Speak Kindly | AdventAI

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 19, 1863

Speak Kindly.

"A LITTLE word in kindness spoken, A motion, or a tear, Has often healed a heart that's broken, And made a friend sincere."

What a tremendous and ever-living power there is in human words! They drop in an instant from the lips; but what mind can grasp the far-reaching results of the same? How many a noble, bounding heart has been crushed forever by a single word! How many a home, where once dwelt the angel of peace and happiness, has been darkened through all time by that suddenly-spoken word! And heaven only knows how many of earth's sons and daughters are now calmly reposing amid the gloom and silence of the sepulcher, who would be up and doing noble things for God and humanity upon life's great theater, had they never felt the killing power of harsh and unkind words! Alas! how few consider the potency of human utterances upon human happiness and destiny!

We must speak. The mutual relations and dependencies of life demand it. But we should always speak kindly and from hearts full of sympathy with our fellows. There is enough of unavoidable sorrow and suffering in the world without our swelling its current. We all need sympathy and kind words. They are a necessity of our natures. And that man wrongs humanity and abuses his own manhood, who can speak harshly to his inoffensive fellow, whatever the social disproportion between them in the estimation of men. Every man has, at least, a claim upon human sympathy, till that claim is vitiated by some deed of dishonor; and even in that case it is hard to see why harshness should be employed. Kind words and sympathies have ever reached the lowest objects of human hope, and thereby given to society some of its brightest lights and noblest ornaments. Both the world and the Church have lost many a diamond worth the setting, by not speaking kindly and gently to the erring.

Sympathy in man is indeed a high and holy attribute. Its sweet and encouraging voice lightens the toil and enlivens the spirit of many a child of earth, who, without it, would travel life's checkered pathway in sorrow and sadness. Under the mighty inspiration of that kindly-spoken word, there are those who are, at this moment, battling the stern difficulties of life with a newer and nobler energy, and all because of the inspiring magic of that kind utterance. What the gently distilled dew of heaven is to the plants and flowers, so is the kind voice of sympathy to the bosom that heaves under the pressure of life's accumulated sorrows and afflictions. It cannot help carrying gladness and sunshine with it in every direction, and awakening gratitudes that live forever. A kind word can no more die than the noble nature which prompts its utterance. It is a living and potential influence for good in the world forever! Those who have been wont to speak kindly to their fellows, have in this respect, an inheritance that is imperishable. Acting upon that principle, that

"The drying up a single tear has more Of honest fame than shedding seas of gore," the glory of the Alexanders and Cæsars of history pales before the peerless majesty of their deeds.

Then how cheap are words of kindness and sympathy! Who is so poor that he has them not at command? All have in their possession this instrument of power with which to bless humanity, whatever else is denied. And happy is the man who uses this God-given power aright. The world will be the better off by his having lived in it; for many a sad heart will be gladdened by him, many a depressed spirit will revive under his kindness, and many a noble hope, given up in despondency and tears, will be strengthened by his encouragement, and at last be made to yield a sublime fruition of bliss and happiness.

Let us, then, kind reader, cultivate the art of making people happy by our words and sympathies. If we do this, and do it successfully, let it be an established motto with us always to speak kindly to our fellows, and never, in a single instance, however great the temptation, to turn aside from this rule.—Ladies' Repository.