Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1901-09-23

! some one TO be DankrupCoQ OF exposed
or discounted or in some way over
/ thrown? Then kindness has not taken
possession of your nature. You are
! wrecked on q Malta where there are
: no oranges. You are entertaining q
/ guest so unlis-e kindness that kindness
I will not come and daen under the
same roof. The most eXhausting and
unhealthy and ruinous spirit on earth
is q revengeful spirit or retaliating
spirit, as L know by experience, for
have tried it for five or ten minutes at
time. When some mean thing has
been done me or said about me, l 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 l cannot 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
malevGlence is the most uneasy and
proftless and dangerous feeling kind
ness is the most healthful and delight
full. And this is not an abstraction.
AS l have tried a little of the retalia-
tory feeling, so 1 have tried little of
the forgiving. l do not want to leave
this wc4sd until 1 have taken venge-
ance upon every man that ever did me
a wrong by doing him kindness.
Let us all pray for this spirit of kind
ness. 1t will settle a thousand ques-
tions. 1t will change the phase of ev-
erything. 1t will mellow through and
through our entire nature. 1t will
transform a lifetime. 1t is not a feel
ing got up for occasions, but peren-
NAL. That is the reason l like petuniaS
better than morning glorieS. They look
very much alike, and if l should put in
your hand a petunia and a morning glO-
ry you could hardly tell which was 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 wide
spread a glow at - o'clock at noon and
6 o'clock in the evening as at sunrise.
And this grace of kindness is not spas
mOdic, it is not intermittent, is not for
a little while, but it irradiates the
whole nature all through and clear on
till the sunset of our earthly existence.
Kindness! 1 am resolved to get it.
Are you resolved to get it? 1t does not
come by haphazard, but through cul-
ture under 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 We're cul-
tured. God, implant kindness in |
all our souls and then give us grace to
watch it, to enrich it, to develop it.
A Royal Flower.
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 OH an island, and the !,
head gardener, 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 a young man, probably !
not realizing what q wrong thing he ,
was doing, plucked this flower and put /
it in his buttonhole, and the gardener |
arrested him as he was crossing at the !
ferry and asked the king to throw open |
no more his gardens to the public. The /
king replied: "Shall deny to the thou
sands of good people of my country the
privilege of seeing this garden because :
s,s4 ~ I0A
them come and see the beautiful !
grounds" And when the gardener !
wished to give the king the name of the |
offender who had taken the royal flow
er he said, mo; my memory is very |
tenacious, and 1 do not want to have in !
my mind the name of the offender, lest ,
it should hinder me granting him ia !
vor some ether time" Now, I want !
you to know that kindness is q royal !
flower, and, blessed be God, the King Of +
Mercy and Grace, that by a divine gift !
and not by purloining we may pluck !
this royal flower and not wear it on the
outside of our Rature, but wear it in .
our soul and wear it forever, its rsdi- !
ance and aroma not more wonderful !
for time than wonderful for eternity.
Still further, I must speak of kind !
ness of word. When you meet any one,
do you say a pleasant thing or an un-
pleasant? Do you tell him of agreea-
BILE things you have heard about him or
the disagreeable? When he leaves you,
does he feel better or does he feel
worse? Oh the power of the tongue
for the production Of happiness or mis-
cry! One would think from the way
the tongue is Gagged in we might take !
the hint that it has a dangerous pow
er. First, it is chained to the back part !