If you hear a song that thrills you,
Sung by any child of song,
Praise it. Do not let the singer
Wait deserved praises long;
Why should one who thrills your heart
Lack the joy you may impart?
If you hear a prayer that moves you
By its humble, pleading tone,
Join in. Do not let the seeker
Bow before his Lord alone;
Why should not your brother share
The strength of "two or three" in prayer?
If you see the hot tears falling
From a brother's weeping eyes,
Share them, and by kindly sharing,
Win your kinship with the skies.
Why should any one be glad
When his brother's heart is sad?
If a silvery laugh goes rippling
Through the sunshine on his face,
Share it. 'Tis the wise man's saying,
For both grief and joy a place.
There's health and goodness in the mirth
In which an honest laugh hath birth.
If your work is made more easy
By a friendly helping hand,
Say so. Speak out bravely, truly,
Ere the darkness veil the land.
Should a brother workman dear
Falter for a word of cheer?
Scatter, then, your germs of kindness,
All enriching as you go;
Leave them. Trust the Harvest Giver,
Who will make each germ to grow.
So, until the happy end,
Your life will never lack a friend.
(1729)
Kissing in the East—See Husband and Wife, Relations Between. KNOWING AND DOING The Rev. W. L. Watkinson says: I read the other day in a paper that a Hindu will pass an examination in science; he understands sanitary laws perfectly, but some way or other he never seems to understand how to apply them. He will go complacently into his own dirty compound and break every sanitary law of which he is theoretically master. But you need not go to India to find a thing of that kind. You will find many men in this country who know the Lord's will, but who never dream of doing it.
(1730)
KNOWING BETTER "I did the best I knew!" protested the dressmaker's apprentice sullenly, when she was sharply reprimanded for a piece of ill-judged work that ruined a valuable dress and vexed a valuable customer. "I don't see what she's blaming me for!" "I'm not blaming you for doing the best you knew how!" said the employer, over-*hearing and turning on her crisply; "I'm blaming you for not knowing any better! You ought to—you've been here long enough. You mean well, but good intentions aren't enough to carry on the dressmaking business." They are not enough in any business. It is an old proverb that good intentions pave a place of very disreputable character. "He meant well" is about the poorest thing one can say of a person, short of actual detraction; unless we except that other phrase of mild apology: "He did the best he knew how." Whenever you hear either of these you know at once that it is a case of failure on somebody's part to do the right thing at the right moment, and usually, if you look closely enough, there was fault behind the failure. To do the best we know how is not enough when we might know any better.—Kind Words.
(1731)
KNOWLEDGE
Writing about Lincoln's life in the Indiana wilderness Mr. James Morgan, in his life of Abraham Lincoln, says:
One day a wagon broke down in the road,
and the wife and two daughters of the owner
stayed at the Lincolns' until it was repaired.
"The woman had books," as Abraham recalled
in later life, "and read us stories.
They were the first I ever heard." There
never had been a book or a newspaper in
the house, and he never forgot the sight of
those pages nor the woman who, by the
chance of a breakdown on the road, opened
to his mind the field of printed knowledge.
(1732)
Knowledge, Ambition for—See Mother Love.
Knowledge a Necessity—See Directions.
