Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1891-09-14
THEPOWER OF KINDNESS
LESSONS FROM PAUL's RECEPTION
ON THE ISLAND OF MELlTA.


as Yet Interrupted, and So the Prompt
ings of Nature Ruled Them kindness
Royal Flower of Gods Goodness.
BROOKLYN, Sept. l3.-Brool+lyu Taber-
nacle today contained many strangers on
their way home from the watering places
and foreign lands. Many of the members
absent from the city during the summer
were in their places. The church building
and the organ, which have been almost
continually under brush and hammer
since the dedication last spring, are now
about completed The sermons today were
full of congratulation and were attended
by the usual throngs. Dr. Talmage's morn
ing sermon was on Kindness" from the
text, Acts xviii, 2: "The barbarous people
showed us no little kindness"
My text puts us on the Island of Malta,
another name for Melita. This island,
which has always been an important com
mercial center, belonging at different times
to Phoenicia to Greece, to Rome, to Ara
bia, 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
and thirty miles away, can be distinctly
seen. The island is gloriously memorable,
because the knights of Malta for long
while ruled there, but most famous be-
cause of the apostolic shipwreck.
The bestormed vessel on which Paul
sailed had Laid tor on the starboard tack,
and the wind was blowing east-northeast,
and the vessel drifting probably a mile
ND n hol o.Io al
is now called St. Paul's bay Practical
sailors have taken up the Bible account
and decided beyond controversy the place
of the shipwreck. But the island which
has so rough a coast is for the most part a
garden. Richest fruit and profusion of
honey characterized it in Paul's time as
we'll as now. The finest oranges, figs and
olives grow there When Paul and his
comrades crawled up on the beach, satur-
ated with salt water and hungry from long
abstinence 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 barefooted, bareheaded
apostle and ships crew were in condition
to appreciate hospitality. About twenty
five such men few seasons ago found in
the life station near Easthampton, Long
Island. They had got ashore in the night
from the sea, and not hat nor shoe had
they left. They found out, as Paul and
his fellow voyagers found out, that the sea
Is the toughest of all robbers My text
finds the ships crew ashore on Malta, and
around hot fire drying themselves, and
with the best provision the islanders can
offer them.
And they go into government quarters
for three days to recuperate, Publius, the
ruler, inviting them, although he had Sc
we're 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 put
ting the hospitalities Of the islanders to
severe test. But they endured the test salts
factorily, 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
barbarous people showed us no little kind
ness"
BIBLE EXAMPLES OF KINDNESS.
Kindnessl What great word that is 1t
would take reed as long as that which
the apocalyptic angel used to measure
height of that munifcent word. It Is q
favorite Bible word, and it isearly launched
in the book of Genesis, caught up in the
book of Joshua, embraced in the book of
Ruth, sworn by In the book Of Samuel,
crowned In the book of Psalms, and en-
throned in many places in the New Tesla
ment. Kindnessl A word no more gentle
than mighty expect it will wrestle me
kof I = a
strong enough to throw an archangel. But
1t will be well for us to stand around it,
and warm ourselves by it's glow as Paul
and his fellow voyagers stood around the
fire on the Island of Malta, where the NAL
tese made themselves immortal in my text
by the way they treated these victims of the
sea. 1.-THE barbarous people showed US no
little kindness"
Kindnessl All definitions Of that multi
potent word break down half way. You
say it is clemency, benignity, generosity; it
Is made up of good wishes, it Is an express
sion of beneficence, it is a contribution to
the happiness Of others. Some one else
says; why, can give you definition of
kindness; 1t is sunshine of the soul, it is
affection perennial, it is a browning grace,
it is the combination Of all graces, it is
manliness and womanlness." Are you
all through You have made dead fail
ure in your definition. 1t cannot be de-
fined. But we all know what it is, for we
all felt it's 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
hno fphn ont Ia tab
Showed us no little kindness"
There is kindness of disposition, kind
ness of word, kindness of act, and there is
Jesus Christ, the impersonation of all Of
them. Kindnessl You cannot affect it,
you cannot play 1t as a part, you cannot
enact it., you cannot dramatize it. BY the
grace of God you must have it inside you,
an everlasting summer, or rather a COM
bination of June and October, the geniali
ty of the OH and the tonic of the other.
1t cannot dwell with arrogance or spite or
revenge or malevolence At its first APP
pearance in the soul all these Amalekites
and Gergishites and Hittites and Jebusites
must quit, and quit forever.
Kindness wishes everybody well, every
man well, every woman we'll, every child
we'll, every bird well, every horse well,
every dog well, every cat well. Give this
spirit full swing, and you would have no
more need of societies for prevention of
cruelty to animals, no more need of pro-
tective sewing woman's association and 1t
would dull every sword until it would not |
cut skin deep, and unwheel every battery |
till it could not roll, and make gunpowder |
of no more use in the world except for |
rock blasting or pyrotechnic celebration.
Kindness 10 a snirit divinelv imn1antn |