Suppose they do dare to tell you the truth sometimes in a way
that makes you cringe, and you say to yourself, "he has no business to
be personal," when the poor man never thought that his homely coats
would fit; don't grow cold, and cast sheep's eyes, and nudge somebody's
elbow in a corner, and whisper all around, and say complacently, "Yes,
Brother A. is a good man--but--"
Those "buts" and "ifs" ought to be christened intellectual revolvers,
for they kill more reputations than any other two words in the English
language. We have known instances where pastors and editors and others
have felt weary of living, from having to encounter the spirit of
discouragement among their brethren; and oh! how many wives, husbands
and children, are dying deaths daily from this same prolific source of
suffering. Give encouragement, then, wherever and whenever you can,
and you will find that you have not lived in vain. If God blesses
those who offer but a cup of cold water in charity, how much more will
He regard the kind heart that has refreshed a weary spirit fainting by
the way. Death quickens recollections painfully. The grave can not
hide the white faces of those who sleep. The coffin and the green
mound are cruel magnets. They draw us farther than we would go. They
force us to remember. A man never sees so far into human life as when
he looks over a wife's or mother's grave. His eyes get wondrous clear
then, and he sees as never before what it is to love and to be loved;
what it is to injure the feelings of the loved.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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