INTRODUCTION. THE heart of the guilty resists and defies reproach, but melts before the accents of KINDNESS. Thousands by its power have been reclaimed from the fangs of intemperance, and other destructive vices. It is almost omnipotent; its power will accomplish what all other human instrumentalities alone cannot; it softens even a savage's heart, and subdues the fierce rage of the wild beasts of the forest. Therefore, reader, if you wish to reclaim a poor wanderer, treat him kindly; if a fellow being insults you, treat him kindly, and then you will not only most ef 41 x11 fectually punish him, but you will do him good, and probably reclaim him from being a pest to society, to become one of the best citizens, and fit for glory and heaven. Many parents, by unkindness and scolding, ruin their children, and drive them to despair. It sours their tempers, and makes them cross, fretful and revengeful. A few months since, a little girl in North Carolina, ten years of age, hung herself, after being scolded by her mother. Children imbibe the spirit of their parents and teachers; and uniformly, cross parents and teachers will have cross and ill-natured children to manage, and vice versa. "The unbelieving husband cares much for the gentle and kind spirit of the wife, for much of his happiness depends on it; that brother is interested much in the conversation and the spirit of his sister-for he daily observes her temper, and is forming his views of religion from what he sees in her; that child is constantly See marking the temper of the father and mother, and is forming his views of piety from it." The Saviour was the embodiment of kindness. him, when on a mock trial for life, smitten by an officer, meekly, and with a countenance beaming with kindness, while he looks at the wicked man, and exclaims, "If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil; but if well, why smitest thou me?" John xviii. 23. See him on the cross, carrying out his divine precept, "love your enemies," when he prays for the forgiveness of his murderers. When the Jews accused before him a woman of adultery, and were clamorous to have her stoned, he cast a kind look upon her, as he saw the deep feeling of repentance kindling in her heart, and said, hath no man condemned thee? No man, Lord, she replies. "Neither do I," says the compassionate Jesus, "go in peace, and sin no more." O what multitudes of the vicious would have been saved, that are forever lost, if the Savior's example had been followed towards those outcasts of society. After Peter had so cruelly denied Christ, when hanging on the cross, what a look of tenderness and compassion he casts upon Peter? And no wonder that "he went out and wept bitterly. "It is in vain to disguise the fact, that the largest share of the squallor and filth, the poverty and intemperance, the prostitution and fraud, which exist in every community, may be fairly charged to the follies, unnatural rules, vicious fashions, and demoralizing examples of society. What is it but unkindness of community, that takes from multitudes of the poorer people, all hope of rising in prosperity, and by condemning them to perpetual drudgery, causes many of them, through despair, to become thieves and prostitutes? What is it but the unkindness of community, that, because a female has taken one |