The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1901-10-09

the ferry and asked the king to throw
omen no more his gardens to the public.
The king replied "Shall l deny to the
thousands of good people of my country
the privilege of seeing this garden because
one visitor has done wrong? No, let them
when the gardener wished to give the
king the name of the offender who had
taken the royal flower, he said; mo; my
memory is very tenacious, and | do not
want to have in my mind the name of the
offender. lest it should hind der me granting
him a favor some other time" Now, I!
want YOU to know that kindness is a 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 1t on the outside
of our nature, but wear 1t IN our soul ana
wear it forever, it's radiance, and aroma
not more wonderful for time than wonder
full for eternity.
Still further, I must speak of kindness
of word. When you meet any one: do you
say a pleasant thing or an unpleasant!
Do you tell him of agreeable things you
have heard about him or the disagreeable?
When he leaves YOU, does he feel better
or does he feel worse? 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 dangerous power. First,
it is chained to the back part of the mouth
by strong muscle. Then it is surrounded
by the teeth of the lower. jaw, so many
ivory bars, and then by. the teeth of the
side of all, are the two lips, with the pow
er of compression and arrest. And yet,
notwithstanding these four imprsonments
or limitations, how many take no hint IN
regard to the dangerous power OF the
tongue, and the results are liberation,
scariication and damnation! There are
those if they know a good thing about you
and a 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 overharLlng, the vir-
the or the vice. We can greet Paul and the
ships crew as they come mn the beach of
Malta with the words: What a sorry
looking set you are! How little OF navl-
CATION you must know to run on these
rocks! Didn't YOU know better than to
put out in the Mediterranean, this winter
month? It was not 80 much OF ship,
ANYHOW. or it would not have gone to
pieces as soon as that. Well, what do yop
want? We have hard enough work to
make living for ourselves without hav-
ing thrust on US 276 ragamuffins." Not
so said the Maltese. think they said:
"Come in! Sit down by the fire, and
warm yourselves. Glad that you all got
off with your lives. Make yourselves at
home. You are welcome to all we have
until some ship comes in sight and you
resume your voyage.
meet a pessimistic merchant. what do
YOU think of the commercial prospects"
YOU ask. And he answers: "Well. I don't
know. Wheat and corn crop blasted IN
Kansas and Missouri, and the grain gam
blers will get their fist in, and the hay
crop is short in some places and IN the
southern part of Wisconsin they hac
hailstorm, and our business is as dull as
it ever was"
You will find the same difference in
Judgment of character. A man OF gooId
reputation is assailed and charged with
some evil deed. At the first story the
pessimist will believe in guilt. The papers
said so, and that's enough. Down with
him" The optimist will say: "I don't
believe word of it. don't think that a
man that has been as useful and seemingly
honest for twenty years could have got OF
track like that. There are two sides to
this story. and I will wait to hear the
other side before condemn him."
Ny hearer, if you are by nature pes
simist, make a special effort by the grace
OF God to extirpate the dolorous and the
Ihypercritical from. your disposition, Be-
lieve nothing against anybody until the
wrong is established.
When you can speak a good word for
some one, speak it. If you can conscien-
tiously give letter of recommendation,
give it. Watch for opportunities for
doing good fifty years after you are dead.
All nv life has been affected by the letter
of introduction that the Rev: DR.; Van
Vranken, of New Brunswick Theological
Seminary, wrote for me, q boy under him,
when was seeking a settlement in which
to preach the gospel. That letter gave me
my first pulpit. DR.. Van Vranken has
been dead more than thirty years, yet l
feel the touch of that magnificent old pro,
fessor. Strange sensation was it when l
received kind message from Rev. Thomas
Guard, OF Baltimore, the great Methodist
orator, six weeks after his death. By way
of the eternal world? Oh, no; by way OF
this world. I did not meet the friend to
whom ne gave the message until nearly
two months after Thomas Guard had as
cended.
So you can start word about some one
that will be on it's travels and vigorous
long after the funeral psalm has been sung
at your obsequies. Kindness Why, it
fifty men all aglow with it should walk
through, the lost. world methinks they
would almost abolish perdition!
Furthermore, there is kindness of ac-
ton. That is what Joseph showed to his
outrageous brothers. That is what David
showed to Mephibosheth for his father
Jonathan's sake That is what Onesiphe
rus showed t. Paul in the Roman peniten-
tiary. That is what William Cowper rec
oenized when he said he would not trust
a man who would with his foot needlessly
crush a worm. That IS what our assassl.
mated President Lincoln demonstrated
when his private secretary found him IN
the capitol grounds trying to get a bird
back to the nest from which 1t had fallen
and which quality the illustrious man ex-
hiblted some years before when, having,
with some lawyers, in the carriage on the
way to court passed on the road swine
fast in the mire, and after while cried
to his horses, "Ho!" and said to the gen.
tlemen, "I must go back and nelp that
hog out of the mire." And he did 60 back
and put on solid ground that most unin.
teresting quadruped.
Suppose all this assemblage and all to
whom these words shall come by printers
ink should resolve to make kindness an
overarchirg, undergiirding and all pervad'
ing prlnclple OF their lie anu IneH eai,y
out the resolution, why, in six months the
whole earth would feel it. People would
say: what is the matter? 1t seems to
me that the world is getting to be bet
ter place to live in; Why, life, after all,
is worth living. Why, there is shyloeki,,
my neighbor, has withdrawn his lawsuit
cause he has so much sickness in his fam
ily he is going to have the house for one
wear rent fee. There is an old lawyer in
that young lawyers Office, and do you
know what he has gone in there for?
Why, lie is helping to fix up case which
is too big for the young man to handle,
and tho srhite haired attorney is hunting