Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1896-09-08
The beach. watching for sail against

the beach, watching Tor sail against
the sky. o, bear down on him. Tell
him that the Lord waits to be gracious
to him, that though he has been q
great sinner. there is great Saviour
provided. Tell him that though his
sins are as scarlet, they shall be as
snow; though they are red like Grim.
son, they shall be as wool. That man
is dying forever for the lack of one
kind word. There used to be sung at
great many of the pianos all through
the country song that has almost died
cut. l wish somebody would start it
again in our social circles. There may
not have been very exquisite art in the
music, but there was a grand and
glorious sentiment:
Kind words never die, never die;
Cherished and blessed.
o, that we might in our families and
in our churches try the force of kind
ness. You can never drive men, wom-
en-. or children into the kingdom OF
God A March northeastern will bring
out more honeysuckles than fretfulness
and scolding will ever bring out Chris
tian grace / wish that in all our re-
lgious work we might be saturated
with the spirit of kindness. Missing
that, we miss great deal OF usefulness.
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.
These young people want it just as
much as the old. The old people some
times seem to think they have mo-
nopoly of the rheumatisms, and the
nearalgias, and the headaches, and the
physical disorders OF the world; but l
tell you there are no worse heartaches
than are felt by some of these young
people. Do you know that much of the
work is done by the young? Raphael
died at thirty-seven; Richelieu at thir-
tr-one; Gustavus Adolphus died at
thirty. eight: Innocent III. came to his
mghtiest influence at thirty-seven;
Cortez conquered Mexico at thirty;
Don John won Lepanto at twenty-five;
Gro.ius was encouragement at TWEEN
ty.four; and | have noticed amid all
classes of men that some of the sever
est battles and the toughest work
come before thirty. Therefore we must
have our sermons and our exhortations
in prayer meeting all sympathetic with
the young. And so with these people
further on in life. What do these doc
tors and lawyers and merchants and
mechanics care about the abstrac-
tions of religion? What they want is
help to bear the whimsicalities Of pa
tents, the browbeating of legal OPP
ponents, the unfairness of customers,
who have plenty of fault-finding for
every imperfection of handiwork, but
no praise for twenty excellences. What
does that brain tracked, hand-blistered
man care for Zwngle's Doctrine OF
Original Sin," or Augustine's AN
thropology?" You might as well go to
man who has the pleurisy and put on
his side plaster made out of DR..
PARIS Treatise of Medical Jurispru-
dcnce."
Do you not know that this simple
story of a Saviour's kindness is to re-
deem all nations? The hard heart of
this worlds obduracy is to be broken
before that story. There is in Ant
werp, Belgium, one of the most re-
markable pictures / ever saw. 1t is
THE Descent of Christ from the
Cross 1t is one of Rubens pictures.
No man can stand and look at that
Descent from the Cross" as Rubens
pictured it, without having his eyes
flooded with tears, if he have any
sensibility at all. 1t is an overmaster-
ing picture-one that stuns you and
staggers you and haunts your dreams.
One day man stood in that cathedral
looking at the Descent from the
Cross" He was all absorbed in that
scene of a Saviour's sufferngs when
the janitor came in and said: 1T is
time 20 close up the cathedral for the
night. l wish you would depart" The
pilgrim looking at that Descent from
the Cross" turned around to the jani-
tor and said: "No, no; not yet. Wait
until they get him down." On, it is
the story OF a Saviour's suffering kind
ness that is to capture the world
When the bones of that great behemoth
OF iniquity which has trampled all ma
tons shall be broken and shattered, it
will be found out that the work was
not done by the hammer Of the
iconoclast, or by the sword of the
conaueror, or by the torch of persecu-
ton, but by the plain. simple. over
whelming force OF ''the soft tongue that
breaketh the bone"
II was all for another that Sir
Matthew Hale took OF his robe and
put OH the garb OF miller. And so
Christ took off his robe of royalty and
cut on the attire of our humanity, and
in that disguise he won our eternal
portion. Now are we the sons of God.
Joint heirs! We went of from home
l.. a..