from God and his happiness through his brother man.

Several years ago an industrial war was waged in the coal districts of
England that cost that nation untold treasure. It is said that the
strife grew out of harsh words between the leaders of the opposing
factions. It seemed that the industrious and worthy poor men
overlooked the fact that there were industrious and worthy rich men and
insisted on speaking only of the idle and spendthrift rich. Then
followed his opponent who, as an industrious and worthy rich man,
insisted on ignoring the industrious and worthy poor, but spoke only of
the idle and thriftless poor, the paupers and parasites. Soon
gentleness was forgotten and harshness remembered. Soon there came the
trampled cornfields and the bloody streets.

Teachers also need to learn the lesson of Arnold of Rugby. One day the
great instructor spake harshly to a dull boy, who an hour afterward
came to him with tearful eyes, and in a half-sobbing voice exclaimed;
"But why are you angry, sir? I am doing my best." Then Arnold learned
that a lesson easy for one mind may be a torture for another. So he
begged the boy's pardon, and recognized the principle of gentleness
that afterward made him the greatest instructor of his time.

Not war, not pestilence, not famine itself, produces for each
generation so much misery and unhappiness as is wrought in the
aggregate through the accumulated harshness of each generation.
Blessed are the happiness-makers! Blessed are they who with humble
talents make themselves like the mignonette, creators of fragrance and
peace! Thrice blessed are they who with lofty talents emulate the
vines that climbing high never forget to blossom, and the higher they
climb do ever shed sweet blooms upon those beneath! No single great
deed is comparable for a moment to the multitude of little gentlenesses
performed by those who scatter happiness on every side and strew all
life with hope and good cheer.

Life holds no motive for stimulating gentleness in man like the thought
of the gentleness of God. Unfortunately, it seems difficult for man to
associate delicacy and gentleness with vastness and strength. It was
the misfortune of Greek philosophers and is, indeed, that of nearly all
the modern theologians, to suppose that a perfect being cannot suffer.
Both schools of thought conceive of God as sitting upon a marble
throne, eternally young, eternally beautiful, beholding with quiet
indif