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THE CHARITIES THAT SWEETEN LIFE. 239 
THE CHARITIES THAT SWEETEN LIFE. 
Pleasant words ! Pleasant words ! Do you 
know, kind reader, how potent a spell lies in a 
pleasant word ? Have you not often thought of 
its power to soothe to charm to delight, when 
all things else fail ? As you have passed on 
through the journey of life, have you not seen it 
smoothing many a ruffled brow, and calming 
many an aching bosom ? Have you not noticed 
it in the house, and by the way at the fireside, 
and in the place of business ? And have you not 
felt that pleasant words are among the " charities 
that sweeten life " ? Ah, yes ; and their influence 
has come over your own soul. Not long since, 
when you went bending to the earth, oppressed, 
and weary with life's manifold sorrows; when 
dark clouds have hovered over you, and blackness 
of darkness covered you ; when you were ready 
to yield in despondency the pursuit of happiness, 
and give yourself up to unmitigated gloom; 
when no object of life seemed desirable, and even 
the friendships of earth were worthless in your 
eyes; when you would fain have passed the com- 
panion of your childhood, unnoticed, as you met 
him in the way, O, you can tell how, in such an 
hour, the sound of a cheerful voice, one pleasant 
word, has dispelled the gloom, and given you to 
the world again a man a hopeful, trusting man. 
