The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-08-25

you VIII INC SkepllChl Ineu- through eaiAN
education, or through the maltreatment OF
pTofessed christian people. or through
prying curiosity about the future world
there are a grest many people who become
skepiical in religious things. How shall
you capture them for God Sharp argu-
nent and sarcastic retort never won SIN
gle soul from skeptlc.sm to the christian
religio .. While powerful books on the
Evidences of Christianity" have their mis-
sion in confirming christian people in the
faith they have already adopted. l have
noticed that when sceptical people are
brought into the kingdom of Christ, 1t /;
through the charm Of some genral 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;
Now We'll lust rouse up all this sea-; and
il makes a great bluster; but 1t does not sue
coed Part of the sea is reused up-perhaps
one-half Of it, or one-fourth of 1t. After q
while the calm moon, placid and beautiful,
looks down aud the ocean begins to rise. Ii
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 ridicule and storms OF
ridicule and storms of scarcasm may rouse
nothing less thsn the attractive power OF
christian kindness can ever raise the death
less spirit to happiness and 70 God. / have
more faith in the prayer of a chlld nve
years old, in the way of bringing an lnhdei
back to Christ and to heaven, than nave
in all the Kissing thunderbolts OF eccleslas-
teal controversy.
You cannot overcome men with rel gious
augmentation. II you come at skepucal
man with an argument IN behalf OF the
christian religion you put the mau on his
mettle. He saws: 81 see that man has
carbine. I'll use my carbine. I'll answer
his argument with my argument. But II
you come to that man persuading MIN tnat
YOU desire his happiness on earth, and his
eternal welfare in the world to come, be
cannot answer 1t.
What 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 a drunkard9 Your MINI
icry of the staggering step, and the thick
tongue, and the disgusting hiccough, only
worse maddens his brain. But II you come
to him in kindness and sympathy; if You
show him that you appreciate the awful
grip of a depravei 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, then raw of light will flash
pernatural hand were steadying his stag
gering gait
A good many years ago there lay in the
streets 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 band
kerchief and spread it over his face and
passed on. The man reused himself up
from his debauch and began TO look at the
handkerchief, and lol on 1t 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 conse-
Grated disciple of Jesus Christ.
Kind words are so cheap it is a wonder
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 a
business man who has fought against
trouble until he is perfectly exhausted. He
has been thinking about forgery, about
ness 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 MS preparedness lell Dlnl Oh tne
sweet promises of Gods comforting grace
That man is dying for the lack Of just one
kind word Go tomorrow and utter that
one saving, omnipotent, kind word. Here
is q soul that has been swamped in sin. He
wants to find the light of the gospel He
feels like a shipwrecksd mariner looking out
over the beach, watching for sail against
the sky. o, lear down on him. Tell him
that the Lord waits TO be gracious to him,
and though he has been great sinner,
there is great Savior 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.
There used to be sung at great many of
the pianos all through the country q 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 Of kindness. You
can never drive men, women or childr en-
into the kingdom of God. A March north
easter viii bring out more honeysuckles
than fretfulness and scolding will bring out
-
igious work we might be saturated with
the spirit Of kindness. Missing that, we
miss a great deal of usefulness. There is no
need of coming out before men and thunder
ing to them the law unless at
the same time you preach to
them the gospel. Do you not
know that this SIMPLE story of Savior's
kindness is to redeem all nationsf The hard
heart of this worlds obduracy is to be
broken before that story. There Is in Ant
werp, Belgium, one of the most remarkable
pictures ever saw. 1t is THE Descent of
Christ from the Cross" 1t is one of Rubens'
pictures No man can stand and look at
that Descent from the Cross" as Reubens
pictured it, without having his eyes flooded
with tears If he have any sensibility at
alt 1t is an overmastering picture-one that
stuns you, and staggers you, and haunts
your dreams. One afternoon, a man stood
IN that cathedral looking at Rubens' de-
scent from the Cross. He was all absorbed
in that scene of a saviour's sufferings when
the janitor came in said: ut is time to
close up the cathedral for the night | wish
you would depart" The pilgrim looking at
that Descent from the Cross" turned
around to the janitor and said: mo, no
not yet. Wait until they get Him down"
O., it is the story of saviour's suffering
kindness that is to capture the world
When the bones of that great Behemoth of
iniquity which has trampled all nations
shall be broken and shattered, it will be
fnund ont that the work was NOR dona ~