Year: 1872

by HENRY WARD BEECHER.


IT is easier, / think, TO persuade
thousand people to believe in the doctrine
of the Trinity it is easier to take a thou
sand people through all the intricacies of
the old forensic view of the atonement
il is easier to indoctrinate men i'm the
whole of the Calvinistic scheme-the five
points of Calvinism it is easier to take
them through the whole routine OF tech
nical theology, than 10 ground them in
this one truth, that the law of force
is the law of kindness-first, middle, and
last, kindness


Our impulse is to press matters, first
outwardly, and then, as the next higher
step, we press them passiOnately. And
we organize so as to compel men with
seventies. There are very few who feel
that every step in life, taken when we are
dealing with the sentient souls of our fel-
low men, is better taken when we take
1t In the gentleness of love, than when we
take it by any form of rude force There
are very few who feel that you are to be
kind to the erring; kind to those who
offend you kind to those that persecute
you, that despitefully use you, and hate
you kind to those who would send you
to hell if they could. There are very
few who feel that you are to be kind all
the time, and that you should make no
progress but that which you can make by
kindness and gentleness, and that it is
| anti-C Christian to slap and pinch, and
knock, and pierce, and hurt, and annoy.
How hard it is TO get this into mems
minds


| Well, here / sit, talking as though /
were penetrated with this feeling; and
yet it may be that the first thing do to-
morrow morning will be to overthrow my
whole doctrine, by severely judging some
| fellow-man who has done wrong, and
speaking harshly of him, and justifying
myself by saying, "Well, he deserves it."


l go among good men, and see some
who teach me lesson every time 1 meet
them. Their patience is my master. Their
forbearance is my model. Their sweet
ness is my despair. / see some persons
who l think have the mind and will of
Christ. They are full of benevolence and
goodness. Their rinfiuence upon men is that
which can only be produced by kindness.
There are great many Others who are
good in the main, Who in the main live
right, who have a very high ideal of life,
but into whom you can hardly beat the
thought that it is not their province to
smite somewhere, or sometime, or some
how; that kindness is the disposition
which every man should forever carry,
and that it is by the continuous force of
goodness, well applied, and necessarily
applied, that you are to make your way
among men.


The beauty of it is that when it is done,
and where it is dsne, it is invariably con-
sistent with truth-speaking Was there
ever anybody in this world that spoke the
truth more fully than mother to a little
child? When was there ever in speaking
the truth love more tender and more gen
tie than a mothers whose eyes are full OF
tears when the child's are dry, in speak
ing the truth to the child? This spirit OF
kindness and gentleness is not inconsis
tent with justice, for love is the highest
justice in the universe. God is just be
cause he loves A God without love Gi
YOU can conceive of such Cod is God
of infinite injustice


Most people think that when we SPEAK
of love and kindness, we mean mere in
difference; that we mean a benevolence
which is mere moonshine; that we mean
a religion which is than and unfructify
ing; that we mean an amiableness which
is without force No, that is not what We
mean. The love which was in Chris
Jesus, which wrought in the councils o
heaven, which brought the Son of God tC
earth, and which bore him through hi
human experience, and led him int
| anu llOih 1CthoCLlltAAfC u
Calvary, and from Calvary to Bethany
and from Bethany, by his ascension, bacl
to heaven, where he now holds matter b.
the right hand of universal power-tha
love is replete with force, and is edgeC
with truth, and is radiant with justice
and is itself supernal. 1t is glorious il
heaven, and full of wonderful blessed
ness on earth. And when we are disci
pies of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shal
know it by this, that we love our fellow
men, and that our hearts go out, not onll
to those who are good, but to those wh'
are bad; and more to those who are bat
than to those who are good, that we ma,
love them out of their imperfectiOns, ant
and make them like the sons of God.
: Now, to be able to look at everybod,
without Disgusting the truth, to be abl
to see things in their true light, but to b.
able to see them in such large spirit o
true human sympathy that you wish every
, body well-that though they do wron,
you wish them well, and wish the
might be taught to do better; to b,
able to bear and forbear with men
and TO be just, especially toward thos,
who have no chance to speak fo


themselves-toward the absent; to b,
able to be Just in your thoughts, and nevel
to severely judge your fellow men in tha
silent court where we arraign people with
out witnesses, and examine them, and tr,
them, and form our judgments of them


to be able at all times, and under all cir
cumstances, to exercise feeling of sym
pathy and love toward men-that is hard
1t may be easy to you, but it is hard fo
me and there are some other folks that
see in the world whom it is hard for, too
Christian Union.