The age-herald., 1901-01-06

nedrl-nunSer, or unappedSeu longing anu ungratified hope, of sobs and tears and wild spasms of regret, of sin and sorrow and nameless vice, grief and all manner of woe in houses men builded as homes of love and faith.
 For to the noble mind, rich gifts wax poor when giverf prove unkindr" No gift is so rich as love, and no unklndness is so monstrous as that which follows gift so superlative!' It were less a heinous offense to stand before the judgment bar of con- science confessed thief than to stand there confessedly unkind.
 
 And so also with our friends, compan- ions, comrades, and all our world, my be- loved! We, if we be deserving, have given all glad greeting, cheerful hail, the Good day-God bless you, of the faithful pure of heart; and to none of these to whom we have given the priceless gifts of our good fellowship, kindly regard, love, shall we in any measure be unkind and still to our- selves be true and meritorious.
 The laws of the humanities, the mandate of that truth which is God, forbid us to cause to wax poor by our unkindness the gifts we have bestowed. Every act of un- klnQn6SS, 10 WnOTnSOeVer or to WnaISOeYer living creature shown, is an act of wrong fitness; and by the natural rules of our lives and by the divine law we are for. bidden to do any wrong act soever. Spirits sometimes become rebelious, but rather than be unkind it were better that we be dumb till the impulse of rebellion passse for no sting of unkindness was ever yet wholly healed. We wound, are forgiven, em- braced, but a scar remains deeper than alchemy of the soul can reach
 That child of sin, of whatever age, who would heedlessly wrong another, who would prove unkind, would needlessly strike a dumb beast, and whoso would do this stands at the parting of the ways of vir- tue and vice. Observe dog, you shall know his master.
 Unkindl that word cries every hour to heaven for vengeance. It is the horrible holocaust of human hearts, for ever burn ing and cursing and damning beyond hope of redemption in this life or in the vast afterwhile of the spirit world
 Kindness would make earth heaven, and the raiment of convention. On the even HE Ol tHe udy WHtn tLS iicW ScHiuiy olOiS in upon us at prayer, kindness feasted in the semblance of exquisite maidens and mo- ble youths It was the most fitting of all conceivable festivals, after the sacred watch of the church. It was poetry, TO- nance, song, love, beauty, kindness, joy. It was grace, culture, refinement, enlight- enment the harmony of life as life. It was nature and art eliminated in a noble symphony of youth and laughter and hap piness, forming splendid picture of ideal- ism and realism such one may not hope to view twice in lifetime
 Youth and love and beauty and gallantry and the highest culture attainable in young years, were incarnated here, the old year and the old century gone, the new year and the new century come, and the golden mo- ments of joy speeding in the softened lights of luxury. None but an artist could have none but painter executed with such con- summate taste, such incomparable skill.
 
 About the long and wide board of the banquet with it's snowy covering, there sat the tender maidens and the gallant youths attendant all of them in the full meridian of that golden day which makes for wo- manhood. manhood. Great banks of roses of the hue of maiden's cheeks swayed in that atmosphere of purity and innocence and joy, pink carnations trembled above young hearts that loved, and a pink glow. filled all the spacious and stately chamber. scene of many an hour of gladness that is done. Yet nor art nor garden gave so sweet a flush as suffused those faces Of beauty. They all were there, all the graces.