The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1896-09-12
his feet II he had killed ono of them

they would have stung him to death
But he moved In their midst In per
feet placidity until he had captured
the swarm of wandering bees. Ant
so l have seen men moving
amid the annoyances and tn,
vexations, and the assaults of life
| In such calm, christian elaboration,
| that all the buzZing around about
their soul amounted to nothing. They
conquered them, and, above all, they
conquered themselves. "Oh, you say
"thats a very good theory to preach
on hot day, but it won't work." II
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 9TH
ers in October, and have to
admit that this grace of Christian for
giveness is about the last fruit of the
Christian soul. We hear great deal
about the bitter tongue, and the sar-
castle tongue, and the quick tongue,
and the singing tongue; but we know
very little about 'the soft tongue that
breaketh the bone" We read IIudi-
bras, and Sterne and Dean Swift, and
the other apostles of acrimony, but
give little time to studying the exam
pie of Him who was reviled, and vet
reviled not again. q, that the Lord,
by His spirit, would cndow us all with
1.-THE soft tongue that breaketh the
bone"
pass now to the other thought that
l desire to present, and that is kind
ness as means of usefulness. In all
you find skeptical men.
early education, or through
the maltreatment of professed Chris
tian people, or through prying curios-
ity about the future world, there are
u great many people who become
skeptical in religious things. How
shall you capture them for God?
Sharp argument and sarcastic retort
never won single soul from skcpti-
cism to the Christian religion. While
powerful books on The Evil
ienccs of Christianity" have their
mission in confirming Christian peo-
pie in the faith they have already
adopted, | have noticed that when
,lsept'cal people are brought into the
iingdom of Christ it is through the
charm of some genial soul. and not by
at all. Men are not saved
through the head; they are saved
through the heart. A storm comes
nut of its hiding place. 1t says, Now
veil first rouse up all this sea, and it
makes great buster, but it does not
ucceed. Part of the sea is reused up
= perhaps one-half of it or onefourth !
# il. After awhile the calm moon,
,lacid and beautiful, looks down and |
lie ocean begins to rise. 1t
ONES up to the high-water mark. |
t embraces the great headlands. 1t |
ubmerges the beach of all the CONT /
ents. 1t is the heart-throb of the /
World against the heart-throb of an
thcr world. And have 10 tell you
hat while your storms of lidicule and
forms of sarcasm may rouse up the I
passion of an immortal nature, nothing /
ess than the attractive power of ,
'hristian kindness can ever raise the !
leathlcss spirit to happiness and to |
sod. I have more faith in the prayer |
# child five years old, in the way of |
ringing an intdel back to Christ and |
o Heaven. than II ave in all the kissing 7
of ecclesiastical contro-
ersy. You can not overcome men
With religious augmentation. If you
ONE at Il skeptical man with an ar
-umcnt on behalf of the Christian re-
igion, you put the man on his mettle.
lie says: II see that man has car
line. I'll use my carbine. I'll answer
is argument with my argument"
tut if you come to that man, persuad-
ng him that you desire his happi-
ess on earth and his eternal welfare /
Il the world to come, he can not an
Xer il.
What l have said is just as true in
he reclamation of the openly vicious. !
Did you ever know drunkard to be /
aved through the caricature of
runkard? Your mimicry of the stag
ering step, and the thick tongue, and |
he disgusting hiccough, only worse
laddcns his brain. But If you come
0 him in kindness and sympathy; if |
ou show him that you appreciate the
wful grip Of depraved appetite; if |
ou persuade him of the fact that
thousands who had the graphing
looks of evil inclination clutched in |
heir soul as firmly as they now are in
lis, have been rescued, then ray OF |
light will fash across his vision, and |
t will seem as il a supernatural hand |
we're steadying his staggering gait.
\ good many years ago there lay in
he streets of Richmond, Va. a man |
lead drunk, his face exposed TO the |
,listering MONDAY sun. A Christian |
passed along, looked at him,
md said: Poor fellow" She took |
Ter handkerchief and spread it over
his face, and passed on. The man
oused himself up from his debauch
md began to look at the handker-
,hlef, and, 10! on it was name of
lighly-respectable Christian woman
If the city of Richmond. He
vent to her, he thanked her for
Ter kindness; and that one little deed
aved him for this life, and saved him
or the life that is to come. He was
ifterward encouragement of the
United States, but, higher than all, he
became the consecrated disciple of