William Baxter Kind Words (1848)

FROM

THE

MILLENNIAL HARBINGER.

SERIES III.

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VOL. V. BETHANY, AUGUST, 1848. NO. VIII.
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KIND WORDS.

KIND words--Oh! what a potent spell
Dwells in those children of the soul,
To sooth the heart by sorrow pierced;
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, while e'en on earth below,
The language they shall speak above;
'Twas thus the blessed Saviour spoke,
When wearily our earth he trod;
And kindly he is calling still
From earth and sin, to heaven and God.

Kind words--Oh! earth like heaven would be
And sweet would be our fellowship,
If kind thoughts dwelt in ev'ry heart,
And kind words hallow'd ev'ry lip;
For, oh! 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 ev'ry word
Of thine, within some heart shall be,
A link in love's mysterious chain,
To bind it ever unto thee.

WILLIAM BAXTER.      

      Biloxi Bay, April 16, 1848.

[The Millennial Harbinger (August 1848): 475.]

ABOUT THE ELECTRONIC EDITION

      William Baxter's "Kind Words" was first published in The Millennial Harbinger, Third Series, Vol. 5, No. 8, August 1848. The electronic version of the poem has been produced from the College Press reprint (1976) of The Millennial Harbinger, ed. Alexander Campbell (Bethany, VA: A. Campbell, 1848), p. 475. The poem was reprinted in The Ladies' Repository, Vol. 11, No. 6, June 1851, p. 226.

      Addenda and corrigenda are earnestly solicited.

Ernie Stefanik
Derry, PA

Created 19 June 1
Updated 28 June 2003.

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