Democratic Northwest and Henry County news. [volume] (Napoleon, O. [Ohio]) 1894-1905, 1896-09-03

Chew lah6E'S S PLu6S.I .Ihe 6reat Ionacoo Antlool
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 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 1.-THE soft tongue that |
breaketh the bone" We read Hudibras |
and Sterne and Dean Swift and the other |
apostles of acrimony, but give little time
to studying the example Of him who was
reviled, and yet reviled not again. Oh, that
the Lord, by his Spirit, would endow us
all with "the soft tongue that breaketh the
bone"
Kindness Is Useful.
pass now to the other thought that /
desire to present, and that Is kindness as
means of usefulness. In all communities
you find skeptical men. Through early
education, or through the maltreatment OF
professed Christian people, or through pry-
ing curiosity about the future world, there
are great many people who become skep-
tical In religious things How shall you
capture them for God? Sharp argument
and sarcastic retort never won single soul
from skepticism to the Christian religion.
While powerful books on the evidences
of Christianity have their mission in con-
firming Christian people in the faith they
have already adopted, have noticed that
when skeptical people are brought into the
kingdom of Christ 1t 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 Well 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 1t or one-fourth of it. After
awhile the calm moon, placid and beauti-
full, looks down, and the ocean begins to
rise. 1t comes up to high water mark 1t
embraces the great headlands 1t SUBJ
merges the beach of all the continents. 1t
is the heart throb of one world against the
heart throb of another world. And have
to tell you that while all your storms of
ridicule and storms of sarcasm may rouse
up the passion of an immortal nature, moth
ing less than the attractive power of Chris
tian kindness can ever raise the deathless
spirit to happiness and to God. l have
more faith in the prayer Of child years
old in the way Of bringing an infidel back
to Christ and to heaven than have in all
the Kissing thunderbolts of ecclesiactical
controversy You cannot overcome men
with religious 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: "I
see that man has carbine. I'll use my
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
A Glorious Sentiment.
What 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 drunkardi
| Your mimicry of the staggering step, and
| the thick tongue, and the disgusting hic-
| cough, only worse maddens his brain. But
| if you come to him In kindness and SYM
| pathy, if you show him that you appreciate
the awful grip of depraved appetite, if
| you persuade him of the fact that thou
sands who had the graphing hooks of evil
| inclination clutched In their soul as firmly
| as they now are in his have been rescued,
| then ray of light will fash across his
vision, and 1t will seem as If supernat-
ural hand We're steadying his staggering
gait. A good many years ago there lay In
| the streets of Richmond man dead drunk,
his face exposed to the blistering MONDAY
SUM- A Christian woman passed along,
looked at him and said, Poor fellowl'
She took her handkerchief and spread ii
| over bis face and passed on. The man
reused himself up from his debauch and
began TO look at the handkerchief, and 10
on 1t was the name of highly respectable
| 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 at
torney general of the United States; but
higher than all, he became the consecrated
disciple of Jesus Christ
Kind words are 80 cheap 1t Is wonder
| we do not use them oftener. There art
tens of thousands of people In these elite:
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 thinking about
forgery, about robbery, about suicide. CT
to that business man. Tell him that bet
ter times are coming, and tell him that
you yourself were in tight business pass
and the Lord delivered you. Tell him tt
put his trust In God Tell him that Jesus
Christ stands beside every business mar
in his perplexities Tell him of the sweet
promises of God g comforting grace. Thai
man is dying for the lack Of just one kint
word Go tomorrow and utter that ont
saving, omnipotent, kind word. Here is 6
soul that has been swamped in sin. Eli
wants to find the light of the gospel HI
feels like shipwrceked mariner looking
out over the beach, watching for sal
against the sky. Oh, bear down on him
Tell him that the Lord waits to be graciou!
to him; that, though he has been greai
sinner, there is o great Saviour provided
Tell him that, though his sins are as scar
let, they shall be as snow; though they arr
red like crimson, they shall be as wool
That man is dying forever for the lack o.
one kind word There used to be sung al
great many of the pianos all through the
country song that has almost died out
wish somebody would start 1t again il
our social circles There may not have
been very exquisite art in the music, bu
there was grand and glorious sentiment
/ Kind words never die, never die.
Cherished and blessed.
| Sympathys Loving Grace.
i Oh, that we might In our families and IL
our churches try the force of kindness
You can never drive men, women or chill
dren into the kingdom of God. A Marcl
northeaster will bring out more honeysuc
kles than fretfulness and scolding will eve
bring out Christian grace wish that IL