Kind Words by Sel.

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 18, 1871

Kind Words.

By Sel.

AS THE breath of the dew to the tender plant, they gently fall upon the drooping heart, refreshing its withered tendrils, and soothing its burning woes. Bright oases they are, in life's great desert. Who can estimate the pangs they have alleviated, or the good works they have accomplished?

Long after they are uttered do they reverberate in the soul's inner chamber, and sing low, sweet, liquid strains, that quell all the raging storms that may have before existed. And oh! when the heart is sad, and like a broken harp, the sweetest chords of pleasure cease to vibrate, who can tell the power of one kind word? One little word of tenderness, gushing in upon the soul, will sweep the long-neglected chords, and awaken the most pleasant strains.

When borne down with trials and troubles of life, we are ready to sink, fainting by the way, how like the cheering rays of sunshine do kind words come. They disperse the clouds, dispel the gloom, and drive sorrow far away.

Kind words are like jewels in the heart, never to be forgotten; but, perhaps, to cheer, by their memory, a long, sad life. While words of cruelty are like darts in the bosom, wounding and leaving scars that will be borne to the grave by their victim.

Why is it, then, that we do not always seek, by kind words, to scatter sunbeams along the pathway of others?—Sel.