Kind words are the music of the world. They have a power which seems to
be beyond natural causes, as if they were some angel's song, which had
lost its way and come on earth, and sang on undyingly, smiting the
hearts of men with sweetest wounds, and putting for the while an angel's
nature into us.
Let us then think first of all of the power of kind words. In truth,
there is hardly a power on earth equal to them. It seems as they could
almost do what in reality God alone can do, namely, soften the hard and
angry hearts of men. Many a friendship, long, loyal, and
self-sacrificing, rested at first on no thicker a foundation than a kind
word.
Kind words produce happiness. How often have we ourselves been made
happy by kind words, in a manner and to an extent which we are unable to
explain! And happiness is a great power of holiness. Thus, kind words,
by their power of producing happiness, have also a power of producing
holiness, and so of winning men to God.
If I may use such a word when I am speaking of religious subjects, it is
by voice and words that men mesmerize each other. Hence it is that the
world is converted by the voice of the preacher. Hence it is that an
angry word rankles longer in the heart than an angry gesture, nay, very
often even longer than a blow. Thus, all that has been said of the power
of kindness in general applies with an additional and peculiar force to
kind words.
_Father Faber._