The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-09-24
tragedy: hand It in. and I am sure the
n /, 0irr editor rr;u ,otx "a:

HHu3gluS euilOF VIII take IT.
And / heard this morning of a poor
old man whose three children were in hot
debate as to who should take care OF him
IN his declining days. The Oldest son de-
clared that il was his right because he
was the oldest. and the youngest son said
II was his right because he was the
youngest, and Mary said it was her right
because she better understood fathers
vertigo and rheumatism and poor spells
and knew better how TO nurse him. and
the only way the difficulty could be set
tied was BY the old mans promise that he
would divide the year into three parts and
spend a third OF his time with each one of
them. And n~eighboring stores in the
same line of goods on the same block are
acting kindly to each other. 1t seems to
me that those words Of Isaiah are being
fulfilled when he says, The carpenter en-
courased the goldsmith and he that
smoothed with the hammer. him that
smote the anvil, saying, il is ready for
the soldering What is the matter? 1t
seefns to me our old world is picking up.
Why, the millennium must be coming in.
Kindness has got the victory"
New Dispen.atIon of G~eninIity.
My hearers, you know and 1 know we
are Tar frcm that state of things. But
why not i~naugurate q new dispensation
or genlality. If we cannot ave a millen-
mum on q large scale, let US have it on a
small scale and under our own vestments.
Kindness, If this world is ever brought
to God, that is the thing that will do it.
You cannot fret the world up. although
you may fret the world down. You can
not scOid it into excellence or reformation
or godliness.
The east wind and the west wind were
one day talking with each other, and the
east WIND said 70 the west wind: Don't
you wish you had my power? Why,
when | start they hail ME by storm sig
nails a.! along the coast. | can twist off
a ships mast as easily as a cows hoof
cracks an alder. With ore sweep of ny
wing | have strPvn the coast from New
foundlaud - Key West with parted ship
timber. | can I.ft and have lifted the
Atlantic ocean, | am the terror of all
inva!idis-. and 10 t!=ht me back forests
must be cut down for fires. and the mines
Of continents are called on to feed the
furnaces. Under my breath the nations
crouch i2to s"pu!chers. Don't you wish
you had NY power" said the east wind.
The west wind made no answer, but
started on its mission. coming somewhere
Oul VI li-t IOSS pohtl Vi IL SA. uLu AZ
the rivers and lakes and seas smiled at its
coming. The gardens bloomed. and the
orchards ripened. and the wheatfelds
turned their silver into gold, and health
clapped it's hands, and joy shouted from
the hilltops, and the nations lifted their
foreheads into the light, and the earth
had a doxology for the sky, and the sky
an anthem for the earth, and the warmth
and sparkle and the gladness, and the
foliage, and the flowers, and the fruits,
and the beauty, and the life were the only
answer the west wind made to the inso-
lence of the east winds interrogation.
Kindness to all! Surely it ought not to
be a difficult grace to cultivate when we
see towering above the centuries such an
example that one glimpse of it ought to
melt and transform all nations. Kind
ness brought our Lord from heaven.
Kindness to miscreants, kindness to per-
secutors, kindness to the crippled and the
blind and the cataleptic and the leprous
and the dropsical and the demoniacal
characterized him ell the way and on the
cross; kindness to the bandits suffering
on the side Of him. and kindness to the
executioners while yet they pushed the
spear and hammered the spikes and
howled the blaspkemies. All the stories
of the John Towards and the Florence
Nightingales and the Grace Darlings and
the Ida Lewises pale before this trans
cendent example OF him whose birth and
life and death are the greatest story that
the world ever heard and the theme of
the mightiest hosanna that heaven ever
lifted. Yea. the very kindness that al
lowed both hands to be nailed to the
horizontal timber Of the cross with that
cruel thump, thump, now stretches down
from the skies those same hands filled
with balm for all our wounds, forgiveness
for all our crimes, rescue for all our serf-
doms.
And while we take this matchless kind
ness from God may it be found that we
have uttered our last bitter word, written
our last cutting paragraph. done our last
retaliatory action. felt our last revengeful
heart throb. And it would not be a bad
epitaph for any of US if. by the grace of
God, from this time forth we lived such
benefcent lives that the tombstone's
chisel could appropriately cut upon the
plain slab that marks our grave a sugges-
ton from the text, "He showed US no lit
tie Kindness But net until the last
child of God has got ashore from the
earthly storms that drove him on the
rocks like Mediterranean Euroclydons,
not until all the thrones of heaven are
mounted, and all the ~conquerors crowned.
and all the harps and trumpets and Or
gan of heaven are thrummed or blown
or sounded and the REASONED Of all chimes
and ages are in full chorus under the jul
bilant swing of angelic baton. and we
shall for thousands of years hav seen
the river from under tie throne rolling
into the "sea Of glass mingled with fire."
and this world we now inhabit shall be so
far in the past that only a stretch of ce-
lestial memory can recall that it ever ex-
listed at all, not until then will we under
stand what Nehemiah calls "the great
kindness" and David calls "the marvel
GUS Kindness" and Isaiah calls "the ever
lasting kindness" of God.
copyright, 1901, Louis Klopsch, N. ~