Power of Kindness
A good lady, living in a large city, was passing a saloon just as the keeper was thrusting a young man into the street. He was very pale, and his haggard face and wild eyes told that he was very far gone on the road to ruin, as with profane speech he brandished his clenched fists, threatening to be revenged upon the man that had ill-used him. He was so excited and blinded with passion that he did not see the lady who stood very near to him, until she laid her hand upon his arm, and asked, in a gentle, loving voice, what was the matter. At the first kind word the young man started as though a heavy blow had struck him, and turned quickly around, more pale than before, and trembling from head to foot. He surveyed the lady from head to foot, and then, with a sigh of relief, he said: “I thought it was my mother’s voice; it sounded strangely like it. But her voice has been hushed in death for many years.”
“You had a mother, then,” said the lady, “and she loved you?” The young man burst into tears, and sobbed out: “Oh, yes; I had a mother, and she loved me. But since she died all the world has been against me, and I am lost—lost forever.”
“No; not lost forever; for God is merciful, and His pitying love can reach the chief of sinners,” said the lady. The young man was spellbound; and when, after more kind words, she went on her way, he followed her, until he saw her enter her home, and then he wrote down the name on the doorplate, in his pocketbook, and turned away with a deep purpose in his heart.
Years glided by, and the lady forgot the incident, until it was brought to her recollection by the visit of a noble-looking, well-dressed man, who told her he was the young man whom she had thus addressed, long before, in words of Christian love and hope.
“The earnest expression of ‘No, not lost forever,’ followed me wherever I went,” said he; “and it always seemed that it was the voice of my mother speaking to me from the tomb. I repented of my many transgressions, and resolved to live as Jesus and my mother would be pleased to have me; and by the mercy and grace of God I have been enabled, in some good measure, to do so.”
“You had a mother, then,” said the lady, “and she loved you?” The young man burst into tears, and sobbed out: “Oh, yes; I had a mother, and she loved me. But since she died all the world has been against me, and I am lost—lost forever.”
“No; not lost forever; for God is merciful, and His pitying love can reach the chief of sinners,” said the lady. The young man was spellbound; and when, after more kind words, she went on her way, he followed her, until he saw her enter her home, and then he wrote down the name on the doorplate, in his pocketbook, and turned away with a deep purpose in his heart.
Years glided by, and the lady forgot the incident, until it was brought to her recollection by the visit of a noble-looking, well-dressed man, who told her he was the young man whom she had thus addressed, long before, in words of Christian love and hope.
“The earnest expression of ‘No, not lost forever,’ followed me wherever I went,” said he; “and it always seemed that it was the voice of my mother speaking to me from the tomb. I repented of my many transgressions, and resolved to live as Jesus and my mother would be pleased to have me; and by the mercy and grace of God I have been enabled, in some good measure, to do so.”