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
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