LAW OF KINDNESS. CHAPTER I. KINDNESS AND REVENGE. Breathe all thy minstrelsy, immortal Harp! The soul of every living thing rejoice. POLLOK'S COURSE OF TIME, Book IX. As like physical causes produce like physical consequences as vice most assuredly results in misery— so revenge calls forth hate; for water does not more certainly tend to its level, than the exercise of malice and cruelty kindles the fires of anger and opposition in the soul. To small purpose has that individual perused the history of the world, who has not discovered that the common process of eradicating evil, has been to meet it with evil; and who has not seen that B the pathway of life has been almost universally lighted by the horrible spirit of retaliation? And to as little purpose has he examined the records of nations and individuals, if he is not convinced that when the law of kindness has been practised, it has been as much more salutary in its influence, and as much more glorious in its results, than those of revenge, as virtue is more salutary and glorious than iniquity. For while retaliation is like the storm which sweeps through the forest in destruction, kindness is like the combined influence of the sun and the rain of the cloud, which germinates seed, and unfolds their leaves, flowers, and odours. The spirit of revenge has flooded the world with evil. Millions have been slaughtered, cities have been sacked and burned, nations have been swept from political life, reputations have been ruined, families filled with discord, friends turned into bitter enemies, and all through revenge. If earth has a demon to dread, it is the power of retaliation. There is no clime but that has felt its blight, no soul but that has been more or less tainted by its poison. What has caused man to overwhelm his fellow-men with oppression and blood? What has urged so many nations to slaughter the captives of their power What brings a great proportion of the cases of litigation to the bar of the judge? What engenders the quarrels existing in every community?-REVENGE! Hideous principle, murderous passion, which slew the Saviour, and martyred the sainted Stephen. in cold blood? To point out the consequences which have flowed from the practice of the law of revenge, is but to insure its condemnation in every reflecting mind. And if we consider for a moment how many communities which have been desolated, might have been the abodes of happiness; how many dwellings which have been filled with the fury of unhallowed passions, might now be echoing with songs of salvation and virtue, were it not for the law of revenge; surely, the desire must be strong, and the prayer ardent, that the olive-branch of overcoming evil with good, may take the place of the deadly nightshade of retaliation. It may be said, however, that some of the principles of the Mosaic Law sanction the spirit of retaliation, in the requisition of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But it must be remembered, that the Mosaic Law, rich as it is in its provisions for the widow and the orphan, for hospitality and for other excellent precepts, introduced the law of retaliation into its statutes only as the preventive of an evil which already existed; the same as the lancet and the probe of the surgeon are necessary for the cure of a diseased limb. The Jews had been thoroughly debased in the Egyptian brickyards, and the foul airs of idolatry; they had been degraded by ignorance; they were a headstrong, wicked people; they were morally sick; and it was necessary to apply the lancet of fear to them. But this retaliatory principle was not instituted as a universal rule of action. For when the world was properly fitted and prepared, then a nobler law was given in a system which is superior to all other systems in its doctrine and morality. That system is CHRISTIANITY. While the ablest |