The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1896-09-17
REV. Dir. TALMAGE
III" Noted uivine's Sunday Sermon.
Subject. "The Soft Tongue"

proverbs XIV, 10.
When Solomon said this he drove whole
volume into one phrase. You, OF course, will
not be SO silly as to take the words of the
text in literal sense. They simply mean
TO set forth the fact there is tremendous
power in a kind word. Although it may
seem to be very insignificant, its force is in
describahle and illimitable. Pungent and
ait-cOnGu"rluC utterance: "a soft tongue
hrpaketh the BONE
II | had time | would show you kindness
a. means OF defense, az a means of useful
ness, Kindness as a means Of domestic har-
m0ny, kIndneSS as best employed by govern
ment| f"rthn tanning and curing Of criminals
and Kindness as best adapted for the settling
and adjusting OF international quarrel; bur
shalt call your attention only to two of
these thoughts.
And first. | s. eaI TO you Of Kindness as q
meane Of defense. Almost every man. in the
course Of his life. is set upon and assaulted.
Your motives are miSinterpreted or YOUR re-
lglous or political principles are bOmbarded.
What to Go under such circumstances is the
ga" .ti"n. TIL" first impulse OF tho natural
heart says: ''Strke back. Give as much as
h" srut, Trip him into the ditch which he
dug your feet. Cash him with as severe
Il wuund as that which he Inflicted on Your
soul. Shot for shot. Sarcasm for sarcasm
AnCNe Tor an eye. tooth for atOoth." 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: "Ny Master, how ought l to
act under these difficult circumstances"
and Christ instantly answers: "Bcss
them that curse YOU. and pray for them
which deSpiteiul'E Use YOU" Then the old
nature rises up Il ain AMI says. "You had
better not forgive him until first YOU have
chastised him. You will never get him in so
tight a corner again. You Will never have
such an opportunity Of inficting the right
kind Of punishment upon him again. First
chastisa him aud then let him 60" s'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 Il
quarrel? Did they not always make matters
worse and worse aut worse? About fifty
live years ago there was great quarrel in
the Presbyterian family. Ministers of Christ
We're thought orthodox in proportion as they
had mHa5urti iances with other Clergyman
OF the sans denomination. The most out
ragepllo personalities were abroad. As. in
the autumn, Il hunter comes home with Il
string of game. partrids es and wild ducks
sung over his shoulder. SO there were MANY
ministers who came back from the ecclesias-
teal courts with long strings of doctors of
divinity whom they had shot with their own
rifle. 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; ami To-.
the great Church quarrel was settled; and
the new school Presbyterian Church aud the
Old school Presbyterian Church became one
The different pats ofthe Presbyterian order,
welded by hammer, little hammer. Il
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-
onions sayings all around about us, and we
are abused and spit upon?" My reply is:
Do not go and 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
yourself. You might as we'll on some sum-
mer night when the swarms of insects are
coming up from the meadows and disturb
ing you and disturbing your family, brin.,
up some great swamp angel" like thar
which thundered over Charleston. and try
to shoot them down. The game is too smnt
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 q
means OF usefulness. In all communities
you find skeptical men. Through early ed
ucatiOn, or through the maltreatment Of
protested EChristan people, or through
prying curiosity about the future word.
there are great many people who become
Skeptcai in religious things. How shall
YOU capture them for God? Sharp argument
and sarcastic retOrt never won a 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
skeptical 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. It says: "Now we'll
Just rouse up all this sea-" and it makes IL
great hlueter, but it does not succeed. Par
Of the sea is reused up-pernaps 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 high-water mark, it en-
braces the great headlandS. It sui
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 ridicuIe and storms of sar-
/ cISHn lutty rouse up inc passion Oh an I'M
mortal nature, nothing less than the attrac-
tive power of Christian kindness can ever
raise the deathess spirit to happiness and to
God. | have more faith in the prayer Of Il
child five years Old, in the way of bringing
an infidel back to Christ and to heaven than
l have in all the kissing thunderbolts OF
ecclesiastical controversy. You cannot over
come III IN with religious augmentation. II
you come at a sceptical man with an argu
t,,xI,1 $50;
you put the man on his mettie. He says: 81
see that man has IL caTbine. I'll use my
carbine. IIlanswer his argument with ny
/ argument" But if you come tC that man
persuadinc him that you desire his happi-
! ness on earth and his eternal welfare in the
world to come he cannot answer it.
( What [ have said is just as true in tn
reclamation of the openly vicious. Did you
( ever know drunkard to be saved through
! the caricature OF a drunkard? Your mimcr.
of the staggering step and the thick tongue
: and the disgusting hlccOughs, only wor-
maddens bis brain. Bat if you come to hin
+ with Kindness and sympathy; If you shOV
him that you appreciate the awful grip OF
deprayei appetite; if you persuade him 0
the fact that thousands who had the CRAP
bling hooks of evil inclination eIutched Il
their soul as firmly as they now are in hi
have been rescued, then a ray Of light vii
! flash across his vision. and it will seem as
Il supernatural hand were steadying his stag
gerng gait. A good many years ago Their
lay in the streets of Richmond, Va, ma