News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1890-08-28
THE SOFT TONGUE.

COW us tlll WIN INC oCIO eShoN w eAAeN'
breaketh the bone. "
pass now to the other thought that
I desire to present, and that is kind
ness as a means of usefulness. In all
communities you find skeptical men.
Through early education, or through
the maltreatment of professed Christian
people, or through prying curiosity
about the future world, there are
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, l 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;
thew are saved through the heart. A
storm comes out of its hiding place. 1t
saws. 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 a 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 rldlcule 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 child
five wears 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-
ligious augmentation If you come
at a skeptical man with an argument
on behalf of the Christian religion you
put the man on his mettle. He says:
Il see that man has carbine. I'll use
nv 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.
MINIICRY WILL NOT SAVE THEM.
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
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; II
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,
then a ray of light will flash across his
vision, and it viii seem as if supernat-
ural 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.
A Christian woman passed along, looked
a. llil4A, sslAl said, ss1asseE 6euaaSi,a SlAe
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 lo 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
Il
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. Tel
| him that better times are coming, and
tell him that you yourself were in a
| tight business pass, and the Lord de-
hvered 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
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 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 sal
against the sky. Oh, bear down OF
him. Tell him that the Lord waits tt
be gracious to him, and though he has
been a great sinner there is a great
Saviour provided. Tell him thai
though his sins are as scarlet they shall
be as snow; though they are red ikt
crimson they shall be as wool. Tha
man is dying forever for the lack of ont
kind word.
KIND WORDS NEVER DIE.
There used to be sung at a grea
many of the pianos all through the
country a song that has almost dice
out. | wish somebody would start i
again in our social circles. There may
not have been very exquisite art in the
music, but there was a grand ant
glorious sentiment:
Kind words never die never die;
Cherished and blessed.
, o that we might in our families anC
in our churches try the force of kind
ness. You can never drive men, WON
! en- or children into the kingdom o
God. A March northeaster will bring ou
, more honeysuckles than fretfulness anC
? scolding will bring out Christian grace
| wish that in all our religious work W.
{ might be saturated with the spirit o
, kindness. Missing that, we miss a grea
, deal of usefulness There is no neeC
of coming out before men and thunder
ing to them the law unless at the sam,
3 time you preach to them the gospel
, Do you not know that this simple stor,
+ of a Saviour's kindness is to redeem al
natiOnsl The hard heart of this world
obduroov iS To ba 11rolxan baforn tho