Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1889-07-12

of time. Now, why do we not do that
way in regard to the characters of
others, and show the bloom and the
music and the bright fountains? No.
We say come along and let me show you
that mans character. Here is green
scummed frog pond, and there's filthy
cellar, and | guess under that hedge
there must be II black snake. Come and
let us for an hour or two regale our
selves with the nuisances. oh. my
friends, better coverluplthe faults and
extol the virtues, and this habit once
established of universal friendliness
will become as easy as it is this morning
for syringa to flood the air with sweet
ness, as easy as it will be further on in
the season for quail to whistle up
from the grass. When We hear some
thing bad about somebody whom we al
ways supposed to be good, take out
your lead pencil and say: Let me see.
Before l accept that baleful story
against that mans character, will take
off from it % per cent. for the habit of
exaggeration which belongs to the man
who first told the story; then will take
off Is per cent. for the additions which
the spirit of gossip in every community
has put upon the original story; then l
will take off 25 per cent. from the fact
that the man may have been put into
circumstances of overpowering tempta-
ton. SO have taken off IS per cent.
But 1 have not heard his side of the
story at all, and for that reason | take
off the remaining IS per cent" Excuse
me, sir, don't believe word of it.
But here comes in defective maxim,
SO often quoted: Where there is so
much smoke there must be some fire.
Look at all the smoke for years around
Jenner, the introducer of vaccination;
and the smoke around Columbus, the
liscoverer; and the smoke around
Martin Luther, and Savonarola. and
Calico, and Paul, and John, and Christ,
and tell me where was the fire. That is
one of the satanic arts to make smoke
without fire; slander, like the world,
may be made out of nothing. If the
Christian, fair min ded, comm on sensical
spirit in regard to others predominated
in the world we should have the millen-
MUM in about six weeks, for would not
that be lamb and lion. COW and leopard
lying down together? Nothing but the
grace of God can ever put us into such
a habit of mind and heart as that. The
whole tendency is in the opposite direc-
ton. This is the way the world talks:
put my name on the back of man.
note, and had to pay it. and will never
again put my name on the back of any
mans note. gave beggar ten cents,
and five minutes after l saw him enter
never again give cent to beggar. l
helped that young man start into bust
ness, and 10, after while, he came and
| opened store almost next door to me,
and stole my customers. will never
again help young man start in busi-
ness. I trusted in what my neighbor
promisedto do, and he broke his word,
and the Psalmist was right before he
corrected himself, for "all men are
liars" So men become suspicious and
saturnine and selfish, and at every adj
ditional wrong done them they put an
other layer on the wall of their exclu-
siveness, and another bolt to the door
that shuts them out from sympathy with
the world. They get cheated out of a
thousand dollars, or misinterpreted, or
disappointed, or betrayed, and higher
goes the wall, and faster goes another
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 dastardly 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 I
!
place than that Isle of Man; but when a
man becomes insular in his disposition,
and cuts himself off from the main land
of the worlds sympathies, he is despica-
BILE, and all around him is an Atlantic
Ocean of seltishness. Behold that Isle
of Man!
Now, supposing that you have, by a
divine regeneration, got right toward
God and humanity, and you start out to
practice my text, "A man that hath
friends must show himself friendly. I"
Fulfill 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 recognition?
To swing the head from side to side, as
when it is wagged in derisicn, is unnat-
ural and unpleasant; to throw it back,
invites vertigo; but to drop the chin in
greeting is accompanied with SO little
exertion that all day long and every day
you might practice it without the least
semblance of fatigue. So, also, the
structure of the hand indicates hand
shaking; the knuckles not made so that
the fingers can turn out but so made
that the fingers can turn in, as in clasp
ing hands; and the thumb divided from
and set aloof from the fingers, SO that
while the fingers take your neighbours
NNss~AsA w. Wv
the other, and, pressed together, all the
faculties of the hand give emphasis to
the salutation. 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. When a man or
woman does we'll, tell him SO, tell her
SO. II you meet some one who is i'm
proved in health, and it is demonstrated
in girth'and color, say: How we'll you
look!" But if on the other hand, under
the wear and tear of life he appears
pale and exhausted, do not introduce
sanitary subjects, or say anything at all
about physical conditions. In the case
of improved health, you have by your
words giver another impulse towards the
robust and jocund; while in the case of
the failing health you have arrested the
decline by your silence, by which he
concludes: If were really SO badly
off, ne would have said something about
it," We are all. especially those of a
nervous temperament, susceptible to
kind words and discouraging words.