Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1901-09-25

could not look az TIE poor thing without
crying That is the spirit which last
night ten thousand mothers showed TO
their sick children coming to give the
drink nj the tenth ealla cheerfully and
as tenlefly as at the first call
Suppose all this assemblage and all
to whom these words shall come by
prjntcr's gpe should resolve to make
kia9ness an overarching, undergirding
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 a better place 70 live in,
Why, life after all IS worth living. Why,
there is Shglock, my neighhor, has with
drawn his lawsuit of foreclosure against
that man. and because he has had so
much sickness IN his family he IS going
20 have the house for one year rent free.
There is an Old lawyer in that young
lawyers otlice. aud do you kf what he
has gone IL there for? Why. he is help
ing to fix up a case which is too big for
the young man 10 handle, and the white
haired attorney is hunting up previous
decisions and making out brief for the
boy. Do you know that a strange thing
has taken place in the pulpit, and all the
old ministers are helping the young min
listers, and all the old doctors are helping
the young doctors, and the farmers are
assisting each other in gathering the har-
vest, and for that farmer who is sick the
neighbors have made bee.i rs they call
it. and they have ali turned in to help
hsssasy IA fs srtfF In
they tell me that the older and more
skiilfm re orters who have permanent
positions on papers are helping the young
fellows who are just beginning to try
and do not know exactly how TO do It.
And after a few erasures and interpola-
lions on the reporters pad they say,
Now. here is a readable account Of that
tragedy; hand it in. and | am sure the
managing editor will take it,
''And | heard this morning OF a poor
old man whose three children We're in hot
debate as to who should take care of him
in his declining days The oldest son de-
clared that it was his right because he
was the oldest. and the youngest son said
it was his right because he was the
youngest. aud Mary said ii was her right
because she better understood fathers
vertigo and rheumatism and poor spells
and knew better how to nurse him, nd
the only way the difficulty co,ld be set
tied was by the old mans promise that he
would divide the year into three parts and
spend third OF his time with each one Of
them. And neighbering stores in the
same line of goods on the same block are
acting kindly to each other. What is
the matter? It seems to me our old
world is picking up. Why. the mihen-
mum must be coming in. Kindness has
got the victory"
New Dispeusation of Geniality.
Ny hearers. you know and | know we
are far from that state of things. But
why not inaugurate a new dispensation
of geniality. If we cannot have millen-
MUM on Il large scale, let us have it on a
small scale and under our own yestments.
Kindnessi II this world is ever brought
TO God. that is the thing that win do it.
You cannot fret tha world up, although
you may fret the world down. You can
not scold it into excellence or reformation
or godlinesS
Kindness to alt. Surely it ought not to
be a difficult grace to cultivate when we
see towering above the centuries such an
example that one glimpse of it ought TO
melt and transform all nations. kiua-
ness brought our Lord from heaven.
Kindness TO miscreantS. kindness to per
secutors. Kindness to the crippled and the
blind and the cataleptic and the lepr0us
and the dropsical and the demoniacal
characterized him all the way and on the
cross; Kindness to the bandits suffering
ON the side of him, and kindness TO the
executioners while yet they pushed the
spear and hammered the spikes and
howled the blasphemies. All the stories
of the John IIowards and the Florence
NightingaleS and the Grace Darlings and
the Ida Levises pale before this trans
cendent example OF him whose birth and
life and death are the greatest story that
the world ever heard and the theme of
the mghtiest hosannit- that heaven ever
lifted. Yea. the very Kindness that al
lowed both hands 10 be nailed TO the
horizontal timber of the cross with that
cruel thnmp. thunp, now stretches down
from the skies those same hands filled
with balm for all our wounds forgiveness
for ali our crimes, rescue for all our serf-
doms.
And while we take this matchless kind
ness from God may it he found that we
have uttered our last bitter word, written
our last cutting paragraph. done our last
retaliatory action, felt our last revengetal
heart throb And it would not be a bad
epitaph fer any of us if. by the grace of
God. from this time forth we lived such
benefcent lives that the tombstone 5
chisel coui1 appropriately cut upon the
nlajn slab that marks our grave a sugges-
ton from the text, lie showed us no lit
lie Kindness But not until the last
child Of God has got ashore from the
earthly storms that drove him on the
rocks ike Mediterranean Euroclydons.
not until all the thrones Of heaven are
mounted. and all the conquerors crowned,
and all the harps and tfumpets and Or
cams OF heaven are thrunmed or blown
ar sounded and the rarsomed Of all climps
and ages are in frlI chorus under the ju-
bilant swing Of angelic baton, and we
shall for thousands Of years haze seen
the river from under the throne rolling
into the sea OF glass mingled with fire. y
and This world we now inhabit shall be 50
far in the past that only stretch Of ce-
lestial memory can recall that it ever ex-
istcd at all not until then will we under
stand what Nehemiah calls the great
Kindness and David calls "the marvel
Gus Kindness and Isaiah calls the ever
lasting kindness of God.
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