Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1896-09-04

| come on my uOOrsllI, II KICK you on.
You say to him, I'm put you down. ="
He says TO you: "You are mistaken.
I'll put you down" And so the contest
RACES, and year after year you act the
un. Christian part and he acts the un-
Christian part. After awhile the better
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 cannot afford any
longer to quarrel. l feel you have
wrOnged me very much, hut let us settle
all now in one great handshaking, and
be good friends for all the rest Of our
lives " You have risen to higher plat
form 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 estimation Of
good men, and the honor of your Lord
who died for his armed enemies.
Peace and Patience.
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?" Ny 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 demonstra-
tions of indignation only exhaust your
self You might as well on some sum-
mer night, when the swarms of insects
are coming up from the meadows and
disturbing you and disturbing your
family, bring up some great swamp
angel" like that which thundered 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. | saw farmer go
out to get back swarm Of bees that
had wandered of from the hive. As he
moved amid them they buzzed around
his head and buzzed around his hands
and buzzed around his feet. If he 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 annoyances, and the vexations, and
the assaults Of life in such calm, Chris
tian deliberation that all the buzzing
around about their soul amounted TO
nothing. They conquered them, and
above all they conquered themselves.
"Oh, " you say, that's very good the
ory to preach on a hot day, but 1t won't
work. " 1t will work. 1t has worked. l
believe il is the last Christian grace we
win. You know there are fruits which
we gather in June, and others i'll 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
great deal about the bitter tongue, and
the sarcastic 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
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.
l pass now to the other thought that
I desire to present, and that is kindness
as a means Of usefulness. In all COM
munities you find skeptical men.
Through early education, or through the
maltreatment of professed Christian peo-
ple. or through prying curiosity about
the future world, there are great many
people who become skeptical in religious
things. How shall you capture them for
God? Sharp argument and sarcastic re-
tort never won single soul from skep-
ticjsm to the Christian religion. While
powerful books on the evidences OF
Christianity have their mission ID con-
firming Christian people in the faith
they have already adopted, l have no.
ticed 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;
thev are saved through the heart a
storm comes out of its hiding place l.
saws. "Now we'll just rouse up all thi
sea. and it makes a great buster bu
il does not succeed. Part o. tie sea
reused up-perhaps one-half of 1t
one-fourth of it. After awhile th
calm moon, placid and beautiful, look
| Down. and the ocean begins to rise.
comes up to high water mark. 1t EN-
braces the great headlamds. 1t sub
merges the beach of all the continents.
II is the heart throb Of one world against
the heart throb Of another world. And
have to tell you that while all youi
storms of ridicule and storms OF sar'
casm may rouse up the passion OF az
immortal nature, nothing less than the
attractive power Of Christian kindness
can ever raise the deathless spirit tC
happiness and to God. have more faitf
in the prayer of a child years old II
the way of bringing an infdel back t'
Christ and to heaven than | have IN al
, the Kissing thunderbolts Of ecclesiastics
controversy. You cannot overcome mel
with religious augmentation. II yo'
come at a skeptical man with an argu
r nent on behalf Of the Christian reii
J gion, you put the man on his mettie. III
t saws: II see that man has a carbine
IN use my oarbine. III answer his ar
, gumoLt with my argument But
l you come to that man persuading HIN
} that you desire his happiness on cart
: and his eternal welfare in the world u
= come, he cannot answer it.
Q Power Of Kindness
What have said is just as true u
the reclamation Of the openly vicious
Did you ever know a drunkard to D
r saved through the caricature OF a drunk
ardY Your mimicry of the staRgerln
step, and the thick tongue, and the DIS
gusting hiccough only worse madden
I his brain. But if you come to him i
? Kindness and sympathy; if you sho'