Of the old kings, with high enacting looks,
Sceptred and globed; of eagles on their rocks,

With straining feet, and that fierce mouth and drear,
Answering the strain with downward drag austere ;
Of the rich-headed lion, whose huge frown,

All his great nature, gathering seems to crown;
Then of cathedral, with its priestly height,
Seen from below at superstitious night;

Of ghastly castle, that eternally

Holds its blind visage out to the lone sea;

And of all sunless subterranean deeps

The creature makes who listens while he sleeps;
Avarice; and then of those old earthly cones

That stride, they say, over heroic bones;

And those stone-heaps Egyptian, whose small doors
Look like low dens under precipitous shores;
And him, great Memnon, that long sitting by,
In seeming idleness, with stony eye,
Sang at the morning's touch, like poetry;
And then of all the fierce and bitter fruit
Of the proud planting of a tyrannous foot,
Of bruised rights, and flourishing bad men,
And virtue wasting heavenwards from a den;
Brute force, and fury, and the devilish drougth
Of the foul cannon's ever-gaping mouth;

And the bride-widowing sword; and the harsh bray
The sneering trumpet sends across the fray;
And all which lights the people-thinning star
That selfishness invokes-the horsed war,
Panting along with many a bloody mane.

I've thought of all this pride, and all this pain,
And all the insolent plentitudes of power,

And I declare, by this most quiet hour,

Which holds in different tasks by the fire-light
Me and my friends here, this delightful night,
That Power itself has not one-half the might
Of Gentleness. 'Tis want to all true wealth;
The uneasy madman's force to the wise health;
Blind downward beating, to the eyes that see;
Noise to persuasion, doubt to certainty ;
The consciousness of strength in enemies,
Who must be strained upon, or else they rise;
The battle to the moon, who all the while,
High out of hearing, passes with her smile;
The tempest, trampling in his scanty run,
To the whole globe that basks about the sun:
Or as all shrieks and clangs, with which a sphere,
Undone and fired, could rake the midnight ear,
Compared with that vast dumbness nature keeps
Throughout her starry deeps,

Most old, and mild, and awful, and unbroken,
Which tells a tale of peace beyond whate'er was
spoken."
""*

These thoughts are worthy of the sublime subject. They speak its grandeur, and vividly contrast its mild and constant energy with terrific force and violence. It is a subject of which nothing too sublime and grand can be uttered. For kindness not only deals with the finite; it is also the essence of infinity itself. It burns in its purity in the human soul; and it is the majestic influence which forms the vast truth that "GOD IS LOVE."

* Poetical Works of Leigh Hunt, p. 172-Lond. ed., 1832.

CHAPTER XII.

THE BLESSINGS AND DUTY OF PRACTISING THE

LAW OF KINDNESS.

“Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase!)
Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace,
And saw within the moonlight in his room,
Making it rich, and like a lily in bloom,
An angel writing in a book of gold;
Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold,
And to the presence in the room he said,

'What writest thou?' The vision raised its head,
And with a look made of all sweet accord,

Answer'd, 'The names of those who love the Lord.'
'And is mine one?' said Abou. Nay, not so,'
Replied the angel. Abou spoke more low,
But cheerly still, and said, 'I pray thee, then,
Write me as one that loves his fellow-men.'

The angel wrote and vanish'd. The next night
It came again with a great wakening light,

And show'd the names whom love of God had bless'd
And lo! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest."
LEIGH HUNT.

IN whatever manifestation of its influence, the exercise of kindness may be considered, it will always confer a rich blessing upon the in

dividual who directs it and the individual upon whom it is brought to bear. Genuine kindness never carries blight and ruin with it, like the tornado; it always goes forth like the light and heat of the sun, bearing peace, joy, and sympathy to all whom it reaches. And when it returns to him who has exerted it, the rewards which earthly things can form, are given himor if he is not in a situation to require assistance from those who have felt the gentle dew of his affection, his soul is filled with the calm and steady, but ecstatic thought that others have been made happy by his actions. He can well appreciate the language of Lathrop

"Beneficence, regardless of herself,-
Of pride, ambition, policy or pelf,—
Enjoys in blest return, for one poor mite,
A mine, an empire, of sublime delight."

The history of life furnishes not a single illustration of the law of kindness, but proves the sacred declaration," cast thy corn upon moist ground, and after many days thou shalt find it."* For, as certain as corn will yield its increase to the sower, so certain is it that kindness flows back upon its worshipper with a hundred-fold of pure felicity. Well was it said by Hannah Moore

*Translation by Girard-Biblical Institutes, p. 142

"And he, whose wakeful tenderness removes

The obstructing thorn which wounds the friend he loves,

Smooths not another's rugged path alone,

But scatters roses to adorn his own."

It is the fact breathing in this poetry, which accounts for the simple but comprehensive answer which the good Oberlin returned as a reply to a question put to him by a visitor: "Ia ich bin glucklich,' (Yes, I am happy.)"* His incessant labors, in the humblest circumstances and with the greatest obstacles, for the good of his people, yielded him an abundant reward in their very exercise. Nor can any person doubt but that the venerable Franklin received the most exquisite pleasure, when, in reply to a letter from the celebrated George Whitefield, to whom he had rendered a kindness, he wrote as follows: "As to the kindness you mention, I wish it could have

But if it had, the that you would be

been of more service to you. only thanks I should desire is, equally ready to serve any other that may need your assistance, and so let good offices go round; for mankind are all of a family." To the same purport is a letter which he wrote while in Paris, to a man who desired money of him:

*Dr. Epp's Essays, p. 53.

+ Life of Franklin, No. 93, Family Library, p. 110.