The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1901-11-16
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without culture. But that great red rose
in the conservatory, its leaves packed on
leaves. deep dyed as though it had been
obliged to fight for its beauty and 1t 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 1t!
The King ce Prussia had presented 20
him by the Empress of Russia the root CT
a rare flower, and it was put in the royal
gardens on an 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 young
man. probably not realizing what wrong
thing he was doing. plncked this flower
and put it in his buttonhole. and the gar
dener arrested him as he was crossing at
the ferry and asked the king to throw
oren no more his gardens to the public.
The king replied: "Shall deny to the
thousands of good people of my country
the privilege Of seeing this .garden, because
one visitor has done wrong? No; let them
come and see the beautiful grounds: Anh
when the gardener wished to give tn,
king the name of the offender who had
taken the royal flower he said: No; my
memory is very tenacious, and co not
want to have in my mind the name OF the
offender. lest it should hinder me granting
him favor some other time" Now. !
want Won to know that kindness is royal
flower, and, blessed be God, the King Of
Mercy and Grace. that by divine giit
and not by purloining we may pluck THIS
royal flower and not wear it on the outside
of our nature, but wear it in our soul and
wear it forever, its radiance and aroma
not more wonderful for time than wonder
full for eternity
On your way to noon luncheon You meet
an optimistic merchant, and you say:
"What do you think of the c .1,,
prospects," and he gays: "Glorious!
demand will make big prices. we. are
going to have. such an autumn and winter
prosperity as we have never seem"
On your wav back to your store You
meet pessimistic merchant What 40
you think of the commercial prospects,"
YOU ask. And he answers: "Weil. don't
know. Wheat and corn crop blasted in
Kansas and Missouri. and the grain gam
blers will get their fist in. and the hay.
crop is short in some places and IN the
southern part of Wisconsin they had
hailstorm, and our business is as dull as
it ever 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: 81 don't
believe a word of it. don't think that
man that has been as useful and seemingly
honest for twenty years could have got OF
track like that. There are two sides to
this story. and ] will wait to hear the
other side before condemn him."
My hearer, if you are by nature pes
simist, make a special effort by the grace
of God to extirpate the dolorous and the
hypercritical from your disposition. Be-
iieve nothing against anybody until the
wrong is established.
When you can speak a good word for
some one, speak it. If you can conscien-
tiously give letter of recommendation.
doing good fifty years after you are dead.
All my life has been affected by the letter
of introduction that the Rev. DR.. Van
Vranken. of New Brunswick Theological
Seminary, wrote for me, a boy under him,
when was seeking a settlement in which
to preach the gospel. That letter gave me
my first pulpit. DR.. Van Vranken has
been dead more than thirty years, yet
feel the touch Of that magnificent cd pro-
lCSSOE. ELIdIlSC oCuSdGioA W dS ~ " ASai L
received 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 as
cended.
So you can start word about some one
that will be on its travels and vigorous
L. &hn laval hos hccn
at your obseeuies. Kindness! Why, if
fifty men all aglow with it should walk
through the lost world methinks they
would almost abolish perdition!
Furthermore, there is kindness of &C.
ton. That is what Joseph showed to his
outrageous brothers. That is what David
showed to Mephibosheth for MS father
Jonathan's sake. That is what Onesiphe-
rus showed to Paul in the Roman peniten-
ognized when he said he would not trust
a man who would with his foot needlessly
crush worm. That is what our assassi.
mated President Lincoln demonstrated
when his private secretary found him In
the capitol grounds trying to get bird
back to the nest from which it had fallen
and which quality the illustrious man ex-
hibited some years before when, having,
with some lawyers, in the carriage on the
way W CouAt passed. III IhC AooU o" my
fast in the miro, and after while cried
to his horses, "Ho!" and said to the gen
tlemen, II must go back and help that
hog out of the mire." And he did go back
and put on solid ground that most unin-
teresting quadruped.
Suppose all this assemblage and all to
whom these words shall come by printers
ink should resolve to make kindness an
oyerarching, undergirding and all pervad-
ing 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 bet
ter place to live in. Why, life, after all,
is worth living. Why, there is Shylock,
my neighbor, has Withdrawn his lawsuit
of foreclosure against that man, and be-
cause he has so much sickness in his fam
lily he is going to have the house for one
year rent free. There is an old lawyer in
that young lawyers Office, and do you
know what he has gone in there for!
Why, he is helping to fix up case which
is too big for the young man to handle,
and the white haired attorney is hunting
IN previous decisions and making out a
brief for the boy. Do you know that a
strange thing has taken place in the pull |
pit, and all the old ministers are helping !
the young ministers, and all the Old doc /
tors are helping the young doctors, and
the farmers are assisting each other in |
gathering the harvest, and for that farmer |
who is sick the neighbors have made a |
bee, as they call it, and they have all |
turned in to help him get his crops into |