Sharp County record., 1890-09-11

Rut he moved in their midst in perfect
nlacidity until he had captured the
swarm of wandering bees. And SO nave
seen men moving amid the annoyances'
and the vexations, and the assaults
of life in such calm, Christian dellber-
alton. that all the buzzing around about
their souls amounted to nothing. They
conquered them, and, above all, they
conquered themselves 80" you say
that's very good theory to preach on
hot day, but it won't work" 1t VIII
work, 1t has worked. | believe 1t IS
the last Christian grace we win. You
know there are fruits which we gather
in June. and others in July, and others
in August, and othersin September and
still others in October; and l have to
admit that this grace of Christian for
piyeness is about the last fruit OF the
Chri stian soul.
We hear great deal about the bitter
tongue, and the sarcastic tongue, and
the quick tongue, and the stinging
tongue: but we know very little about
''the soft tongue that breaketh the
hone" We read Hudibras, and Sterne,
and Dean Swift, and the other apostles
of acrimony, but give little time to
studying the example of Him who was
reviled, and yet reviled not again. 0
that the Lord, by his spirit, would en-
dow us all with "the soft tongue that
breaketh the bone"
| pass now to the other thought that |
desire to present, and that is, kindness
as means of usefulness In all COM
munities you find skeptical men.
Through early education, or through
the maltreatment of professed Chris
tan people, or through prying curiosity
about the future world, there are a great
many people who become skeptical in re-
ligious things How shall you capture
them from God? Sharp argument and sar-
castle retort never won a single soul from
skepticism to the Christian religion.
While powerful books on the 'Evi-
dences of Christianity" have their mis-
sion in confirming Christian people in
the faith they have already adopted, |
have noticed that when skeptical peo-
pie are brought into the kingdom of
Christ, it is through the charm of some
genial soul, and not by argumentat all.
Men are not saved through the head;
they are saved through the heart A
storm comes out of its hiding place.
1t says: "Now we'll just rouse up all
this sea-" and it makes great
bluster; but it does not succeed. Part
of the sea is reused up-perhaps one
half of it, or one-fourth of it. After
awhile the calm moon, placid and beau
tiful, looks down, and the ocean begins
to rise. 1t comes up to high-water
mark. 1t embraces the great head
lands. 1t submerges the beaches of all
the continents 1t is the heart-throb of
one world against the heart-throb of an
other world. And | have to tell you
that while all your storms of ridicule
and storms of sarcasm may rouse up the
passion Of an immortal nature, nothing
, less than the attractive power OF Chris
tian kindness can ever raise the death
less spirit to happiness and to God. |
have more faith in the prayer of child
five years old, in the way of bringing
an infdel back 20 Christ and to Heaven,
than have in all tha-hissinS thunder.
bolts Of ecclesiastical controversy.
You can not overcome men with re.
ligious augmentation, If you come az
a skeptical man with an argument or
behalf of the Christian religion, you put
the man on his mottle. lie says. 81
see that man has carbine. I'll use my
carbine. I'll answer his argument with
thy argument" But if you come to
that man. persuading him that you de.
sire his happiness on earth, and his
eternal welfare in the world to come,
he can not answer it.
What have said is just as true il
the reclamation OF the openly vicious
Did you ever know a drunkard to be
saved through the caricature Of
drunkard? Your mimicry of the stag
gering step, and the thick tongue an(
the disgusting hiccough, only wors,
maddens his brain. But if you come t,
him in kindness ana sympathy; if yo,
= show him that you appreciate the awfu
grip Of depraved appetite; if you per
suado him of the fact that Thousands
: who had the graphing hooks of evil in
clination clutched in their souls a
{ firmly as in his have been delivered
then ray Of light will fash across hi.
l vision, and it will seem as is a super
natural hand were steadying his stag
y gering gait.
; a good many years ago there lay 4
: the streets n man dead drunk, his fac
t exposed to the blistering noon.day sun
: A Christian woman passed along, locke
: at him. and sNid' "Poor fellow" Sh
took her handkerchief and spread II oye
d his lace, and passed on. The ma,
0 reused himself up from his dobauch
, and began to look at the handkerchief
I and 10! on 1t was the namo Of u highly
Il respectable Christian woman Of Tn
$ CITY, lie went to hor, ho thanked no
: Tor hor kindness; and that little dec
t saved him for this life, and saved hi,
q ior the lito that is to come. lIo wa
l. attorward Acknowledgement Of th,
= United States; but higher than all, h
L lNnumN Iln nn.,n.,...-L l.