterra.
mean this wintry month"; 1t was not much
of ship anyhow, or it would not have
gone to pieces SO soon rs that. Well, what
do you wantP We have hard enough work
60 make living for ourselves, without
having thrust on us two hundred and sew
enty-six ragamuflins."
Not so said the Maltese. think they
said: "Come inl Sit down by the fire and
warm yourselvesl Glad that you all got
Off with your lives, Make yourselves at
home You are welcome to all we have
aat!l some ship comes in sight and you re-
sumo your voyage, Here, let me put a
bandage on your forehead, for that is an
ngly cash you got from the floating tim
bers, and here il a 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, 1.-THE
barbarous people showed us no little kind
ness"
Obi say the cordial thingi Say the use
ful thingl Say the hospitable thingl Say
the helpful thingl Say the Christlike
ats.., ca, tba Ly,pd tl{pgt I admit that