The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-09-24

age on your forehead. for that is an
ugly cash you got from the floating tim
bers. And here il z man with a broken
arm; we will ave a doctor come TO at
ten to this fracture" And, though for
three months the kindness went on. we
have little more than this brief record:
1.-The barbarous people showed US no lit
tie Kindness"
Hopeful and Cordial Words.
Oh, say the cordial thing! Say the use
full thing. Say the h~ospitable thing. Say
the helpful thing. Say the Christlike
thing. Say the kind thing. / admit that
it is easier for some temperaments than
for others. Some are born pessimists,
and some are born optimists, and that
demonstrates itself all through every
thing. 1t is a cloudy morning. You meet
n pessimist, and you say, What weather
today" He answers, Its going TO
Storm" and umbrella under arm and wa
terproof coat show that he is honest in
that utterance. On the same block, 4
minute after, you meet an optimist, and
o say. What do you think Of the COM
mercial prospects," and he y "Glori-
Gus. Crops not SO good as usual, but for
eign demand will make big prices. We
are going to have such an autumn and
winter Of prosperity as we have never
seen" On your way back TO your store
o meet a pessimist merchant, What
do you think Of the commercial pros
p~ects?" you ask, and he answers: "Wen,
I don't know. Wheat and corn crop
blasted in Kansas and Missouri, and the
grain gamblers will get their fist in, and
the hay crop is short in some places, and
in the southern part of Wisconsin they
had q hailstorm, and our Atsiness is as
dull as it aver was" You will find the
same difference in judgment of character.
A man of good 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:
Il don't believe a word of it. l don't
think that q man that has been as useful
and seemingly honest for twenty years
could have got off track like that. There
are two sides to this story. and 1 will
wait to hear the other side before l con-
denim him" My nearer. if you are by
nature a pessimist, make a special effort
by the grace of God to extirpate the dol
orous and the hypercritical from your
disposition. Believe nothing against my
body until the wrong is established by at
least two witnesses of integrity. And, il
guilt be proved. find out the e~xtenuating
circumstances if there are any. Kind
ness! Let us. morning, noon and night,
pray for it until we get it.
When you. can speak q good word for
some one, speak it. If you can conscien-
tiously give 4 letter Of recommendation,
give it. Watch for opportunities for do
ing good fifty years after you are dead.
IL nv ,f, boz 49,, aT11Aol L. A. L.
ter Of introduction that the Rev. D. Van
Vranken of New Brunswick Theological
seminary wrote for me, a boy under him,
when l was seeking a settlement in which
to preach the gospel. That letter gave
me my first pulpit. On Van Vranken
has been dead more than thirty years, yet
1 feel the touch of that magnificent old
professor. Strange sensation was it when
l received a 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 he gave the
message until nearly two months after
Thomas Guard had assembled. So you
can start a word about some one that
will be on its travels and vigorous long
after the funeral psalm has been sung at
your obsequies. Kindness! Why, if fifty
men all aglow with it should walk
through the lost world methinks they
would almost abolish perdition.
Kindness of Action.
Furthermore, there is kindness of &c
ton. That is what Joseph showed to his
outrageous brothers. That is what Da-
vid showed to Mephibosheth for his IA
ther Jonathan's sake. That is what One
siphorus showed to Paul in the Roman
penitentiary. That is what William Cow
per recognized when he said he would not
trust a man who would with his foot
needlessly crush a worm. That is what
our assassinated President Lincoln dem
onstrated when his private secretary
found him in the capitol grounds trying
to get a bird back to the nest from which
it had fallen and which quality the illus
trious man exhibited years before when,
having with some lawyers in the carriage
Oh the way to court passed on the road a
swine fast in the mire, after awhile cried
to his horses, "Ho!" and said to the gen.
tlemen, 81 must 60 back and help that
hog out Of the mire." And he did go
back and put on solid ground that most
uninteresting q%uadruped. That was the
spirit that was manifested by my depart
ed friend, Hon. Alexander 81. Stephens
Of Georgia-and lovelier man never ex-
changed earth for heaven-when at
Washington. A senator's wife, who told
US Of the circumstances, said to him,
"Mr. Stephens, come and see my dead
canary bird" And he answered. mo; l
could not look at the poor thing without
crying" That Is the spirit which last
night ten thousand mothers showed to
their sick children coming to give the
drink at the tenth call as cheerfully and
as tenderly as at the first call.
Suppose all this assemblage and all
to whom these words shall come by
printers type should resolve to make
kindness an overarching. u~ndergirding
and all ~pervading principle of their life
and then carry 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 4 better place to live in.
Why, life after all is worth living. Why.
there is Shylock, my neiGhbor, has with