St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1896-10-24

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pie Of Him who was reviled. and yet
reviled not again. q. that the Lord,
by His spirit. would endow NJ ALL
1.-THE soft tongue that breaketh the
bone"
pass now to the other thought that
desire to present, and that il kind
ness rs . 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 curios.
ity about the future world, there are
great many people who become
slkeptical in religious things How
shall you capture them for God?
Sharp argument and sarcastic retort
never won single soul from skepti-
cism to the Christian religion. While
powerful books ON 1.-THE Evil
denccs Of Christianity" have their
mission in confirming Christian PEG.
pie in the faith they have already
adopted, have noticed that when
skept'cal people are brought into the
kingdom 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, NOW
we'll first rouse up all this sea" 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. After awhile the calm moon,
placid and beautiful. looks down and
the ocean begins to rise. 1t
comes up to the high-water mark.
1t embraces the great headlandA 1t
submerges the beach Of all the CONT
nents. 1t Is the heart-throb of the
world against the heart-throb of an
other world. Aud have to tell you
that while your storms Of fidicule and
storms Of sarcasm may rouse up the
passion Of an immortal nature, nothing
less than the attractive power of
Christian kindness can ever raise the
deathless spirit to happiness and to
God. have more faith in the prayer
Of child five years old. in the way Of
bringing an infidel back to Christ and
to Heaven, than have in all the Kissing
thunderbolts of ecclesiastical contro-
versy. You can not overcome men
with religious augmentation. II you
come 1t . skeptical man with IN ar
gument on behalf of the Christian re-
ligion. you put the man on his mettle.
He says: II see that man has . car
bine. Ill use my carbine. Ill answer
his argument with my argument"
But If you come to that man, psrsuad-
ing him that you desire his happi-
ness on earth and his eternal welfare
in the world to come, he can not an
swer it.
What l have said is just as true in
the reclamation of the openly vicious.
Did you ever know a drunkard to be
saved through the caricature of \
Your mimicry of the stag
gering step. and the thick tongue, and
the disgusting hiccough, only worse
maddens his brain. But il 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 clutchei in
their soul as firmly as they now are in
his, have been rescued, then = ray of
light will fash across his vision, and
it will seem as il . supernatural hand
were stcadying his staggering gait.
c A good many years ago there lay in
the streets of Richmond, Va. man
dead drunk, his face exposed to the
MONDAY sun. A Christian
woman passed along, looked 1t him,
and said: .sPeor 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 handker-
chief, and, 10! on it Was q name of q
highly-respectable Christian woman
of they fi}y.~0 Richmond. He
her kindness; and that one little deed
saved him for this life, shd saved him
for. the life that is to come. He was
afterward attorney-general of the
United States. but, highex. than all. he
became the consecrated disciple of
Jesus Christi! KindyagRds are SD
cheap, it is wonder we do not use
them oftener. There are tens of
thousands of people il. these cities
who are dying for our kind word.
There is eSlAejpess: man who has
fought against trouble until he is
perfectly exhausted. He has been
thinking about forgery, about robbery.
abe suicide. Go to that business
man. Tell him that better times are
and tell him that you yourself
were in tight business 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 perplexities. Tell him of
the sweet promises of Gods comfort
ing grace. That man is dying for the
lack of just one kind word. Go to-
morrow and utter that one saving,
kind word Here is
soul that has been swamped in sin.
He wants to find the light of the Cos
pei. lie feels like = shipwrecked mar
liner looking out over the beach,
watching for a sail against the sky.
Oh, hear down upon him. Tell him
that the Lord waits to be gracious to
him; that though he has been q great
sinner, there is great Saviour pro-
vidcd. Tell him that though his sins
are as scarlet, 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 alta great
many of the pianos all through the
country a song that has almost died
out. wish somebody 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 sentiment:
Wind vorAx never die never &c: