Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1901-10-24
DIR. TALMAGES SERMON
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.
iubject: The Power of Kindness - A
Spirit of Amitv and Good Feeling Is
to Be Commended - Victory Through
Good yysll-Most Potent of Woods.
[Copyright, 1901.

Copyright 1911 w
WASHINGTON, d. C.-In this diso irse
Or. Talmage commends the spirit of af1lty
and good feeling and mentions illustrious
examples of that spirit; text, Acts xviii,
;, The barbarous people showed us no lit
lie kindness"
Here we are on the Island of Malta. an
,ther name for Melita. This island. which
has always been an important commercial
centre, belonging at different times to
Phoenicia, to Greece, to Rome, to Arabia,
20 Spain, to France, now belongs to Eng
land. The area of the island is about 100
square miles. 1t is in the Mediterranean
Sea, and of such clarity of atmosphere
that Mount Etna. l30 miles away, can be
distinctly seen. The island is gloriously
memorable because the Knights of Malta
FOR long while ruled there but most IA
nous because of the apostolic shipwreck.
The bestormed vessel on which Paul
sailed had "laid to" on the starboard tack,
md the wind was blowing east-northeast,
and, the vessel drifting probably mile
and half an hour, she struck at what is
aow called st. PauPs Bav. Practical sail
ors have taken up the Bible account and
decided beyond controversy the place OF
the shipwrecll But the island which has
so rough coast, is for the most part
yarden. Richest fruits and profusion of
honey characterized it in PauPs time as
well as now. The finest oranges, figs and
olives grow there.
When Paul and his comrades crawled up
on the beach, saturated and hungry from
long abstinence from food and chilled to
the bone, the islanders, though called bar
oarians because they could not speak
Greek, opened their doors to the ship
wrecked unfortunates. My text finds the
. ships crew ashore on Malta and around
hot fire 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 severe sickness in
the house at that time, his father down
with dangerous illness. Yea, for three
months they stayed on the island watch
ing for a ship and putting the hospitality
of the islanders to severe test But it
endured the test satisfactorily, and it is
recorded for all the ages of time and eter
nity to read AMI hear in regard to the in
habitants of Malta, .'The barbarous people
showed US no little kindness
Kindness! What a great word that is!
1t would take reed as long as that which
the apocalyptic angel used to measure
heaven to tell the length, the breadth, the
height of that munifcent word. 1t is
favorite Bible word, and it early launched
in the book of Genesis, caught up in the
book of Joshua, embraced in the book of
crowned in the book of Psalms and en-
throned in many places in the New Tes-
lament. Kindness! A word no more
gentle than mighty. / expect it will wres
tic me down before | get through with it.
1t is strong enough to throw an archan
gel. But it will be we'll 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 Maltese made themselves i'm
mortal in my text by the way they treated
these victims of the sea THE barbarous
people showed us no little kindness"
Kindness! 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 a con-
tribution 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
climacteric grace; it is u combination of
all the graces; it is compassion; it is the
perfection of gentle manliness and wom-
anliness." Are you all through! You
have made dead failure in your defini-
ton. 1t cannot be defined. But we all
know what it is, for we have all felt its
power. Some of you may have felt 1t 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
Ete had either from earth or heaven hands
stretched out which 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. Kindness! You cannot affect it !;
you cannot play it as a part; you cannot
enact it; you cannot dramatize it. BY the
grace of God yor must have it inside you,
an everlasting summer, or, rather, COM
bination of June and October, the genial
ity of the one and the tonic of the other
1t cannot dwell with arrogance or spite or
pearance in the soul all these Amalekites
and Gergishites and Hitttes and Jebu
sites must quit and quit forever. Kind
ness wishes everybody well. every child
WELL every bird well. every horse well,
every dog well, every cat we'll
Give this spirit full swing, and you
have no more need of societies for
-,yention of cruelty to animals, no more
I eed of protective sewing women's asso
ations, and it would dull every sword
It'll it would not cut skin deep and un-
eel every battery till it could not roll
NJ | make gunpowder of no more use in
I world except for rock blasting or py-
rt chnic celebration
but are you waiting and hoping for some
one to be bankrupted or exposed or dis
comtted or III some way overthrown?
Then kindness has not taken possession of
your nature. You are wrecked on a Malta
where there al 4. no oranges. You are en-
u guest 30 hlHuHeSS tIaU
kindness will not come and dwell under
the same roof. The most exhausting and
unhealthy and ruinous spirit on earth is a
revengeful spirit or retaliating spirit, as |
know by experience, for l have tried it for
five or ten minutes at a time. When some
mean thing has been done me or said
about me, / have felt Il will pay him in
his own coin. l will show him up. The
migrate, the traitor, the liar. the villain"
But five or ten minutes of the feeling has
been SO unnerving and exhausting l have
abandoned it, and | cannot understand
how people can go about torturug them
selves FIVE or ten or twenty years, trying
to get even with somebody. The only
way you will ever triumph over your enc
mics is by forgiving them and wishing
them all good and no evil
As malevolence is the most uneasy and
protitless and dangerous feeling, kindness
is the most healthful and delightful. And
this is not an abstraction. AS l have tried
a little of the retaliatory feeling, so l 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 kindness.
Let us all pray for this spirit of kind
pesc II will sattla thnueanI ouectionS