Milford chronicle., 1896-09-04


You say to him, 81 despise you" He re-
plies, Il can't bear the sight Of you. "
You say to him, "Never enter my house
again" He says, ''If you come on my
door sill, I'll kick you OFF. " You say to
him. s'Iill put YOU down" He says to
YOU: You arc mistaken. I'll put you
down" And so the contest RACES, and
year after year you act the unchristian
part, and he acts the unchristian part
After awhile the better spirit seizes you,
and one day you go over to tho neighb,.r
and say: "Give me your hand. We have
fought long enough Time is so short
and eternity is SO near, that we cannot af-
ford any longer to quarrel feel you have
wronged me very much, but let us settle
all now in one great hand shaking and be
good friends for all the rest of our lives. ="
You have risen to higher platform 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 estima-
ton of good men and the honor Of your
Lord who died for his armed enemies.
But" you say, "what are we to do
when ISLANDERS assault us, and there come
acrimonious sayings all around about us,
and We arc abused and spit upong" My
reply is: Do not go and attempt to chase
down the SANDERS Lies are prolific, and
while you arc killing one, fifty are born. All
your demonstrations of indignation only
exhaust yourself. You might as well on
some summer night, whom the swarms Of
insects are coming up from the meadows
and disturbing you and disturbing your
family, bring up some great swamp an
gel, 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. l saw farmer go out to
get back n swarm of bees that had wander
ed off 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 l have seen men moving amid
the apnoyances, and the vexations, and the
assaults Of life in such calm, Christian de-
liberation that all the buzzing around
about their soul amounted to nothing.
They conquered thenl and, above all, they
conquered themselves. "Oh," you say,
that's 4 very good theory TO preach on IA
hot day. but it won work. 1t 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 / have to admit that this
grace Of Christian forgiveness is about the
last fruit Of tho Christian soul We hear
q great deal about the bitter tongue, and
the sarcastic tongue, and the quick tongue,
and the singing tongue, but we know
yerv little about 1.-THE soft tongue that
breaketh the bone. we read HudiDras
and Stexne and Dean Swift and the other
apostles Of acrimony, but give little time
to studying the example Of him who was
re\iled, and yet reviled not again. oh, that
this Lord by his Spirit, would endow us
all with the soft tongue that brcalseth the
bone.