The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1890-08-26

ooh" you say, that's very goof
theory to preach On a hot day, but il
won't work. It will work. 1t ha
worked. 1 believe it is the last Chris
tan grace we win. You know there are
fruits which we gather in June, and
others in July, and Others in August
and others in September, and still
others in October; and have to admit
that this grace of Christian forgiveness:
is about the last fruit of the Christian
soul,
THE SOFT TONGUE.
We hear great deal about the bit
ter tongue, and the sarcastic tongue,
and the quick tongue, and the singing
tongue, but we know very little about
"the soft tongue that breaketh the
bone.n We read Hudibras and Sterne
and Dean Swift and the other apostles
of acrimony, but give little time tc
studying tho example of him who was
reviled, and yet reviled not again, Oh,
that the Lord, by his spirit, would en-
dow us all with "the soft tongue that
breaketh the bone"
I pass now to the other thought that
I desire to present, and that is, kind
ness rs means of usefulness. In al
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 q
great many people who become skep-
tical in religious things. How shall
you capture them for Code Sharp ar
gument and sarcastic retort never won
q 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
they are saved through the heart. A
storm comes out of its hiding place. II
SAYS, Nov we'll just rouse up all this
sea-" and it makes Il great buster, but
it does not succeed. Part of the sea is
reused up--perhaps one-half of it OF
one-fourth of it. After while the
calm moon, placid and beautiful, looks
down, and the ocean begins to rise. II
comes up to high-water mark. 1t EN-
braces tie 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 L 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 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
ligious 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
Il see that man has carbine. flluse
nv caroline. 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 l 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 il
you show him that you appreciate the
awful grip of depraved appetite; Il
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 lis have been delivered,
then q ray of light will flash across his
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 man dead drunk his face
exposed to the blistering MONDAY sun.
A Christian woman passed along, looked
81 him, and said, Poor fellow" She
took her handkerchief and spread 1t
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 a
highly respectable Christian woman OF
tile CITY. Tic NellI w LII liz ei't'iiAANN>
her for her kindness; and that one
little decd saved him for this life, and
saved him for the life that is to come.
He was afsRward 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 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. Tel
him that better times are coming, and
tell him that you yourself were in a
tight business pass, and the Lord de.
livered you. Tell him to put his trust
in God. Tell him that Jesus Christ