The intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1887-1891, 1889-07-06

"A nod of recognition? To swing the head
from side to side, as when it is wagged in
derision, is unnatural and unpleasant;
to throw it back, inv tes vertigo: but to
drop the chin In greeting is accompanied
with so little exertion that all day long
everyday you might practice it without
the leaaS semblance Of fatigue. So, also,
the structure of the hand indicates hand.
shaking; the knuckles not made SO that
the fingers can turn in, as in clasping
hands divided from and set aloof from the
myers, so that while the fingers clasp
your neighbours hand on one side, the
thumb takes it on the other, and, pressed
together, AL the faculties of the hand
give emphasis tc the s~alutation. Five
sermons in every healthy hand urge us to
handshaking.
Besides this, every day when you start
out, load yourself up with kind thoughts,
kind words, kind expressions and kind
greetings. Wh"n n man or woman does
we'll. tell him so, tell her SO. If yUl meet
some one who is improved in health, and
it Is demonstrated in girth and color, saw
How well you look!" But IL on the other
hand, under the wear and tear of lifs he
appears rale n exhausted. do not intro
duce sanitary subjects or say any thing
a. all about physical conditions. In the
case OF improved health you have by your
words given another impulse toward the
robust and the jocund; while in the case
of the failing health you nave arrested
the decline by your silence, by which he
concludes III | were really SO badly off,
he would have said something about it,"
We are all, especially those of a nervous
temperament, susceptible to kind words
and discouraging words. Form a con-
spiracy against us, and let ten men meet
us at certain points OF our way over to
business, and let each one say: "How sick
you lookl" though we should start out
we'll, after meeting the first and hearing
his depressing salute, we would be-
gin to examine our symptoms.
After meeting ths second gloomy
accosting we would conclude we did
not feel quite as well as usual. After
meeting the third our sensations would be
dreadful, and after meeting the fourth,
unless we suspected a conspiracy, we
would go home and go to bed, and the
other six pessimists would be a useless
surplus Of encouragement. My dear sir,
my dear madam. what do you mean by
going about this world with d~ishearten-
ment? Is not the supply OF gloom and
trouble and misfo tune enough 10 meet the
demand without running a factory of
pins and spikes! Why should you plant
black and blue in the world when God so
seldom plants them? Plenty of scarlet
cotors. plenty of yellow, plenty Of green,
plenty OF pink, but very seldom a plant,
black or blue. l never saw a black flower,
and there'sonly here a I'd there a blue-bell
or a violet; but the blue is for the most
part resaryed for the sky, and we have to
look MP to see that and when we look up no
color can do us harm. Why not plant
along the path of others the brightnesses
Instead Of the gloomsp Do not prophesy
misfortune. If o must be a prophet at
all be an Ezekiel, and not a jeremiah.
In ancient times prophets who foretold
evil were doing right, for they were di-
vinely directed; but tho prophets Of evil
in our time are generally false prophets.
Some of our weaiherwiss people are
prophesying we shall rave a summer of
unparalleled scorch. 1t will not be that
at all l think we are going to rave a
summer of great harvest and universal
health; at any rate know as much abour
it as they do. Last fall all the weather
prophets agreed in saying we should have
a winter OF extraordinary severity, bliz-
gard on the heels of blizzard. 1t was the
mildest winter ! ever remember to have
passed. Indeed, the autumn and the
spring almost showed winter out of the
procession. Real troubles nave no heralds
running ahead of their somber chariots
and no one has any authority in our time
to announce their coming. Load yourself
up with helpful words and deeds. The
hymn once sun in our church es 10 unfit
to be sung. for 1t says:
We should suspect some danger
Where we possess delight.
In other words, manage to keep miser-
cradle all the time. The old song sung at
tine pianos n quarter of a century AGO was
SIX nj words never die" Such
kind words have their nests in kind hearts
and when they are Matched out n take
wing they circle round in fights that
cease, and sportsman's gun can not
ruffie their wings, and when they cease
flight in these lower skies of earth they
sweep around amid the higher attitudes
of heaven. At Baltimore a few days ago
l talked into a photograph. The cylinder
containing the words was sent on to
Washington, and the next day that
cylinder, from another photographic in
strument, when turned, ave back 10 me
the very WORKS | had uttered the day be-
fore, and with the same intonationS.
Scold into the photograph and it will
scold back. Pour mild words into a
p~honogrsph, and it will return the
.gentleness. Society and the world,
and the churches, are phono.
graphs. Give them acerbity an
rough treatment. and acerbity and
rough treaim mi you will get back Give
them practical frIendliness and obey will
give back practical friendliness. A father
asked his little daughter: MARY, why IL
it that everybody loves you?" Sac an.
swered: II don't know. unless 1t is be-
cause l love everybody" ga man that
hath friends must show himself friendly"
What Is true MAYNARD lie true Godward
We must be the friends of God il we want
Him to be our friend. We can not treat
Christ badly all our lives and expect Him
to treat us lovingly. was reading of a
sea fight in which Lord Nelson captured a
French officer, and when the French officer
offered Lord Nelson his hand, Nelson re-
piled: First give me your sword, ard
then give me your hand" Surrender Of
orr resistance to God must precsde Gods
proffer of pardon to us. Repentance be-
fore forgiveness. You must give up your
sword before you can get a
grasp of the divine hand.
o, what a glorious state Of things to
rave the friendship of Godl Why. we
could afford to hav all the world against
US and ali other worlds against US IL we
had God for us. He could in a minute blot
out this universe and in another minute
make another universe. I have no idea
that God tried hard when He made all
things. The most brilliant thing known
to us is light, and for the creation of that
he only used a word of command. As
out of a flint the frontiersman strikes q
spark, SO out of one word God struck the
MONDAY u m. For the making of the
present universe 1 do not read that God
lifted SO much as a finger. The Bible fire.
quently speaks Of Gods hand. and Gods
arm, and Gods shoulder. and Gods foot;
then suppose He should put hand and arm
and shoulder and foot to the utmost ten
sion what could He not makef That God,
of such demonstrated end undemonstretsd
strength you may havs for your present
and everlasting friend. Not O
stately and r~eticent friend, hard
to get at, but as approachable
as a country manson on a summer day
when all the doors and windows are wide
open. Christ said: 81 am the door,"
And He is a wide door, a high door, a palace
door, an always open door. My four
year-old child got hurt and did not cry
until hours after, when her mother came
home, and then she burst into weeping,
and some of the domestics, not UNDER
standing human nature, aid to her:
why did you not cry before1" She an
swered: 'There was no one to cry to-"
Now l have to tell you that while human
sympathy may be absent. divine SYM
patty is always accessible. Give God
your Low and get His love; your service
and secure His help; your repentance and
His pardon. God a friendi Why,
that meant all your wounds indicated,
al ynur snrrnua anothad and ~ anma and