Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1890-08-25

of acrimony, but give little time to
studying the example of him who was
reviled and yet reviled not again. Oh,
that the Lord, by his spirit, would en-
dow us all with 1.-THE soft tongue that
breaketh the bone. !"
I pass now to the other thought that
l desire to present, and that is, kind
ness asa means of usefulness In all
communities you find skeptical men.
Through early education, or through
the maltreatment of protested Christian
people, or through prying curiosity
about the future world, there are a
great many people who become skep-
teal in religious things. How shall
you capture them for God? Sharp ar
CURRENT and sarcastic retOrt never won
a single soul from skepticism to the
Christian religion. While powerful
books on the Evidences of Christiani-
ty'' have their mission in confirming
Christian people in the faith they have
already adopted, have noticed that
when skeptical people are brought into
the kingdom of Christ it is through the
charm of some genial soul, and not by
argument at all.
Men are not saved through the head;
they are saved through the heart. A
storm comes out of its hiding place. 1t
says, Nov 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 while the
calm moon, placid and beautiful, looks
down, and the ocean begins to rise. 1t
comes up to high-water mark. 1t en-
braces the great headlands. 1t sub
merges the beaches of all the CONT
nents 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
tan kindness can ever raise the death
less spirit to happiness and to God. [
have more faith in the prayer of a child
five years old, in the way of bringing
an infidel back to Christ and to heaven,
than [ have in all the kissing thunder
bolts of ecclesiastical controversy.
You cannot overcome men with re-
igious augmentation If you come
at skeptical man with an argument
on behalf of the Christian religion you
put the man ON his mettle. He says:
II see that man has carbine I'll use
my carbine I'll answer his argument
with my argument" But if you come
to that man persuading him that you
desire his happiness on earth and his
eternal welfare in the world to come
he cannot answer it.
MIMICRY WILL NOT SAVE THEM.
What have said is just as true in
the reclamation of the openly vicious.
Did you ever know drunkard to be
saved through the caricature of a
drunkard? Your mimicry of the stag
gering 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 appreciate the
awful grip of a depraved appetite; if |
you persuade him of the fact that thou
sands who had the graphing hooks of
evil inclination clutched in their soul |
as firmly as in his have been delivered, |
vision, and it will seem as if a supernat- |
ural hand were steadying his staggering |
gait.
A good many years ago there lay in |
the streets a man dead drunk, his face |
exposed to the blistering MONDAY sun.
A Christian woman passed along, looked |
at him, and said, ''Poor fellow" She |
took her handkerchief and spread it |
over his face and passed on. The man
reused himself up from his debauch, |
and began to look at the handker
chief, and 10! on it was the name of
highly respectable Christian woman of
the city He went to her; he 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 afterward attorney general of |
the United States; but, higher than all,
he became the consecrated disciple of |
Jesus Christ.
Kind words are SO cheap it is won
der we do not use them oftener. There
are tens of thousands of people who
are dying for the lack of one kind |
word There is q business man who
has fought against trouble until he is
perfectly exhausted. He has been think
ing 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
tight business pass, and the Lord de
livered you. Tell him to put his trust |
in God Tell him that Jesus Christ
I- do hi
perplexities Tell him of the sweet
promises of Gods comforting grace.
That man is dying for the lack of |
just one kind word. Go tomorrow
and offer that one saving, omnipotent |
kind word Here is a soul that has
been swamped in sin. He wants to
find the light of the gospel. He feels
like shipwrecked mariner looking out |
over the beach, watching for a sail
against the sky. Oh, bear down on
him. Tell him that the Lord waits to
be gracious to him, and though he has
been a great sinner there is a great
Saviour provided. Tell him that
though his sins are as scarlet they shall
be as snow; though they are red like
crimson they shall be as wool. That |
man is dying forever for the lack of one
kind word.
KIND WORDS NEVER DIE.
There used to be sung at great
many Of the pianos all through the
country a song that has almost died
out. I wish somebody would start it
again in our social circles. There may
not have been very exquisite art in the
music, but there was a 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 of kind
ness You can never drive men, wOm-
en- or children into the kingdom of |
God. A March northeaster will bring out |
more honeysuckles than fretfulness and
scolding will bring out Christian grace.
[ wish that in all our religious work we
might be saturated with the spirit of |
kindness. Missing that, we miss a great |
deal of usefulness There is no need |