The Ministry of Kindness by J.R. Miller Therefore, as God's chosen
people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion,
kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Colossians 3 verse
12 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Galatians 5 verses 22 and 23 Nothing is more worthwhile than
kindness. Nothing else in life is more
beautiful in itself. Nothing else does more to brighten
the world and sweeten our lives. Robert Louis Stevenson said in
a letter, It is our kindnesses that alone makes the world tolerable. If it were not for that, I would
be tempted to think that our life is a practical jest in the
worst possible spirit. The man whose life lacks habitual
kindliness may succeed splendidly in a worldly sense. He may win
his way to high honor. He may gather his millions. He
may climb to a conspicuous place among men. But he has missed
that which alone gives beauty to a life. the joy and blessing
of being kind. There are men who are so intent
on winning the race that they have neither eye nor heart nor
hand for the human needs along the wayside. Here and there is
one, however, who thinks more of the humanities than of personal
success, that woos him forward, and who turns aside in his busiest
hour to give help and cheer to those who need. There is always
this difference in men. There are those who have only
one purpose in life, the making of their own career. They fix
their eye upon their goal, and press toward it with indomitable
persistence, utterly unheeding the calls and appeals of human
need, which break upon their ears. They fail altogether in
love's duty. They dwarf and deaden the qualities
which are divinest in their nature. Far nobler are those who, while
earnest and diligent in business, yet let the law of love rule
in their lives, and are ever ready to forget themselves and
sacrifice their own personal interest in order to do good
to others. He who leaves love for others
out of his life-plan leaves God out, too, for love is the first
thing in God-likeness. When we speak of kindness, we
think not so much of large things as of the little things of thoughtfulness
and gentleness, which one may do along life's way. There are
people who now and then do some great thing of which everybody
speaks, but whose common days are empty of love's personal
ministries. There are men who give large
sums of money to found or endow institutions. but who have scarcely
ever been known to do a kindly deed to a poor man or to one
in trouble or need, and who fail altogether in love's sweet spirit
in their own homes and among their own companions. Is it not
better that we shall have a gentle heart, which will prompt us to
unbroken kindliness in word and deed, than that once in a great
while we should do some conspicuous act of charity, living meanwhile,
in all our common relations, a cold, selfish, unsympathetic,
ungentle, and loveless life? There are men and women who have
learned so well the lesson of love taught by the Master, that
all along their path a ministry of kindness is wrought by them,
which brightens and blesses the lives of all who come within
their influence. Their course through this world
is like that of a river across a desert whose banks are fringed
with green. Like the Master, they literally
go about doing good. They have a genius for kindness.
They are ever doing thoughtful little things which add to the
world's sweetness and happiness. Once, in crossing a meadow, I
came to a spot that was filled with fragrance. Yet I could see
no flowers, and I wondered whence the fragrance came. At last I
found, low down, close to the ground, hidden by the tall grass,
innumerable little flowers were growing. It was from these that
the fragrance came. It is just so when you enter
some homes. There is a rich perfume of love
that pervades all the place. It may be a home of wealth and
luxury, or it may be plain and bare. It does not matter. It is not the house, nor the
furniture, nor the adornment that makes the air of sweetness.
You look closely. It is a gentle woman, mother
or daughter. quiet, lowly, hiding herself
away from whose life the fragrance flows. She may not be beautiful,
may not be specially well educated, may not be musical, nor an artist,
nor clever in any way. But, wherever she moves, she
leaves a blessing. Her sweet patience is never disturbed
by the sharp words that fall around her. The children love
her, because she never tires of them. She helps them with
their lessons. listens to their frets and worries,
mends their broken toys, makes doll dresses for them, straightens
out their tangles, settles their little quarrels, and finds time
to play with them. When there is sickness in the
home, she is the angel of comfort. Her face is always bright, with
the outshining of love. Her voice has music in it, as
it falls in cheerful tenderness on a sufferer's ear. Her hands
are wondrously gentle, as their soothing touch rests on the aching
head, or as they minister in countless ways about the bed
of pain. A young woman, who had passed
through deep sorrows, said to a friend one day, in speaking
of the comfort certain people had given her unconsciously,
I wish some people knew just how much their faces can comfort
another. I often ride down in the same
street-car with your father, and it has been such a help to
me to sit next to him. There is something so good and
strong and kind about him. It has been a comfort just to
feel he was beside me. Sometimes, when I have been utterly
depressed and discouraged, he has seemed, somehow, to know
just the right word to say to me, but, if he didn't talk, Why,
I just looked at his face, and that helped me. He probably has
not the least idea of it, either, for I know him so slightly, and
I don't suppose people half realize, anyway, how much they are helping
or hindering others. There is a great deal of this
unconscious kindness in the world. Moses did not know that his face
shone. The best people are not aware
of their goodness. According to the old legend,
it was only when it fell behind him, where he could not see it,
that the saintly man's shadow healed the sick. This is a parable. Kindness, that is aware of itself,
has lost much of its charm. Kindnesses, that are done unconsciously,
mean the most. It is one of the blessings of
pain or suffering that it softens hearts and woos out gentleness
and kindness. A very common experience is given
in the story of a worker in one of the slums, which tells of
a whole family, completely changed through the influence of a deformed
child, who became the angel of the home. The father was a drudge,
the children were coarse and uncouth, and the mother, overworked
and far from strong, had fallen into untidy habits. But there
was born into that home a crippled child, and she was the means
of drawing out the sympathy, love, and tenderness of the whole
family. The father nursed and petted
his child in the evenings. The boys made playthings for
her, and showed their affection in all sorts of pleasant ways. The mother kept the window clean,
that the child, pillowed on the table, might look out on the
court. Thus a large and blessed ministry
of kindness was inspired by what seemed a misfortune. The suffering
of a child transformed all the household life, making each heart
gentler, sweeter, more thoughtful, more unselfish. It is often so. Many a sweet home owes most of
its sweetness to a quiet, patient sufferer, whose pain has been
the messenger of God to soften hearts and enrich common lives
with heavenly tenderness. One good rule of kindness is
never to allow a day to pass in which someone has not been
made a little happier. We fail to realize, too, how
much happiness even very little things give. It may be only a
word of cheer as we meet a neighbor on the street, or an inquiry
at the door when one is sick, or a note of sympathy when there
is trouble in the home, or a simple remembrance on a birthday or
an anniversary. Such seeming trifles, costing
nothing but thoughtfulness and an expression of love, are life
and cheer to those to whom they come. They make the world a sweeter
place to live in. They make burdens lighter, rough
paths smoother, hard toil easier, loneliness more endurable. Whatever else we may do or may
not do, we should certainly train ourselves to be kind. It may
not be an easy lesson to learn, for its secret is forgetting
ourselves and thinking of others, and this is always hard. But
it can be learned. To begin with, there must be
a gentle heart. to inspire the gentle life. We must love people. If we do
not, no training, no following of rules, will ever make us kind. But, if the heart is full of
the love of Christ, the disposition will be loving. And it will need
no rules to teach the lips to speak ever gracious words, and
the hands to do always the things of kindness, and to do them always
at the right time. Too many wait until it is too
late to be kind. Therefore, as God's chosen people,
holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness,
humility, gentleness, and patience. But the fruit of the Spirit is
love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,
and self-control. Galatians 5 verses 22 and 23. This concludes the Ministry of
Kindness by J. R. Miller.