The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1896-10-24
REV. DIR. TALMAGE
The Noted Divine's Sunday Sermon.
Subject: "The Soft Tongue I"

TEXT: ga soft tongue breake.h The bone
Proverbs XIV, Is.
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 a literal sense. They simply mean
to set forth the fact there is tremendous
power in kind word. Although it may
seem to be very Insignificant, its force is in
describable and illimitable. Pungent and
all-conquering utterance: "a soft tongue
breaketh the bone"
If had time l would show you kindness
as means OF defense, as a means of useful
ness. kindness as means of domestic bar
moHy, kindness as 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, j speak 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 poitical'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 rs
he sent. Trip him into the ditch which he
dug for your feet. Cash him with as severe
a wound as that which he inflicted on your
soul. Shot for shot. Sarcasm for sarcasm.
An eye 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." Then the old
nature rises up again and says: "You had
better not forgive him until first you have
chastised him. You will never get him in so
tight corner again. You will never have
such an opportunity of inflicting the right
kind of punishment upon him again. First
chastise him and then let him CO." mo"
says the better nature, ''hush. thou foul
heart. Try the soft tongue that bresketh
the bono
Have you ever in all your life known
acerbity and acrimonious dispute to settle a
quarrel? Did they not always make matters
worse and worse and worse? About fifty
five years ago there was great quarrel in
the Presbyterian family. Ministers of Christ
were thought orthodox in proportion as they
had measured lances with other clergyman
OF the same denomination. The most out
rageous personalities were abroad. AS. in
the autumn, hunter comes homo with n
string OF game. partridges and wild ducks,
Sung over his shoulder, so there were many
WHO CdiQc DICK IRON the eccieSlaS-
tical 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 loi
the great Church quarrel was settled; and
the new school Presbyterian Church and the
old school Presbyterian Church became one.
tIba hi fforapt IF 2a-
welded by hammer, q little hammer, a
Christian hammer that the Scripture calls
ga soft tongue"
But" you say, s'what are we to do when
ISLANDERS assault u.s. ami there come acrm-
onious sayings all around about US, and we
are abused and spit uponi" 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 well on some sum-
ner 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
means OF usefulness. In all communities
you find skeptical men. Through early ed
ucatioD, or through tho maltreatment of
professed kChristian people, or through
pryiDg curiosity about the future word.
there are great many people who become
skeptical in religious things. How shall
you capture them for God? Sharp argument
and sarcastic retort never won q 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. 1t says: snow we'll
just rouse up all this sea-" and it makes a
great buster, but it does not succeed. Part
OF the sea is roulsed up-pernaps one-half of
1t or ona-fourth of it. After awhile the
calm moon, placid and beautiful. looks
down, and the ocean begins to rise. II
comes up to high-water mark, it en-
braces the great headlands. 1t SUBJ
merges the beach of all the continents II
is the heart-throb of one world against
the beart-throb OF another world. Aud
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. have more faith in the prayer of q
child five years old, in the way of brin cling
an infdel back to Christ and to heaven than
have in all the Kissing thunderbolts OF
ecclesiastical controversy. You cannot over
come m IN with religious augmentation. II
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 my
carbine. I'll answer his argument with my
argument" But if you come &c 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,
What have said is just as true in the
reclamation OF the openly vicious. Did you
ever know drunkard to be saved through
the caricature of drunkard2 Your mimicry
OF the staggering step and the thick tongue,
and the disgusting hiccoughs, only worse
maddens his brain. Bat If you come to him
with kindness and sympathy; il you show
him that you appreciate the awful grip OF a
deprayed appetite; If you persuade him OF
4 ~ faat that fh0ucandc vhn haI +ba 1905,