LOVE IS POWER.

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume IV, Issue 11, 31 October 1857, Page 10

LOVE IS POWER.

If a person expresses angry feelings to another, or desires to inflict an injury upon him, the feelings of the injured party are excited, and his anger is roused. This is natural to the mind which has not been trained aright. In this wav, the mind resembles a little child which" crawls first, and then runs. And as no person will deny that the act of walking succeeds to crawling, so let them not say that evil expres-

iions cannot be converted unto good. If evil is returned for evil, then indeed it will ■increase ; but if soft and gentle answers are returned, the result will be like the pouring of water upon a fire—it will be totally extinguished. Some of you perhaps arc saying " What is ike good of love; why not follow the inclination of our own hearts?" This, then, is what we inlet id to shew you. If an angry reply is made to the angry expression of any person, ihen will the two be «nt»rely separated. An angry word is like a wedge. Let but the point be inserted, and U he struck with the mallet, the tree Till split, and ere long be rent in twain. Though lhat tree grew as one stem, though it sprang from one kernel, and grew from year to year—no sooner was the wedge applied, than i» lay asunder. Bt;t if a person suppresses the evil; and returns good for it, the matter will end there, and shame will fall upon the person who gave the offence. Some may consider this a difficult thing, and not to be done by many persons. But it is not so. If the person has no cause for being angry, he may easily be calmed down; and if he has really a cause, let not the offender increase the evii by angry words. Let him shew that he grieves for the offence, and patiently hear his remonstrances; thus, bis anger will h • appeased. We will now quote an example or two to show you that these words are true. You have heard of the quarrel between David and Saul, the King of Israel; how David retreated to the woods, and hid in a cave, Saul also and his followers entered the cave, but did not know that David was concealed there. They laid down and slept, when David came out, and was strongly urged by his friends to kill him. But he only cut off a portion of his dress. When Saul arose and departed, David called after him saying, '* Wherefore dost thou give heed to groundless reports, that David intends to kill thee? A piece of thy raiment has been taken, and thou departest in safety." Then Saul replied, "Thou art much better than I; lam doing evil unto thee, and yet thou lovest me." And the heart of Saul was softened towards him. There was a certain king of Rome whose name was Augustus. Many persons sought to put him to death. He was informed thai a man named Cinna, one of the chiefs of the people, was wailing for the time when he should go to sacrifice in their temple, Intending then to murder him. The heart

of the king was greatly cast down, for he loved that man, and did not wish that he should be put to death. While he was in this stale of perplexity, Livia, his wife, went to him and said. '• Sire, for once give heed to a woman's advice. Hitherto you have punished offenders with severity, and have failed to reclaim them ; now try them with love and forbearance. Pardon Cinna's offence, for his design has been discovered, and you are now on your guard." The king acknowledged the force of her remarks, and sent a messenger to call Cinna. When he arrive J, and they were alone, he said to him, "Sir, your conspiracy against me has been discovered. When you offended me before, I pardoned you ; and now I perceive that you are ungrateful; formerly, we were enemies, and I made peace with you ; but now you wish to murder me. Come now\ let us try which of us can show the greatest amounl of affection for the other." Cinna was overwhelmed with shameaudconfusion, and was faithfully attached to Augustus for the rest of his life. From that time no man conspired against the life of the king.