Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1896-09-18
TALMAGE'S SERMON
INTERESTING THEY'VE ny TnE
WASHINGTON PHENtnER.
Subject: "The Soft Tongue"

describahle and illimitable. Pungent aud
all-conquering utterance: "A soft tongue
breaketh the bone
II / had time would show YOU kindness
as a means Of defense, a. means Of useful
ness. kindness a. means Of domestic har-
mony, kindness a. best employed by govern
ments for the tanning and curing Of criminals.
and kindness as best adapted for the settling
and adjusting OF International quarrel; but
! shall call your attention only to two Of
these thoughts.
And first, speal, to you OF Kindness as a
meane of defense. Almost every man, in the
course of his life, is set upon and assaulted.
Your motives are misinterpreted or your re-
ligious or political.principles are bombarded.
What to do under such circumstances is the
question. The first impulse Of the natural
heart says: 'Strike back. Give as much as
he sent. Trip him into the ditch which he
dug for your feet. Cash him with as severe
wound as that which he inflicted on your
soul. Shot for shot. Sarcasm for sarcasm.
AReye for an eye A tooth for tooth. But
the better spirit in the mans soul rises up
and says: "You ought to consider the mat
ter You look up into the face of Christ
and say; "My Master, how ought / to
act under these difficult circumstances"
and Christ instantly answers. "Bless
them that curse you, and pray for them
which despitefully use you" This the old
nature rises up again and says: You had
better not forgive him until first Won have
chastised him. You will never get him in so
tight corner again. You will never have
such IN opportunity Of inilicting the right
kind of punishment upon him again. First
chastise him and then let him GO" No.
says the better nature, ''hush, thou foul
heart. Try the soft tongue that breaketh
the bone
Have you ever in all your life known
acerbity and acrimonious dispute to settle
quarrel? Did they not always make matters
worse and worse and worse? About fifty
five years ago there was Il great quarrel in
the Presbyterian family. Ministers OF Christ
were thought orthodox in proportion a they
had measured lances with other clergyman
of the same denomination. The most out
rageous personalities were abroad. As. in
the autumn, Il hunter comes home with
string of game, partridges and wild ducks,
slung over his shoulder, so there were many
ministers who came back from the eccIesias.
teal courts with long strings of doctors Of
divinity whom they had shot with their own
rife The division became wider, the ami
mostly greater, until after awhile some good
men resolved upon another tack. They be-
gan to explain away the difficulties; they be-
gan to forgive each others faults; and lo!
the great Church quarrel was settled; and
the new school Presbyterian Church and the
old school Presbyterian Church became one
The different pats fthe Presbyterian order,
welded by a hammer, a little hammer a
Christian hammer that the Scripture calls
ga soft tongue"
But" you say what are we to do when
ISLANDERS assault us, and there come acrim.
onious sayings all around about us, and we
are abused and spit upon My reply is:
Do not go ami attempt to chase down the
/ ISLANDERS. Lies are prolific, and while you
/ are killing one, fifty are born. All your
! demonstrations OF Indignation only exhaust
I yourself. You might as well on some sum
mer night when the swarms OF insects are
coming up from the meadows and disturb
/ ing you and disturbing your family, bring
up some great "swamp angel" like that
! which Numbered 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!
pass now to the other thought that de-
/ sire to present, ana that is, kindness as u
| means of usefulness In all communities
| you find skeptical men. Through early ed
ucation, or through the maltreatment Of
/ protested Christian people, 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 God2 Sharp argument
and sarcastic retort never won single soul
from skepticism TO the Christian religion
/ While powerful books on evidences OF
/ Christianity" have their mission in confirm
ing Christian people in the faith they have
already adopted, have noticed that when
! skeptcai people are brought into the king
dom OF Christ, it 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: snow wen
just rouse up all this sea-" and il makes Il
great buster but it does not succeed Part
Of the sea is reused up-perhaps one-half of
1t or one-tourth Of it. After awhile the
| calm moon, placid and beautiful, looks
down, and the ocean begins to rise. 1t
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 i'm
mortal nature, nothing less than the attrac.
tive power Of Christian kindness can ever
raise the deathless spirit to happiness and to
God. l have more faith in the prayer of a
child five years old, in the way of bringing
an lnhdel back to Christ and to heaven than
have in all the Kissing thunderbolts of
SSSIoSldSllCui controversy. lou cannot over
come m IN with religious augmentation. If
you come at sceptical man with an argu-
ment on behalf of the Christian religion.
you put the man on his mettle. He SAYS: II
see that man has a carbine. I'll use nv
carbine. I'll answer his argument with nv
argument" But if you come to that man,
persuading him that you desire his happi-
ness on earth and his eternal welfare in the
world to come. he cannot answer it.
I gDi1 10 s,,g{
reclamation Of the openly vicious. Did YOU
ever know drunkard to be saved through
the caricature of drunkard? Your mimicrv
OF the staggering step and the thick tongue.
and the disgusting hiccoughs, only verse
maddens his brain. Bat if you come to him
with kindness and sympathy; if you show
him that you appreciate the awful grip of a
depraved appetite; if you persuade him Of
the fact that thousands who had the Crap
bling hooks of evil inclination clutched in
their soul as firmly as they now are in his
have been rescued, then ray of light will
flash across his vision, and it will seem as if
a supernatural hand were steadying his stag
gerIng gait. A good many years ago there
lay in the streets of Richmond, Va, q man
dead drunk, his face exposed to the blister
ing monday sun. A Christian woman passed
along. looked at him and said: poor fell
lowl" She took her handkerchief and spread
1t over his face and passed on. The man
reused himself from his debauch and began
to look at the handkerchief, and, 10! on it
was the name of highly respectable Chris
tian 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 consecrated disciple of Jesus
Christ. Kind words are so cheap it is Won
der we do not use them oftener. There are
tens of thousands of people in these cities
who are dying for the lack of one kind word.
There is business man who has fought
against trouble until he is perfectly exhaust,
cd. He has been thinking about forgery
about robbery, about suicide.
10 n +bo i,,;no,. roon Tail him that