Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1889-07-10

the courses of food had been served he blew
a horn, which was in those times signal
for the servants to bring on the desert, but
in this case it was the signal for assassins
to enter and slay tine guests. His pretend
ed friendliness was a cruel fraud; and there
are now people whose smile is falsehood.
Before you begin to show yourself frieHdly
you must be friendly. Get your heart right
with God and man, and this grace will be-
come easy. You may by your own resolu-
tion get your nature into semblance Of
this virtue, but lhe grace of God can SUBJ
timely lift you into it. Sailing on the river
Thames two vessels ran aground. The
owners of one got 100 horses and pulled on
the grounded ship and pulled it to pieces.
| The owners of the other grounded vessel
waited till the tides came in and easily
foated the ship out of all trouble. So, we
may pull and haul at our grounded human
nature, and try to get it into better condi-
ton; but there is nothing like the oceanic
tides of Gods uplifting grace to hoist us
| into this klndliness | am eulogising. If
| when under the flash of the Holy Ghost we
see our own foibles and defects aud de-
pravities, we will be very lenient and very
easy with others. We will look into their
characters for things commendatory and not
damnatory. If you would rub your own
eye little more vigorously you would find
mote in it, the extraction of which would
] keep you SO busy you would not have much
time to shoulder your broad-ax and go forth
| to split up the beam in your neighbours eye.
| In Christian spirit keep on exploring the
characters of those you meet, and am sure
you will find something in them delightful
and fit for a foundation of friendliness.
You invite me to come to your country seat
and spend few days. Thank you! I ar
rive about noon of a beautiful summer day.
What do you do? As soon as l arrive you
take me out uuder the shadow of the great
elms. You take me down to the artificial
| lake. the spotted trout floating in and out
among the white pillars of the pond lilies.
You take me to the stalls and kennels where
you keep your fine stock, and here are the
Durham cattle and the Gordon settlers, and
| the high stepping steeds by paving and
neighing, the only language they can speak,
asking for harness or saddle, and q short
turn down the road. Then we go back to the
house, and you get me in the right light
and show me the Kensetts and the Bier
stadits on the wall, and take me into the
music room. and show me the bird cages,
the canaries in the bay window answering
the robins in the tree tops. Thank you!
never enjoyed myself more in the same
length of time. Now, why do we not do
that way in regard to the characters of 9TH
ers, and show the bloom and the music
and the bright fountains? No. We say
come along and let me show yon that
mans character. Here is green scummed
frog pond, and there's filthy cellar, and l
guess under that hedge there must be a
black.snake Come and let us for an hour
or two regale ourselves with the nuisances.
| Oh, my frienda, better cover up the faults
and extol the virtues, and this habit once
established of universal friendliness will be-
come as easy as it is this morning for a
SPRINGS to flood the air with sweetness, as
easy as it will be further on in the season
| for quail to whistle up from the grass.
When we hear something bad about some
body whom we always supposed to be good,
take out your lead pencil and say, "Let me
see! Before I accept that balefvl story
against that mans character, l will take of
from it 25 per cent. for the habit of exag-
geration which belongs to the man who first
told the story; then 1 will take off 25 per
cent. for the additions which the spirit of
gossip in every community has put upon
the original story; then I will take off %
per cent. from the fact that the man may
have been put into circumstances of over
powering temptation. So have taken of
10 per cent. But have not heard his side
of the story at all, and for that reason l
take off the remaining 25 per cent" Excuse
me- sir, don't believe word of it.
But here comes in defective maxim, &c
often quoted: "Where there is SO much
smoke there must be some fire." Look a,
all the smoke for years around Jenner, the
introducer Of vaccination; and the smoke
around Coluulbsq, t1-s discover; and the
smoke around Mar6iu Luther, and Sayona
rola, and Galileo, and Paul, and John, and
Christ, and tell me where was the fire?
That ia one of the satanic arts to make
smoke without fire. Slander, like the
world, may be made out of notLi-g. II the
Christian, fair minded, common-sensica
spirit in regard to others predominated iE
the world we should have the millennium
in about six weeks, for would not that bs
lamb and lion, COW and leopard lying dowr
together? Nothing but tFe grace of Goo
can ever put us into such habit of mino
and heart as that The whole tendency is
in the opposite direction. This is the way
the world talks: put my name ON the
back of a mans note, and had to pay it,
and will never again put my name on the
back of any mau's note. l gave beggar
ten cents, and five minutes after | saw him
entering a liquor store to spend it. l will
never again give a cent to beggar.
helped that young man start in business,
and 10, after while, he came aud opened a
store almost next door to me, and stole my
customers. will never again help young
man start in business. l trusted in what
my neighbor promised to do, and he broke
his word, and the Psalmist was right before
he corrected bimself, for "all men are liars. u
So men become suspicious and saturnine
and selfish, and at every additional wrong
done them they put another layer on the
wall of their excluslveness, and another
bolt to the door that shuts them out from
sympathy with the world. They get cheat
ed out of thousand dollars, or misinter.
preted, or disappointed, or betrayed, and
higher goes the wall, and faster goes an
other bolt, not realizing that while they
lock Others out, they lock themselves in;
and some day they wake up to find them
selves imprisoned in dastsrdly habit. No
| friends to others, others are no friends to
them. There's an island half way between
England, Scotland and Ireland, called the
Isle of Man, and the seas dash against all
sides of it, and l am told that there is no
more lovely place than that Isle of Man but
when a man becomes insular in his disposi.
ton, and cuts himself off from the main
land of the worlds sympathies, he is despi-
cable, and all around him is an Atlantic
ocean of selfishness. Behold that Isle Of
Man!
Now, supposing that you have, by di-
vine regeneration, got right toward God
and humanity, and you start out to practice
my text, ga man that hath friends must
show himself friendly" Fulfil this by all
forms of appropriate salutation. Have you
noticed that the head is so poised that the
easiest thing on earth is to give nod of re.
cognition? To swing the head from side to
side, as when it is wagged in dsrision; is
unnatural and unpleasant; to throw it back
invites vertigo; but to drop the chin in
greeting is accompanied with SO little exer.
tion that all day long and every day you
might practice it without the least sem.
blance of fatigue. So, also, the structure
of the hand invites handshaking; the
knuckles not made so that the fingers car
turn out, but so made that the fingers can
turn in. as IN clasDiDp hands. and the