Editorial April 12, 1924 Issue

Kindness

Ella W. Hoag

Most men love kindness. Simply to voice the word brings a wonderful vision of heavenly qualities. No one can consider kindness for a moment without having his heart grow warmer, since immediately there pass before him such Christly characteristics as gentleness, benignity, forbearance, tenderness, grace. Goethe has said of it, "Kindness is the golden chain by which society is bound together;" and in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (p. 295) our beloved Leader, Mrs. Eddy, has written, "Kindness in its largest, profoundest sense is goodness." It is a quality so much spoken of and so highly extolled that one might think nothing would be so universally expressed; and still, how much may yet be learned of its beauty and practical value!

When God is referred to in Jeremiah as saying, "I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee," we find God Himself placing His approval on all that is truly kind, since He there presents it as one of His own attributes. Indeed, it would be quite impossible to believe in God as good could we not couple every thought of Him with the assurance of His kindness. To believe Him to be Love inevitably includes every concept of this quality. And how could mortals ever hope for salvation, could they not feel that the very essence of God's nature is to be kind?

Now while men generally love to think of God as kind, and while they are glad to find this beautiful quality appearing in their fellow-men, they are not always so appreciative of its desirability as to have it visible in their own feelings and actions. It is astonishing that so many arguments may be found to deceive men into believing that they do not care to be kind; that kindness does not mean strength, but rather weakness. Some of such arguments even go so far as to suggest that kindness is not always a virtue, but that it may even sometimes be harmful in its effect. And yet how earnestly do prophets and apostles enjoin the necessity of him who would be Christian embracing this quality in his character!

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