Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1898-02-17
SERMONS OF THE DAY.
RELIGIOUS TOPICS DISCUSSED BY
PROMINENT AMERICAN MINISTER'S.

"The Law of Kindness" IL the Title of
the New York Herald's Tenth COMPETE
tive Sernon-Dr. Talmage breaches
q Sermon to the Feminine Toilers.
Proverbs XXI, 26.
There are two superficial and somewhat
look the truth Of q law Of kindness and
hinder the fulfilment Of that law. The
first is that kindness Is n happy accident
of temperament. When Charles Lamb died
Henry Crabb Robinson went to visit Mary
Lamb, and she said to him: "Now, call
TINS very kind Of yo" not sHoa
just. Kindness is more than constitutional
good naturedness. 1t implies discipline
and culture.
The second notion associates kindness
with Christian etiquette and department,
with something amiable and desirable,
perhaps, but rather ornamental than essen
tial. Consequently many religious and
devout people are unkind in words and
actions without any feeling of sinfulness
on that account. Put away the notion of
kindness which regards 1t as merely an
external grace OF character or useful
lubricant wherewith to reduce the frictions
sf social intercourse and conceive it as an
essential element OF all goodness, divine or
human, and as comprehended under Gods
law of human life. Unkindness, like any
other transgression OF moral law, Is wick
sdness. Nor is it enough to try and not
be unkind, for unless one tries to be kind
le not only fails of duty, but will be un-
,ble to guard himself from actual unkind-
hess.
Kindness has it's root in kinship. 1t i'm
Plies relationship and affinity. Men are
children Of d common Father, and there
lore brethren. Therein lies the signif-
pap ~ ol1f hot ba Gorir, r,f, tno ot,
serning the essential, exceeding and ever
Hsting loving kindness of God. There is
tinShip between Him and men, created in
His image. Therein is grounded our hu-
man kinship and the law Of brotherly kind
ness for all men, than which no law of
human life has higher authority or sacred
or sanctions.
AS no one can be as good as he should
and may be, so no one can do good as he
should and may without striving to fulfill
this law of the cultivation and manifesto
tion OF kindness. There is nothing else SO
powerful for good unless it be love, and
love as st. Paul says, is kind. 1t disarms
prejudice and hatred, 1t converts distrust
into confidence, it overcomes oil manner OF
evil With good. 1t brings out rs nothing
else can the latent and potential good
things in people. Men have come to recog-
nize and act upon this principle in their
treatment and training of animals. How
much more effective will be the training of
children and the treatment of all human
beings which is based upon kindly sympa-
thy! The safest assumption that can be
made in all such matters is that kindness
will meet all such response.
Kindness has insight and can detect signs
OF promise in the unpromising, while under
its genial influences and delicate ministra-
tions these signs become manifest and the
things they promise begin to be fulfilled.
What else gives so great encouragement to
the many who are struggling with advers-
ity or temptation, correcting and changing
just those depressed feelings Of loneliness
and neglect wherein the power Of evil finds
its most favorable conditions? Wordsworth
speaks of
That portion Of a good mans life
His little, nameless, unremembered acts of
kindness and of love.
How suggestive that is Of what is possi-
BILE in this way OF kindness, which works
with magic power to transmute apparent
triiles into priceless treasures-as st, Zita's
cup OF cold water given to a dusty and
weary pilgrim proved to be, as he drank it,
a cup of precious wine. Kind words often,
as Dante says of Beatrice's words, more
smiled than spokenii Kind actions, cost
ing little, but bestowing much! How easily
they might be multiplied to the immeasur-
able cheer and comfort and enrichment of
life! They make the gloomy smile, the
angry grow meek, the suffering to cease
from groaning; they light up hope, sweeten
bitter thoughts, console sorrow, strengthen
the faint and turn from sin; and they reach
and move those whom no other good influ-
ences affect and conquer such as have re-
sisted all other powers of grace.
Bitter and all too frequent are our re-
grets and repentances, as we recall, per-
haps too late for aught but regret and re-
pentance, the unkind things said or done
by us, or the kind things we might and
should have said and done, but left unsaid
and undone. In our cups of recollection
Overflowing with divine tender mercies
and loving kindnesses there is no bitterer
ingredient than this. But seldom, il ever
do we recall any error of ours on the part
of kindness or find any occasion for regret
ting merciful allowances, favorable inter-
pretations or whatever a spirit Of kindness
may have prompted. We have never stood
by coffin or grave and repented of any
utmost or even unrequited kindness shown
to the person at rest there.
The Gospel of Christ Is precious because
1t is a gospel of the Exceeding great kind
ness of God toward us" In Christ, and be-
cause it is all the while aiming to touch
and waken the chords OF human sympathy
in our hearts; and in bringing US under the
law and into the spirit of brotherly kind
ness, to make us know and rejoice together
in the loving kindness of our God, or this
gospel we can all be ministers, and the
best and most useful portion Of our lives
Will be our little ,nameless, unremembered
acts OF kindness and Of love-"
Oh, then, since the time is short, "Be
swift to love, make haste to be kind'
EDWIN BOND PARKER.
Pastor OF the Second Church in Hartford,
Conn.