The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1890-09-03


the future world, there are great many
peole who become sceptical in religious
things. How shall You capture them
for God? Sharp argument and sarcastic
retort never won single soul from scep-
ticism to the Christian religion. While
powerful books on the Evidences OF
Christianity" have their mission in con-
lirming Christian people in the faith they
have already adopted, l have noticed
that when sceptical people arc brought
into the kingdom Of Crist. it is through
the charm OF some congenial soul and
not by argument at all.
Men are not saved through the head;
they arc saved through the heart. y
storm comes out of its hiding place. It
says. Now We'll just rouse up all this
sea-" and it makes a great buster;
but it does not succeed. Part ofthc sea
is reused up.-perhaps one-hali Of it, OF
one-fourtil oft. After while the calm
moon, placid and beautiful. looks down.
and the ocean begins torlse. 1t comes
up to high-water mark. 1t embraces the
great headlands. 1t submerges the
beaches Of all the continents. 1t is the
heart-throb OF one world against the
heart-throb of another world. And [
have to tell YOU that while all your
storms OF rithcule and storms ofsarcasm
may rouse up the passion of an lmmor-
tai nature, nothing less than the attrac-
tive power Of Christian kindness can
ever raise the deafness spirit to happi-
ness and 10 God. l have more faith III
the prayer of child ) veals old, in the
way of bringing an infdel back to Christ
and to heaven, than l have IN ali the his
sing thunderbolts of ecclesiastical con-
troversy.
You cannot overcome men with re.
licious augmentation. you come at a
sceptical man with an argument on be-
halt of the Christian religion, you put the
man on his mettle. He says: Il see
that man has a carbine. I'll use my car
bine. I'll answer his argument with nv
argument" But if you come to that
man, persuading him that you desire his
happiness on earth, and his eternal well
fare in the world to come, he cannot an
swer it.
What l have said is just as true in the
reclamation Of the openly vicious. Did
YOU ever know a drunkard TO be saved
through the caricature of drunkard ?
Your mimicry Of the staggering step,
and the thick tongue, and the disgusting
hiccough, only worse maddens his brain:
But if YOU come to him in kindness and
sympathy; if you show him that you ap-
preciate the awful grip of depraved APP
petite; If you persuade him Of the fact
that thousands who had the graphing
hooks of evil inclination clutched in their
soul as firmly as in his have been de-
livered, then a ray Of light will flash
across his vision, and twill seem as IS a
supernatural hand were steadying his
staggering gait.
4 good many years ago there lay in
the streets a man dead drunk, his face
exposed to the. .blistering MONDAY sun. \
Christian woman passed along, looked
at him, and said: Poor fellow" She
took her handkerchief and spread II over
his face, and passed on. The manroused
himself up from his debauch, and began
to look at the handkerchief, and, 10! on
it was the name ola highly respectable
| Christian woman Of the city. He went
to her, thanked her for her kindness; and
that one little deed saved him for this
life. and saved him for the life that is to
come. He was afterwards attorney-gener-
al Of the United States; but, higher than
oil he became the copsecrated disciple
| of Jesus Christ.
Kind words are so cheap, tits Won
der we do not use them aftener. There
are tens of thousands of people who are
diving for the lack of one kind word.
There is a business man who has fought
against trouble until he is perfectly eN-
hausted. He has been thinking about
forgery. about robbery, about suicide.
Go to that business man. Tell HIM that
better times are coming, and tell him
that you yourself were in a tight busl-
ness pass, and the Lord delivered you.
| Tell hlm to put his trust in God. Tell
him that Jesus Christ stand beside every
business man in his perplexities. Tell
HIM Of the sweet promises OF Gods COM
forting grace. That man is dying for the
lack of Just one kind word. Go to-nlor-
row and utter that one saving, omnlpo-
tent, kind word. Here is soul that has
been swampcd in sin. He wants to find
the hight Of the Gospel. He feels like a
shlpwrecked mariner looking out over
the beach, watching for a sail against
the sky. o. bear down on him. Tell
him that the Lord wait to be gracious to
him, and though he has been great sim
ner, there is a great Savior provided.
Tell him that though his sins are as
scarlet, they shall be as snow, thongh
they are red like crimson, they shall be
as wool. That man is dying forever Tor
the lack of one kind word.
There used to be sung at great many
of the pianos all through the country
a song that has almost died out. wish
somebody would start it again in our
social circles. There may not have been
very exquisite art in the music, but there
was grand and glorious sentiment:
'Kind words never die, never die;
Cherished and blessed
o, that we might in our families and
in our churches try the force ofkindness.
You can never drive men, women or
children into the kingdom of God. \
March north-easter will bring out more
houevsuckles than fretfulness and scold-
ing will bring out Christian grace. 1
wish that in all our religious work we
might be saturated with the spirit OF
kindness. Missing that, we miss great
deal of usefulness. There is no need OF
coming out before men and laundering
to them the law unless at the same time
you preach to them the Gospel. Do YOU
not know that this simple story Of a
Sayior's kindness is to redeem all ma
tions? The hard heart Of this worlds
| obduracy is to be broken before that
story. There is in Antwerp, Belgium.
one Of the most remarkable pictures l
ever saw. 1t is 1.-The Descent of Christ
4 Il ID.-1 ,.