Democratic messenger., 1896-08-29
The Applause of Conscience.


You have dispute with your ncighbor
You say To him, Il dcspise YOU" He re-
plies, II can't bear the sight Of you. .
You say 10 him, Newer enter my house
again" He says, IF you come on my
door sill, I'll kick you or" You say to
him, "I'll put YOU down" He says 10
you: "You are mistaken. I'll put you
down" And 50 the contest RACES, and
year after year you net the unchristian
part, and he acts the unchristian part.
After awhile the better spirit seizcs you,
and one day you go over to the ncighbor
and say: Give me your hand. We have
fought long enough. Time is so short,
and eternity Is 80 near, that we cannot af-
ford any longer To quarrel. feel you have
wrongcd me very much. but let us settle
all now In one great hand shaking and be
good friends for all the rest of our lives. -
You have risen to higher platform than
that on which before you stood. You win
his admiration. and you get his apology
But If you have not conquered him In that
way at any rate you have won the applause
of your own conscience. the high estima-
tion If good men and tie honor of your
Lord who died for his armed enemies.
But" you say, what are we to do
acrimonious sayings all around about us,
and We are abused and spit upon?" My
reply is: DO not go and attempt To chase
down the ISLANDERS Lies are prolific, and
while you are killing one, fifty are born. All
your demonstrations of Indignation only
exhaust yourself You might as well on
some summer night, when the swarms OF
insects are coming up from the meadows
and disturbing you and disturbing your
family, bring up some great swamp an
gel. like that which thundered over
Charleston. ard try To shoot them down
The game is ton 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, saw farmer 90 out TO
get back q swarm of bccs that had wander
e,l off from tie hive As he moved amid
them they buz.cd around his head and
buzIcd around his hands and buzzcd
around his feet. II hc had killed one Of
them, they would have stung him to death
But he moved in their midst In perfect
placidity until he had captured the swarm
Of wandering bees
And so | have seen men moving amid
the annoyanccs, and the Vexaiions, and the
assaults Of life In such calm, Christian de-
liberation that all the buzzing around
about their soul amounted to nothing.
They conquered them, and, above all, they
conquered themselves oh, you say
that a very good theory 10 preach on n
hot day, but il won I work. y II will work
II has worked lc!icvc il is the last
Christian 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 tho
last fruit of the Christian soul. We hear
a great deal about the bitter tongue and
the sarcastic tongue. and the quick tongue
and the stinging tongue but we know
very little about the soft tongue that
brcaketh the bone" We read Hudib,as
and Sterne and Dean Swift and tho Other
apostles Of hcrimony, but give little time
to studying the example Of him who was
rcyilcd, and yet rcviled not again. Oh, that
the Lord. by his Spirit, wotid endow ms
all with "thc soft tongue that brcakcth the
bone"