Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1890-09-05


tic retort never won single soul from skep-
ticsm to the Christian religion. While pow
crfnl books on the Evidences OF Christian
ity'' have their mission in confirming Chris
tian people in the faith they have already
adopted, l have noticed that when skeptIc1t
peopleare brough 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. It says: Now,
we'll just rouse up all this sea-" and it makes
O great buster, but it does not succeed. Part
of the sea is reused up-psrhaps one-half of
it. or one.fourth Of it. After a while the
sd tie naed and d @ s9Gk n e
high water mark. 1t embraces the great
headlands. 1t subnerges the beaches of all
the continents. 1t is the heart throb OF one
world against tbs heart throb Of another
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 ma
ture nothing less than the attractive power
of Christian 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 inffdel back to
Christ and to heaven, than I have in all the
Kissing thunderbolts OF ecclesiastical contro-
versy.
augmentation. If you come at g. skeptical
man with an argument on behalf OF the
Christian religion, you pat the man on MS
5n e.N III i use my carbine iii 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 an
swer it.
What I have said is just as true in the re-
clan1ation of the openly vicious. Did you
ever know drunkard to lie saved through
the caricature of drunkard? Your mimicry
Of the staggering step, and the thick tongue,
and the disgusting h1ccough only worse
in kindness and sympathy, if you show him
that you appreciate the awful grip OF de-
PRAYED appetite, 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 delivered,
~ben a raw of light will flash across his
vision, and 1t will seem as II supernatural
hand was steadying his sta EgerinS gait.
A good many years age there lay i'll the
streets a man dead drunk, his face exposed
to the blstering monday sun. A Christian
woman passed along, looked at him and said,
''Poor fellow" She took her handkerchief
and spread it over Lis face, and passed
Ol, 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. lie
went toher, he thanked her for her kindness,
an that one little deed saved him for this
come He was afterwari Attornay-General
Of the United States; but higher than oil, he
became the consecrated disciple OF Jesus
Christ.
Kind words are 50 cheap it is a wonder we
do not use them oftener. There are tens OF
thousands or people who are dying for the
lack of one kind word. There is business
man who has fought against trouble until he
is perfectly exhausted. He has been think
ing about forgery, about robbery, about sui
eide. 10 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 delivered You. Tell him
to put his trust in God. Tell him that Jesus
Christ stands beside every business man in
his perplexities. Tell him of the sweet prom
ises Of Gods comforting grace.
That man is dying for the lack of just one
kind word. Go tomorrow aud utter 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 shipwrecl1ed mariner looking out
| over the beach. watching for sail against
| the sky. Oh, bear down on him. Fell him
that tho Lord waits to be gracious to him,
and, though he has been a great sinner,
there 6 IS a great Saviour provided: Tell
! 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.
There used to be sung at a great many of
Cle pianos all GurOteSn inc country q song
| that has almost died out. I wish somebody
would start it again in our social circles
| There may have not been very exquisite art
in the music, but there was q grand and
| glorious sentiment:
Kind words never die, never die;
| Cherished and blessed.
Oh, that we might in our families and in
our churches try the force of kindness. You
| can never drive men, women OF children in
the kingdom of God. A March northeaster
| will bring out more honeysuckes than fret
fulness and scolding will bring out Christian
grace. wish thatin all our religious work
we might be saturated with tho spirit Of
| kindness. Missing that we miss a 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 younot know that this
simple story of q Saviour's kin lness is to re-
deem all nations? The hard heart of this
worlds obduracy is to be broken before that
| story.
Inere Is IN Antwerp, Belgium, one Of the
most remarkable pictures l ever saw. It is
The Descent OF Christ from the Cross. It
is one of Rubens's pictures No man can
stand and look ut that descent from the cross
as Rubens pictured it, without having his
eyes flooded with tears if he have any sensi,
blllty at all. 1t is an OYermaStering picture
| one that stuns you, and staggers you, and
haunts your dreams. One afternoon a man
stood in that cathedral looking at Rubens's
Descent of Christ from the Cross" He was
all absorbed in that scene of Saviour'S suf-
ferings when the janitor came in and said
at is time to close UP the cathedral for the
night. | wish you would depart" The pill
grim looking at that Descent Of Christ from
the Cross, turned around to the janitor and
| Il. n xpt Woif how Cyof