William Baxter Kind Words (1851)

 

T H E

L A D I E S '   R E P O S I T O R Y .
J U N E,   1 8 5 1 .

 

K I N D   W O R D S .
BY WILLIAM BAXTER.
KIND words! O what a potent spell
    Dwells in those children of the soul!
To soothe the heart by sorrow pierced,
    And rule it by their sweet control.
Like accents from an angel's tongue,
    Bearing a message from the sky,
They come; and sorrow turns to joy,
    And smiles repress the rising sigh.

Kind words! how blessed are the lips
    Whence fall the words of peace and love!
They speak, e'en while on earth below,
    The language they shall speak above.
'Twas thus the blessed Savior spoke,
    When wearily our earth he trod,
And kindly he is calling still,
    From earth and sin, to heaven and God.

Kind words! O, earth like heaven would be,
    And sweet would be our fellowship,
If kind thoughts dwelt in ev'ry heart,
    And kind words hallowed ev'ry lip!
For O, through all eternity,
    In heaven there never will be heard,
To break its glorious harmony,
    A bitter or an unkind word!

Kind words! they fall, from lips we love,
    Like evening dew on drooping flowers,
And to the desert of the heart
    They come like sweet, refreshing showers.
Speak kindly, then, and every word
    Of thine, within some heart, shall be
A link in love's mysterious chain,
    To bind it ever unto thee.

 

[The Ladies' Repository 11 (June 1851): 226.]

ABOUT THE ELECTRONIC EDITION

      William Baxter's "Kind Words" was first published in The Millennial Harbinger, Third Series, Vol. 5, No. 8, August 1848, p. 475. It was reprinted in The Ladies' Repository: A Monthly Periodical Devoted to Literature and Religion, Vol. 11, No. 6, June 1851, p. 226. This volume, edited by B. F. Tefft, was published in Cincinnati by L. Swormstedt and J. H. Power and in New York by G. Lane and L. Scott.

      Addenda and corrigenda are earnestly solicited.

Ernie Stefanik
Derry, PA

Created 16 April 2000.
Updated 28 June 2003.

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