Lesson from Pen of “St. Abbs”

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 73, Issue 370, 13 September 1930, Page 18 (Supplement)

Lesson from Pen of “St. Abbs”

Dear Wendy,—l desire to thank you and “Old Gran” heartily for the nice, kindly way you have welcomed me, and the manner in which your thoughts have been expressed. For some time I have been wondering what I could write about as there have been so many nice letters from various members, and so instructive that it seems somewhat difficult to choose a subject. How many of you Ites have wondered why there are so many bad people in the world? I don’t think that even the worst like being bad, but sometimes we never give them a chance to be good, and so they just remain bad. Most of these people in the first place did something wrong, but to them it did not seem so very bad, and they thought it might have good results; this would not have greatly hurt anyone, but some one found out about it and having told others they said we cannot be friends with people who do things like that. Because those faults were found out all their friends left them alone: and being alone those people have said, "Oh well, we have tried to do right, but have failed, and we have no friends left now; it won’t matter to anyone what we do any more; it is too finely to live without friends, so we’ll get friends who we can enjoy ourselves among.” Do you understand, dears, if only those friends had been kind, and not only forgiven the sins, but also forgotten them they might never have done such things again; it is necessary for a friend to forget the sin and not keep reminding about it, and nagging, because nagging never makes anyone bettor, but worse. The longer I live, the surer 1 am that sin always punishes, and if we cannot do a good deed to help do not do a mean one and add to the punishment. I have heard of a friend who lived in some of the rough quarters of the largest cities and who has seen some of the worst people do actions so kind and noble that they have left her wondering if any one is really wicked at heart: she has asked herself what sort of people would these have been, if only they had been understood and treated kindly in the first place? There are none of us perfect and most of us have done wrong at some time, and only we ourselves know how much we have to bo thankful for. I suggest to you, dears, that we all consider and look around just to see what we can see and who we can give a helping hand to; perhaps there may be quite a number we could help in some way. Each of us in the world has an influence either for good or evil, just as we act: whether we are conscious of this power or not we all have it, dears. As we move about from day to day, doing our daily work, in the street or

elsewhere, we have this unconscious influence. It may be either making each other better and nobler, for our living in the world or worse. Even the smallest child has this power. I fancy I hear some of you dears saying, “How careful we should be in what we do and say” and I reply “Yes! for God sees and hears all.” Here are some verses I have had for years. I do not know the author, but they seem to convey the meaning of what I write.— Could we judge all deeds by motives, See the good and bad within ; Often we should love the sinner. All the while wp loathe the sin; Could we know the powers working To o’erthrow integrity. We should judge each other's errors With more patient charity. Ah! We judge each other harshly, Knowing not life’s hidden force; Knowing not the fount of action. Is less turbid at its source. Seeing not, amid the evil All the golden grains of good ; Oh! we’d love each other better, If we only understood. • "ST. ABBS," Wanganui.