The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1896-09-09

ness as means OF usefulness. In all
communities you find skeptical men.
Through early education, or through
the maltreatment of professed Chris
tian people, or through prying curiosi-
ty about the future world, there are
great many people who become skep-
teal in religious things. How shall
you capture them for Code Sharp
argument and sarcastic retort never
won single soul from skepticism to
the Christian religion. While power
full books on the evidences Of Christi
anity have their mission in confirming
Christian people in the faith they
have already adopted, | have noticed
that when skeptical people are brought
into the kingdom of Christ it is
through the charm of some genial
soul, and rot 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,
ssNow We'll just rouse up all this sea, y
and it makes great buster, but it
does not succeed.
Part OF the sea is reused up-perhaps
one-half of it or one fourth of it. AT
ter awhile the calm moon, placid and
beautiful, looks down, and the ocean
begins to rise. It comes up to high
water mark. 1t embraces the great
headlands. It submerges the beach of
all the continents, 1t is the heart
throb of one world against the heart
throb of another world. And I have
to tell you Lat while all your storms
of ridicule aud storms of sarcasm may
rouse UP the passion of an immortal
nature, nothing less than the attrac-
tive power of Christian kindness can
ever raise the deathless spirit to happl-
ness and to God. I have more faith
in the prayer Of child years old IN
the way OF bringing an infdel back to
Christ and to heaven than have IN
all the Kissing thunderbolts Of eccle-
siactical controversy. You cannot
overcome men with religious argu-
mentation. If you come at skeptI.
cal man with an argument on behalf
of the Christian religion, you put the
man on his mettle. He says: Il see
that man has a carbine. FL use my
carbine. III answer his argument
with my argument. But if you come
to that man, persuading him that you
desire his happiness on earth and his
eternal welfare in the world to come,
he cannot answer it.
What I 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 a
drunkard2 Your mimicry of the
staggering step, and the thick tongue
and the disgusting hiccough, only
worse maddens his brain. But if you
come to him in kindness and sympathy
if you show him that you appreciate
the awful grip OF depraved appetite,
if you persuade him OF the fact that
thousands who had the graphing hooks
of evil inclination clutched In their
soul as firmly as they now are in ms
have been rescured, than ray OF light
will flash across his vision, add It will
seem as if a supernatural hand were
steadying his staggering gait. A good
many years ago there lay in the streets
of Richmond man dead drunk, his
faced exposed to the blistering noon.
day sun. A Christian woman passed
along, looked at him and said, Poor
fellow" She took her handkerchief
and spread it over his face and passed
on. The man reused himself up from
his debauch and began to look at the
handkerchief, and 10! on il was the
name of higly respectable Christian
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
fo- 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 a
wonder 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 busi-
ness man who has fought against trou-
bic until he is perfectly exhausted. He
has been thinking about forgery,
about robbery, about suicide. Go to
that business man. Tell him that bet
ter times are coming, and tell him
that you yourself were in tight busl-
ness pass, and the Lord delivered you.
Tell him to put his trust in God. Tell
him that Jesus Christ stands beside
every business man in his perplexltles.
Tell him of the sweet promises OF Goo's s
comforting grace. That man is dying
for the lack of just one kind word.
Go tomorrow and utter that one saw
ing, onnipotent, kind word. Here Is
a soul that has been swamped in sin.
He wants to find the light of the gos-
pei. He fe els Ike g shipwrecked mari
ner looking but over the beach, watch
ing for a sail against the sky: Oh.
bear down on him. Tell him that the
Lord waits to be gracious to him; that,
though he has been great sinner,
there is a great Saviour provided. Tell
him that, though his sins are as scar7
let, they shall be as snow; though they
are red like crimson. 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 out. wish some
body would start it again in our social
circles. There may not have been
very exquisite art in the music, but,
there was grand and glorious sentl.
ment
Kind words never die, never, die,
Cherished and blessed.
Oh, that we might in our families
and in our churches try the force OF
kindness. You can never drive men,
women or children into the kingdom
of God. A March northeaster will
bring out more honeysuckles than
fretfulness and scolding will ever
bring out Christian grace. l wish
that in all our religious work we might