Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1896-08-31


killed one of them they would have
stung him to death. But he moved IL
their midst il perfect placidity until he
had captured the swarm Of wandering
bees
And so [ have seen men moving amid
the annoyances, and the yexations, and
the assaults Of life III such calm, Chris
tian deliberaticn that all the buzzilg
around about their soul amounted to
nothing. They conquered them, and
above all they conquered themselves.
cob - you say, that's a very good the
DRY to preach on hot day, but it WON'T
work. = It will work. 1t has worked [
believe it 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 I 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 singing tongue; but we
know very little about the soft tongue
that breaketh the bone. = We read
and the other apostles Of acrimony, but
give little time TO studying the example
Of him who was reviled and yet reyilCd
not again. Oh, that the Lord, by his
spirit, would endow us all with 'sthe
soft tongue that breaketh the bone. -
pass now to the other thought that
I desire to present, and that is kindness
as means of usefulness. In all COM
munities you find skeptical men.
Through early education, or through the
maltreatment Of protested Christian peo-
pie, or through prying curiosity about
the future world, there are great many
people who become skeptical in religious
things. How shall yoa capture them for
God? Sharp argument and sarcastic re-
tort never won single soul from skep-
ticism to the Christian religion. While
powerful books ON the evidences of
Christianity have their mission in cen
frming Christian people III the faith
they have already adopted, I have no
ticed that when skeptical people are
brought into the kingdom Of Christ, it
is through the charm Of some genial
soul, and lot by argument at all.
Men are not saved through the head;
storm comes out of its hiding place. 1t
says, Now we'll just 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 it. After awhile the
calm moon, placid and beautiful, looks
down, and the ocean begins to rise. It
comes up to high water mark. It en-
braces the great headlands. 1t sub
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 sar-
casm 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 q child years old in
the way of bringing an infidel back 10
Christ and 10 heaven than have i'll all
the kissing thunderbolts Of ecclesiastical
controversy. You cannot overcome men
with religious augmentation. Ii you
come at a sleptical man with an argu-
ment OF behalf of the Christian reli-
gion, you put the man on his mettle. He
says: II see that man has carbine.
I'll use my carbine. I'll answer his ar
gument 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.
Power of Kindness.
What I have said is just as true in
the reclamation of the openly vicious.
Did you ever know a drunkard to be
saved through the caricature of drunk
ard? Your mimicry of the staggering
step, and the thick tongue. and the dis
gusting hiccough only worse maddens
his brain. But if you come 10 him in
kindness and sympathy; if you show
him that you appreciate the awful grip
of depraved appetite; 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 are in his have been rescued, then
a ray Of light will flash across his vi
sion and it will seem as if supernatu-
raj hand were steadying his staggering
gait. A good many years ago there lay
in the streets of Richmond, Va, man
dead drunk his face exposed to the Bills
tering MONDAY sun. A Christian woman
passed along. looked at him, and said,
'tPoor fellow She took her handker-
chief and spread it over his face and
passed on. The man reused himself up
from his debauch and began to look at
the handkerchief, and, lol on it 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
attorney general of the United States;
but, higher than all, he became the con-