The Bossier banner., 1891-11-19
HUMAN KINDNESS.
A Cardinal Virtue Discoursed Up
on by Rev. DR.. Talmage.
blindness" MultIpOtent Word that En-
braces All that Leads Mankind to
Perform Acts for the Benefit
of Their Fellows.


The barbarous people showed US no little
kindness.-Acts xxviii.,2.
Hero we are on the island of Malta,
another name for Melita. This island,
which has always been an important
commercial center, belonging at differ
ent 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 Mediterranean sea,
and 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, mile and a half an hour, struck
at what is now called st. Paul's 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
hcterized it in PauIs 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 abb
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 tie deep, and
the barefooted bareheaded apostle and
ships crew were in a condition to appre-
ciate hospitality. About twenty-five
such men a few seasons ago l found
in the life-station near East Hamp-
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 a hot fire dry
ing themselves, and with the
best provisions the islanders can
offer them. And they go into govern
ment quarters for three days to recu-
perate, Publius, the ruler, inviting
them, although 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 island watching for a 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: "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, gem
erosity; it is made up of good wishes, it
is an expression of benefcence, it is a
contribution to the happiness of others.
Some one else says: "Why, can give
you definition of kindness-it is sun
shine of the soul 1t is affection peren-
nial, it is climactcric grace, it is the
combination of all graces. 1t is com
passion. 1t is the perfection of gentle
manliness and womanlmess. Are Won
all through? You have made a 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 out, 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 1t, you can not play it as part,
you can not enact it, you can not
dramatize it. BY the grace of God Won
must have it inside you, an everlasting
summer, or rather a combination of
June and October, the geniality of the
one ard the tonic of the other. It 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 Hittites and
Jebusites must quit, and quit forever.
Kindness wishes every body well-everv
man well, every woman well, everv
child well, every bird well, every horse
well, every dog well, every cat well.
Give this spirit full swing, and Won
would have no more need of societies
for prevention of cruelty to animals. no
more need of protective sewing wom-
ems associations, and it woulu 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-
tion. Kindness is spirit divinely i'm
planted, and in answer to PRAYER and
then to be sedulously cultivated until
1t fills all the nature with a perfume
richer and more pungent than migno-
nette, and, as if you put tuft of that
aromatic beauty behind the clock on the
mantel or in some corner where nobody
can see it, you find people walking
about your room looking this way and