The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1900-05-01
Christian Life Column,


Love to neighbOr has been gath
cred into circles, and formed into So
c1etles. Each virtue we possess, each
trait of character that rises ever so
timidly above the cOmmoner traits
with which it is surrounded, has been
made to head, in capital letter, some
cause, or further some good work.
Every higher aspiration of our ma
lures has in some way been drawn
within the reign of a president, a
secretary, and an executive commit
tee, and our warmest heart thought
is symbolized by a cross, a r bbon,
or a suggestive pin.
But the proportionate decrease in
personal kindness is a cause for some
anxiety. OF all the kindness in the
world, no act be it ever so genuine
or wisely accomplished, compares
with the spontaneous OutgO of a
sympathetic heart toward anOther's
need. Quicker than an electric cur
rent, more powerful to help than a
legion of armed men, is the individ-
ual heart-to-heart contact of want
and succOr.
A society, be it's members ever so
wise, must always deal more with
the class than with the individual.
1t is left for the ordinary man and
woman, ordinary everyday life, to
train eye and ear and hand into a
readiness for the personal calls that
will certainly come to them. Our
temptation is to Overvalue the kind
deed which will be chrOnicled, to de
vote our strongest energies to the
work of our committee, to attend
first to those duties which call for
reports" Personal kindness rarely
reaches the printed page. 1t is Of
ten attended with little applause.
The reward may even linger in com
ing, but a fairer page than that of
any society records these deeds,
when the Recording Angel enters a
work of love wrought by earthly
hands.
So long as infancy is a helpless
time of sweet dependence, and old
age calls for tenderest care, so long
as sickness strikes its blast over
those who are near and dear to us,
while boys are headstrOng and girls
full of frailties, until our friends no
longer need US, and OUr work in the
world is done, there will be many
and increasing calls for individual
acts of kindness. Men and women
may be grouped in a hundred ways
in the outer world, but the home
still holds the individual, and the
temptation of the day to find life's
best fulflments outside the home, is
an unnatural growth of the philan-
thrOpic instinct.
Personal kindness carries with it u
far-reaching influence. It is kind
nes with a personality behind it,
and a God-like personality. Il have
fashioned my life after my benefac-
tors" says more than n young
man, whose life's promise once hung
by a slender thread on the possibility
of an individual kindness. Sitting
day-by-day beside the baby's cradle,
buttOning little shoes, making little
faces bright and shining, teaching
little minds and hearts the first les
sons on the road of life, to
many women a life shut in from the
good works of the world.
''She does so much" said a young
mother of a friend, who was a wO-
man of marked executive ability,
''whiIe l am shut in with the
babies" All, but the wOman in the
home with the babies has time for
personal acts of kindness. While
she rocks the baby's cradle, she
pours sympathy into the stricken
heart of a friend. Even her baby's
hands work in her behalf, clinging
with their soft clasp to the friend
sick at heart. No meeting OF com
mittee is waiting for the young
mother. Her home is full of care,
but her heart is full of love. She is
quick to see where she can be help
full. Helpfulness is her life. Around
her hearthstone is the sweetest place
on earth.
Personal kindnesses are the freewill
offerings of our lives. Some things
are asked of us which we cannot re-
fuse, some we are bound by promises
to perform, others are the result Of