The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1896-09-11

You know there are fruits which
we gather in June, and others in
July, and others in August, and
others in September, and still eth.
ers in October, and 1 have to
admit that this grace of Christian for
giveness is about the last fruit of the
Christian soul. We hear a great deal
about the bitter tongue, and the sar-
castle tongue, and the quick tongue,
and the singing tongue; but we know
very little about 1.-THE soft tongue that
breaketh the bone" We read Hudi-
bras, and Sterne and Dean Swift, and
the other apostles of acrimony, but
give little time to studying the exam
pie of Him who was revilcd, and vet
reyiled not again. o, that the Lord,
by His spirit, would endow rs ali with
1.-The soft tongue that breaketh the
bone"
I pass now to the other thought that
L desire to present, and that is kind
ness as a means of usefulness. In all
communities you find slieptical men.
Through early education, or through
the maltreatment of professed Chris
tian people, or through prying curios-
ity about the future world, there are
a great many people who become
skeptical in religious things. How
shall you capture them for God?
Sharp argument and sarcastic retort
never won single soul from skepti-
cism to the Christian religion. While
powerful books on THE Evil
dences of Christianity" have their
mission In confirming Christian peo-
pie in the faith they have already
adopted, l have noticed that when
skept'cal people are brought into til }
| 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. 1t says, Now
we'll first rouse up all this sea-" and it
makes great buster, but it does not
succeed. Part of the sea is reused up
perhaps one-half of it or one-fourth
of 1t. After awhile the calm moon,
placid and beautiful, looks down and
the ocean begins to rise 1t
comes up to the high-water mark.
1t embraces the great headlands. 1t
submerges the beach of all the CONT
nents, 1t is the heart-throb of the
world against the heart-throb of an
other world. And / have to tell you
that while your storms of Iidicule and
storms of sarcasm may rouse up the
passion of an immortal nature, nothing
less than the attractive power OF
! Christian kindness can ever raise the
deathless spirit TO happiness and to
! God. have more faith in the prayer
of a child five years old, in the way of
bringing an inf1del back to Christ and
| to Heaven, than have in all the kissing
| thunderbolts of ecclesiastical contro-
versy. You can hot overcome men
with religious augmentation. If you
/ come at skeptical man with an ar
! gument on behalf of the Christian re-
! ligion, you put tbs man on his mettle.
! lie says. II see that man has a car
/ bine. I'll use my carbine. I'll answer
his argument with my argument"
But if you come to that man, persuad-
ing him that you desire his happi-
ness on earth and his eternal welfare
in the world to come, he can not an
swer 1b
What 1 have said is just as true in
the reclamation of the openly vicious
| Did you ever know drunkard to be
1 II
! drunkard? Your mimicry of the stag
! gering step, and the thick tongue, and
| the disgusting hiecough, 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 appetitel if
you persuade him of the fact that
! thousands who had the graphing
| hooks of evil inclination clutched in
! their soul as firmly as they now arc in
his, have been rescued, then a ray of
| light will flash across his vision, and
it will seem as if a supernatural hand
were steadyihg his staggering gait.
a good many years ago there lay in
the streets of Richmond, Va. man
! dead drunk, his face exposed to the
blisteriBg nUohday sun. A Christian
woman passed along, looked at him,
and said: Poor fellow" She took
her handkerchief and spread it over
his face, and passed on. The man
roused himself up from his debauch
and began to look at the handker-
chief, and, lol on it was a name of
highlyarespectable Christian woman
of the city of Richmond. 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 Encouragement of the
United States, but, higher than all, he
became the consecrated 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 in these cities
who are dying for our kind word
There is business man who has
fought against trouble until he is
perfectly exhausted. He has been
thinking about forgery, about robbery,
about suicide. Go to that business
man. Tell him that better times are
coming, and tell him that you yourself
were in a 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 his perp1exities. Tell him of
the sweet promises of Gods comfort
ing grace. That man is dying for the
lack of just one kind word. Go to-
morrow and utter that one saving,
omnipotent. kind word Here is a
soul that has been swamped in sin.
He wants to find the light of the Cos
pei. He feels like a shipwrecked mar
liner looking out over the beach,
watching for sail against the sky.
Oh, bear down upon him. Tell him
that the Lord waits to be gracious to