Joy in Cruelty | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 4, 1898

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 24, No. 31.

Joy in Cruelty.

An English minister tells us how one morning he met a boy in Ireland, near Belfast Lough, with a bright, happy face, whistling with delight; when he asked him, “My boy, what makes you so happy?” “Why, sor, I’ve just killed six lambs.” He was a butcher’s boy and evidently had no sense of wrong-doing. He had his work to do, and he did it without a thought of its brutality. He evidently felt glad because he was advancing in his trade. So it is that the young are oftentimes trained to cruelty. It begins with cruelty to the brute creation, insensibility to and even delight in their sufferings. It ends oftentimes in cruelty to mankind and perhaps murder. The tender sensibilities and gentle-heartedness of the child can not be too safely guarded. It is a mistake to think that these will lead to cowardice. The bravest, manliest man that this world ever saw was Jesus Christ; he was also the gentlest, the kindest, the most merciful.