FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43  
44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   >>   >|  
in it, but I have lived to prove that every kind word spoken, and every good deed done, sooner or later returns to bless the giver." As the end drew near he said to his daughter: "Read me the twenty-third Psalm, for 'though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil.'" A few days later Westminster Abbey was crowded with England's nobility to do him honor. When the funeral procession reached Trafalgar Square, thousands of working women stood, with uncovered heads and tearful eyes, to pay their tribute. Children came from the "ragged schools" bearing banners with the motto: "I was naked and ye clothed me." From the hospitals came the motto: "I was sick and ye visited me," while the working girls came with a silk flag on which they had embroidered with their own fingers: "Inasmuch as ye did it unto the least of these, ye did it unto me." Thus loaded down with the fruits of the Spirit, Lord Shaftsbury died, and yet lives in memory as the noblest embodiment of Christian charity. That's sweet music when nature hangs her wind-harps in the trees for autumn breezes to play thereon; that must have been sweet music when Jenny Lind so charmed the world with her voice, and when Ole Bull rosined the bow and touched the strings of his violin; that was sweet music when I sat in the twilight on the stoop of my childhood's home and heard the welkin ring with the songs of the old plantation; but the sweetest music in this old world is that which thrills the soul when spoken in "words of love and deeds of kindness." Cultivate the trait of sympathy. The good things you are going to say of your friend when he's dead, say them to him while he's alive. Take care of the living; God will care for the dead. To the trait of sympathy I would add two grand traits--decision and courage. "Tender handed touch a nettle. And it stings you for your pains; Grasp it like a man of mettle, Silk it in your hand remains." The decision to throw over the tea in Boston harbor, to write "Charles Carroll of Carrolton," and the courage to say, "Give me liberty or give me death," gave us this government by and for the people. "If you come to a river deep and wide, And you've no canoe to skim it; If your duty's on the other side, Jump in, my boy, and swim it." Have the courage to stand for what you believe to be right. You may have to go ahead of public sentiment at times, but you will be rewarded i
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43  
44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
courage
 

sympathy

 

spoken

 

working

 

decision

 

strings

 
violin
 

living

 

things

 

thrills


childhood

 

sweetest

 

plantation

 

twilight

 
friend
 

kindness

 

Cultivate

 

welkin

 

sentiment

 

public


rewarded
 

people

 

mettle

 
touched
 
remains
 

handed

 

Tender

 

nettle

 

stings

 

liberty


government

 

Carrolton

 

Carroll

 

Boston

 

harbor

 

Charles

 

traits

 
nature
 

funeral

 

procession


nobility

 

England

 
Westminster
 
crowded
 

reached

 

Trafalgar

 
tribute
 

Children

 
tearful
 

thousands