The benevolent
man is a cheerful man. His family is happy. His home is the abode of
the purest earthly joy. These feelings are worth cultivating, for they
bring with them their own reward. Benevolence is the spirit of heaven.
Selfishness is the spirit of the fiend.
The heart benevolent and kind
The most resembles God.
But persons of ardent dispositions often find it exceedingly
difficult to deny themselves. Some little occurrence irritates them,
and they speak hastily and angrily. Offended with a companion, they
will do things to give pain, instead of pleasure. You must have your
temper under control if you would exercise a friendly disposition, A
bad temper is an infirmity, which, if not restrained, will be
continually growing worse and worse. There was a man, a few years
since, tried for murder. When a boy, he gave loose to his passions.
The least opposition would rouse his anger, and he made no efforts to
subdue himself. He had no one who could love him. If he was playing
with others, he would every moment be getting irritated. As he grew
older, his passions increased, and he became so ill-natured that
every one avoided him. One day, as he was talking with another man,
he became so enraged at some little provocation, that he seized a
club, and with one blow laid the man lifeless at his feet. He was
seized and imprisoned. But, while in prison, the fury of a malignant
and ungoverned spirit increased to such a degree that he became a
maniac.
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