Page:MyPrayerBookHappinessInGoodness.djvu/76

 cuit — because all  this  is  of  their  very  nature. In the most trivial  things  of  daily  life  the  spirit  of  kindness should render  itself  evident."  ...

"Kindness is  as  the  bloom  upon  the  fruits  —  it  renders charity  and  religion  attractive  and  beautiful. Without  it,  even  charitable  works  lose  their  power  of winning  souls;  for,  without  kindness,  the  idea  of  love, the  idea  of  anything  supernatural  —  in  a  word,  of Jesus,  is  not  conveyed  to  the  mind  by  the  works  performed,  even  though  they  be  done  from  a  right  motive. There  is  such  a  thing  as  doing  certain  exterior  actions, which  are  intended  to  be  charitable,  ungraciously. Now,  actions  thus  performed,  do  not  manifest  the  kindness of  the  heart  of  Jesus,  nor  will  they  be  efficacious in  extending  the  empire  of  His love,  or  in  winning  souls to  His  kingdom.  The  fruit  may  be  sound,  but  the bloom  is  not  on  it ;  hence  it  is  uninviting.  .  ..

"How many  a  noble  work  has  been  nipped  in  the bud  by  the  blast  of  an  unkind  judgment;  how  many a  generous  heart  has  been  crushed  in  its  brightest  hopes by  a  jealous  criticism;  how  many  a  holy  aspiration, destined  to  bear  abundant  fruit  for  God  and  souls,  has been  forced  back  into  the  poor  heart  from  whence  it  had ascended,  there  to  be  stifled  utterly  and  forever,  leaving that  heart,  as  the  poet  so  graphically  represents  it, 'like  a  deserted  bird's  nest  filled  with  snow,  because unkindness  had  robbed  it  of  that  for  which,  perhaps, alone  it  cared  to  live.  How  much,  then,  we  may  believe has  been  lost  to  the  world  of  all  that  is  good  and great  and  beautiful  through  the  instrumentality  of  unkindness; and  if  it  be  thus,  what  developments,  on  the other  hand,  may  we  not  expect,  in  the  order  of  grace  as well  as  of  nature,  in  the  hearts  and  minds  of  men  beneath  the  genial  sun  of  kindness.