The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1896-09-05

charm of some genial soul, and not by
argument at all. Mel are not saved
through the hea L; they are saved
through the hear. A storm comes
out of its hiding pace. 1t says: Nov
we II just rouse up all this sea" and it
makes a great buster, but does not
succeed. Fart 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. 1t comes up to the high-water
mark. 1t embraces the great head
lands. 1t submerges the beach of all
the continents. 1t is the heart-throb
of the world against the heart-throb
of another world. And l have to tell
YOU that while your storms of ridicule
and storms of sarcasm may rouse up
the passion of an immortal nature,
nothing less han the attractive power
of Christian Kindness can ever raise
the death'ess spir t to happiness and
to God. ! have more faith in the prayer
of a child five years old, in the way of
bringing an inEidel Jack to Christ and
to Heaven than / have in all the hiss
ing thunderbolts of ecclesiastical con
troverSy. You cannot overcome men
with religious augmentation. If you
come at a skeptical man with an argu-
ment on behalf of the Christian re-
ligion, you put the man on his mettle.
He says: 81 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 happiness
on earth and his eternal welfare in the
world to come, he cannot answer it.
What l 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 a
drunkari? Your mimicry of the stag
gering step, and the thick tongue, and
the disgusting hiccough, 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 dcpraved appetite; if
you persuade him that thousands who
had the Graphing hooks of evil incli-
nation clutched in their soul as firmly
as they now are in his, have been res
cued, then a ray of light will flash
across his vision, and it will seem as if
a supernatural hand were steadying
his staggering gait.
n ROOui uhhy years dBO bhCES a III
the streets of Richmond. Va. a man
dead drunk, his face exposed to the
blistering MONDAY 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 reused
himself up from his debauch and began
to look It the handkerchief, and, loi
on it was the name of a highly respect
able Christian woman of the city of
Richmond. He went to her, he thanked
her for her kindness; and that one lit
tie Iced 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 thou
sands of people in these cities who are
dying for the lack of one kind word.
There is a business man who has
fought against trouble until he is
perfectly exhausted. He has been
thinking about forgery, about rob-
berry, about suicide. Go to that bust
ness man. Tell him hat 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
thai Jesus Christ stands beside every
business man in his perplexities. Tell
him of the sweet promises of Gods
comforting grace. That man is dying
for the lack of just one kind word
Go tomorrow and utter that one saw
ing, omnipotent, kind word. Here is a
soul hat has been swamped in sin.
He wants to find the light of the Cos
pei. lie feels Iike a shipwrecked mar
liner looking out over the beach,
watching for a sail against the sky.
o, bear down upon him. Tell him
that the Lord waits to be gracious to
him, h though he has been a great
sinner, there is a great Saviour pro-
vided. Tell him that though his sins
are as scarlet, they shall be as snow;
though they are red like crimson, they
shall be as wool. That man is dying
forever for the lack of one kind word.
There used TO be sung at a great
many of the pianos all through the
country a song that has almost died
out. l wish somebody would start it
again in our social circles. There may
not have bee very exquisite art in the
music, but there was a grand and glo-
rious sentiment:
Kind words never die, never die:
Cherished and blessed.
o, hat we might in our families and
in our churches try the force of kind
ness. You can never drive men, WON
en- or children into the kingdom OF
God. A March NORTHEASTERN will bring
out more honeysuckles than fretful-
ness and scolding will ever bring out
Christian grace. / wish that In all our
religious work we might be saturated
with the spirit of kindness. Missing
that, we miss II great deal of useful
ness. There is no need of coming out
before men and laundering to them
the law unless at the same time you
preach to them the gospel, The world
is dying for lack of kindness.
In all our sermons there must be help
for every one somewhere. You go into
an apothecary store. We see others
being waited on; we do not complain
because we do not Immediately get the
medicine; we know our turn will come
after awhile. And SO, while all parts
of a sermon may not be appropriate to
our case, if we wait prayerfully, before
the sermon is through we shall have
Divine prescription. l say TO these
young men who are going to preach
the gospel, these theological students
say to them, we want in our sermons
not more metaphysics, nor more i'm
~agination, nor more logic, nor more
~profundity. What we wan in our SER
mons and Christian celebrations is
more sympathy. When Father Taylor
preached in the Sailors Bethel ut Bos-
ton the jack tars felt hat they had
help for their duties among the rat
lines and the ~forecastles. When Rich
ard Weaver preached to the operatives
in Oldham. England, all the working
men felt they had more grace for the
spindles. When DIR. South preached to
kings and princes and princesses, all
the mighty men and women who heard
him felt preparation for their high sta
ton.
KindnessI We all iced more of it in
our hearts, our words and our behavior.
The chief characteristic of our Lord
was kindness. A gentleman in En-
gland died, leaving his fortune by will
to two sons. The son that stayed at
-. lo.4.o.,I thA mill unH nratnnHnH