p. 179 | Take Care

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 7, 1865

Take Care.

Do not wound the hearts of those you should shield. "Your anger may sting venomously. Your jealousy may do a mischief in one short hour that your whole life cannot repair. Your cruel pride may do a whole age's work in a day. You cannot take back the injuries you have done to those whose hearts lie throbbing next to yours. Ah! when Winter has frozen my heliotropes, it makes no difference that the next morning thaws them out. There lie the heliotropes, a black noisome heap. And it is possible for you to chill a tender nature so that no thawing can restore it. You may relent, but frost has been there, and you cannot bring back freshness and fragrance to the blossom. You cannot sweeten the embittered heart to which your words have been like scorpions. It is a terrible thing for a man to have the power of poisoning the hearts of others, and yet carry that power carelessly. He cannot find place for repentance, though he seeks it carefully with tears."