The Brookhaven leader., 1890-09-04
TALMAGES SERMON.
a Discourse on the Power of Kind
Words and Gentleness.
A Line of Conduct that, Used in the Spirit
of the Divine Teacher, Would Have
Saved the World Infinite Dis
cord and Sorrow.


soft tongue breaketh the bone-Prov.
XIV, IL
When Solomon said this no drove q
whole volume into one phrase. You, of
course, will not be so silly as to take
the words of the text in literal sense.
They simply mean to set forth the fact
that there is tremendous power in a
kind word. Although it may seem to
be very insignificant its force Is indie
scribable and illimitable. Pungent and
all-conquering utterance: "a soft tongue
breaketh the bone"
If the weather was not so hot and /
had time, would show you kindness as
means of defense; kindness as a
means of usefulness; kindness as a
means of domestic harmony; kindness
as best employed by governments for
the tanning and curing of criminals, and
kindness as best adapted for the set
Ting and adjusting of international
quarrels, but shall call your attention
only to two of these thoughts.
And first / speak to you of kindness
as a means of defense. Almost every
man, in the course of his life, is set
upon and assaulted. Your motives are
misinterpreted or your religious or po-
litical principles are bombarded. What
to do under such circumstances is the
question. The first impulse of the
natural heart says: Strike back.
Give him as much as he sent Trip
him into the ditch which he dug for
your feet. Cash him with as severe a
wound as that which he inflicted on
your soul. Shot for shot Sarcasm for
sarcasm. An eye for an eye. a tooth
for tooth" But the better spirit in
the mans soul rises up and says: You
ought to reconsider that matter"
You look up into the face of Christ
and say: MY Master, how ought
! to act under these difficult circum-
stances?" And Christ instantly an
sweres: 'Bless them that curse you,
and pray for them which despitefully
use YOU" Then the old nature rise up
again and says: you had better not
forgive until you have first chastised
him. You will never get him in so
tight corner again. You will never
have such an opportunity of inflicting
the right kind OF punishment upon him
again. First chastise him, and then
let him 60" NO" says the better
nature, "hush, thou foul heart. Try
the soft tongue that breaketh the bone"
Have you ever in all your life known
acerbity and acrimonious dispute to
settle the quarrel? Did they not always
make matters worse, and worse, and
worse?
Many years ago there was a great
quarrel in tho Presbyterian family.
Ministers of Christ were thought or
thodox in proportion as they had
measured lances with other clergymen
of tho same denomination. The most
outrageous personalities were abroad.
AS, in the autumn, a hunter comes
homo with a string of game cartridges
and wild ducks slung over his shoulder,
SO there were many ministers who
came back from the ecclesiastical courts
with long strings Of doctors of
divinity whom they had shot with
their own rifle. The division became
wider, the animosity greater, until aft
or awhile some good men resolved upon
another tack. They began to explain
away the difficulties; they began to for
give each others fault and 10! the
great church quarrel was settled, and
the New School Presbyteri church
and the Old Presbyterian church be-
came one. The different parts of the
Presbyterian order, welded by ham
mer little hammer, Christian ham,
mer, that the Scripture calls "a soft
tongue"
You have dispute with your neigh
Dor. You say to him: Il despise you"
lie replies: Il can't bear the sight of
you" You say to him: Never enter
my house again" lie says: ''If you
come on my door-sill, Tll kick you off,
You say to him: iii put you down. :"
He says to you: you are mistaken;
I'll put you down" And SO the con-
test RACES; and year after year you act
the unchristian part and he acts the I'M
christian part After awhile the bet
ter spirit seizes you, and one day
you go over to the neighbor, and
say: "Give me your hand. We have
fought long enough. Time is SO short,
and eternity is so near that we can not
afford any longer to quarrel. fear you
have wronged me very much, but let US
settle all now in one great hand shak-
ing, and be good friends for all the rest
of our lives" You have risen to a
higher platform than that on which be-
fore you stood. You win his admira-
ton and you get his apology. But if
you have not conquered him in that
way, at any rate you have won the APP
plause of your own conscience, the high
estimation of good men and the honor
of your Lord, who died for his armed
enemies.
"But," you say, what are we to do
when ISLANDERS assault US, and there
come acrimonious sayings all around
about US, and we are abused and spit
upon?" My reply is: Do not go and at
tempt to chase down the ISLANDERS. Lies
are prolific, and while you are killing
one, fifty are born. All your demon
strations of indignation only exhaust
yourself You might as we'll, on some
summer night when the swarms OF in
sects are coming up from the meadows
and disturbing you, and disturbing your
family, bring up some great swamp
angel" like that which Numbered over
Charleston, and try to shoot them down.
The game is too small for the gun.
But what, then, are you to do with
the abuses that come upon you in life?
You are to live them down! l saw a
farmer go out to get back swarm Of
bees that had wandered off from the
hive. As he moved amid them they