News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1891-09-17

| SOI1l0 one TO De DdnkrupJ6u Ut SApOSel
or discounted or in some way over
thrown, then kindness has not taker
possession of your nature. You are
wrecked on Malta where there are nc
oranges. You are entertaining guess
so unlike kindness that kindness vii
not come and dwell under the same
roof. The most exhausting and I'M
healthy and ruinous feeling on earth il
a revengeful spirit or retaliating spirit
as l know by experience, for l have
tried it for five or ten minutes at time
When some mean thing has been done
me or said about me, l have felt: 81
will pay him in his own coin. l will
show him up The migrate! The traitor
The liari The villainl''
But five or ten minutes of the feeling
has been so unnerving and exhaustine
l have abandoned it, and cannot un-
derstand how people can go about tor.
turing themselves five or ten or twenty
years, trying to get even with some.
body. The only way you will ever tri-
umph over your enemies is by forgivine
them and wishing them all good and
no evil AS malevolence is the most
uneasy and proftless and dangerous
feeling, kindness is the most healthful
and delightful And this is not alb
straction. As have tried little OF
the retaliation, so have tried little
of the forgiving.
do not want to leave this world
until l have taken vengeance upon
every man that ever did me wrong
by doing him a kindness. In most of
such cases l have already succeeded,
but there are a few malignants whom l
am yet pursuing and | shall not be
content until / have in some wise
helped them or benefited them or
blessed them. Let us pray for this
spirit of kindness 1t will settle a
thousand questions. 1t will change
the phase of everything. 1t will mel
low through and through our entire
nature 1t will transform q lifetime.
1t is not a feeling gotten up for occa-
sions, but perennial
That is the reason I like petunias
better than morning glories. They look
very much alike, and if should put in
your hand a 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 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 a little while, but it irradiates
the whole nature all through and
clear on till the sunset of our earthly
existence.
Kindnessi l am resolved to get it.
Are you resolved to get it2 1t does not
come by haphazard, but through cul-
ture under the divine help. Thistles
grow without culture. Rocky noun
tain sage grass grows without culture.
Mullen stalks grow without culture.
But that great red rose in the conser-
vatory, its leaves packed on leaves,
deep dyed as though it had been
obliged to fight for its beauty and it
were still reeking with the carnage of
the battle, that rose needed to be cul-
| tured and through long years its floral
ancestors were cultured. o God, i'm
plant kindness in all our souls, and
then give us grace to watch it, to en-
rich it, to develop it!
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 gardener, Herr Fintelmann, was
! told to watch it, and one day it put
forth its glory. Three days of every
week the people were admitted to these
gardens, and a young man, probably
not realizing what a wrong thing he
was doing, plucked this flower and put
it in his buttonhole, and the gardener
arrested him as he was crossing at the
ferry, and asked the king to throw open
no more his gardens to the public.
The king replied: ''Shall l deny to the
thousands of good people of my coun-
try the privilege of seeing this garden
because one visitor has done wrong9
No, let them come and see the beauti-
full grounds"
And when the gardener wished to
give the king the name of the offender
who had taken the royal flower, he
said, No, my memory is very tena-
cious 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, l want you
to know that kindness is royal flower,
and blessed be God, the King of mercy
and grace, that by divine gift and 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, it's radiance and
aroma not more wonderful for time
than wonderful for eternity.
POWER OF THE TONGUE.
Still further, / must speak of kindness
of word. When you meet any one do
you say a pleasant thing or an unpleas-
ant9 Do you tell him of agreeable things
you have heard about him or the disar
greeable? When he leaves you does
he feel better or does he feel worsei
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 a dangerous power.
First it is chained to the back part OF
the mouth by strong muscle. Then ii
IC cd l,xrf rf fGSa
| 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 compression and
arrest. And yet, notwithstanding these
four imprisonments or limitations, how
many take no hint in regard to the dan
gerous power of the tongue and the re.
suits are laceration, specification and
damnation.
There are those if they know a good
thing about you and bad thing, will
mention the bad thing and act as
though they had never heard the good
thing. Now, there are two sides to
almost every ones character, and we
have the choice of overhauling 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 sorry looking set you are |
How little of navigation you must
know to run on these rocks! Didn't
you know better than to put out on
the Mediterranean this wintry months
1t was not much of a ship anyhow, or
it would not have gone to pieces so
soon as that. Well, what do you want9