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

0SA 100 IVY
on the mantel or in some corner where
NOBODY can see it, you find people walk
ing about your room looking this way and
mat n o ask them, What are you
LOOKING for?' and they answer, Where
Is that fower?" so if one has in his soul
TINS Infinite sweetness OF disposition its
perfume will whelm everything.
The Grace OF Forgiveness.
But are you waiting and hoping for some
one to be bankrupted or exposed or dis
comfted or in some way overthrown then
kindness has not taken possession of your
nature. You are wrecked On a Malta where
there are no oranges. You are entertain
ing a guest so unlike kindness that kind
ness 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 I
know by experience, for / have tried it
for five or ten minutes at a time. When
some mean thing has been done me or
said about me, l have felt: Il will pay
him in his own coin. / will show him up
The migrate, The t~raitori The liar!
The villain" But FIVE or ten minutes Of
the feeling has been 50 unnerving n ex-
hausting l have abandoned il, and / can
not understand how people can go about
%torturing themselves five or ten or twenty
years., trying to get even with somebody.
The only way you will ever triumph over
your enemies is by forgiving them and
wishing them all good and no evil. As
malevolence is the most uneasy and prof
iuess and dangerous feeling, kindness is
the most healthful and delightful. And
this is not an abstraction. AS I have
tried a little Of the retaliatory feeling, SO
I have tried a little of the forgiving. I
do not want to cave this world until I
have K vengeance upon every man
that ever did me a wrong by doing him a
kindness. In most Of such cases I have
already succeeded, but there are q few
malignants whom l am yet pursuing, and
L shall not be content until 1 have in some
wise helped them or benefited them or
blessed them.
Let US all pray for the spirit of kind
ness. 1t will settle a thousand questions.
twill change the phase of everything. 1t
will mellow through and through our en-
tire nature. 1t will transform a lifetime.
1t is not a feeling got up for occasions,
but perennial. That Is the reason l like pc
tunias better than morning glories. They
look very much alike, and i'll should put
in your hand q petunia and a morning
glory o could hardly tell which is the
petunia and which the morning glory.
But the morning glory blooms only a few
hours and then shuts up for the day,
while the petunia is in as widespread q
glow at II o'clock at noon and 6 o'clock
in the evening as at sunrise. And this
grace of kindness Is not spasmodic, it is
not intermittent, is not for q little while,
but it irradiates the whole nature all
through and clear on till the sunset of
our earthly existence.
Kindness! I am resolved to get it.
Are you resolved to get it? It does not
come by haphazard, but through culture
under the divine help. Thistles grow
without culture. Rocky mountain sage
grass grows without culture. Mullen
stalks grow without culture. But that
great red rose in the conservatory, it's
leaves packed on leaves, deep dyed as
though it had been obliged to fight for its
beauty and it were still reeking with the
carnage of the battle, that rose needed to
be cultured, and through long years its
floral ancestors were cultured. o God,
implant kindness in all our souls and then
give us grace to watch it, to enrich it, to
develop it!
Rare Flower From Royal Garden
The king Of Prussia had presented to
him by the empress of Russia the root of
a rare flower, and it was put in the royal
gardens on IN island, and the head gar
dener, Herr Fintleman, was told to watch
it. And one day it put forth its glory.
Three days of every week the people
were admitted to these gardens, and 4
young man, probably not realizing what
q wrong thing he was doing, plucked his
flower and put it in his ~buttonhOle, and
the gardener arrested him as he was cross
ing at the ferry and asked the king to
throw open no more his gardens to the
public. The king replied: "Shall I deny
to the thousands of good people of my
country the privilege of seing his garden
because one visitor has done wrong? No;
let them come and see the beautiful
grounds" And when the gardener wish
ed to give the king the name OF the Of
fender who had taken the royal flower he
said. NO; my memory is very tenacious,
and | do not want to have in my mind
the name OF tie ofepndc- lest it should
hindc: ne granting him a fnvcr some 9TH
err time" Now. | want You to know that
kindness is Il T2yIl tnwc". and blessed be
God. the kim Of E2e:cy HH'l grace. that
by a divine gi:,. aHd :"I h. purloining. we
may pluck thi. roy! ii2'Ncr and not wear
it on ID" outside IL OR nA:rru. hut wear
il il our soul and vCar il forever. it's
radiance aGti aroma not more wonderful
fo- ii.le then Wonderful for eternity.
Still further. ! mast speak of kindness
Of word. When You neet any one. do
you say . pleasant thing or an unpleas-
ant: Do you tell hiIH Of agreeable things
you nave heard about him or the dis
agreeable: When lie leaves you. does he
feel better Or does he feel worse? Oh,
the power Of the tongue for the produc-
ton of happiness or misery, One would
think from the way the tongue is Gagged
in we might take the hint that it he's a
dangerous power. First it is chained to
the back part of the mouth by strong
muscle. Their it is surrounded by the
teeth of the lower jaw. so many ivory
bars. and then by the teeth Of the upper
jaw. more ivory bars. Then. outside of
all. are the two lips, with the power of
compression and arrest And yet, not
w~ithstanding these four imprisonments
or limitations, how many take no hint in