The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1896-09-05

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UH%MA MUHM means of useful
t. DEWITT ness, kindness as a
means of domestic harmony, kindness
as best employed by governments for
the tanning and curing of criminals, and
kindness as best adapted for the set
Ting and adjusting of international
quarrel; but l shall call your attention
only to two of these thoughts.
And first, ! speak to you of kindness
as a means of ~efense. Almost every
man, in the course of his life, is set
upon and assaulted. Your motives are
misinterpreted or your religious or
political principles are bombarded.
What to do under such circumstances
is the question. The first impulse OF
the natural heart says: Strike back.
Give us much as 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 OF your soul.
Shot for shot. Sarcasm for sarcasm.
An eve for an eye. A tooth for a
tooth" But the better spirit in the
mans soul rises up and says "You
ought t. consider hat matter"
You look up into the face of Christ,
and say: MY Master, how ought l to
act under these difficult circum-
stances?' And Christ instantly
"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
t--I L.. W., ill ara not hin,
in so tight a corner again. You will
never have such an opportunity of in
hicting the right kind of punishment
upon him again. First chastise
him and then let him 60"
No" saws the better nature"
''hush, thou foul heart. Try the soft
tongue that breaketh h bone" Have
you aver in all your life known acerb-
ity and acrimonious dispute to settle a
quarrel? Did they not always make
matters worse and worse and worse?
About SIS wears ago there was n great
quarrel in the Presbyterian family.
Ministers of Christ were thought ortho-
dox in proportion as they had meas
ured lances with other clergymen of
the same denomination. The most out
rageous personalities were abroad.
AS III duIullbf Al Ahh SOAACo AAOAAO
with a string of game, cartridges and
wild ducks, slung over his shoulder, so
there were many ministers who came
back from the ecclesiastical courts
with long strings of doctors of divinity
whom they had shot with their own
rifle. The division became wider, the
luminosity greater, until after awhile
some good men resolved upon another
tack. They began to explain away the
difficulties; they began to forgive each
others faults; and 10! the great church
quarrel was settled, and the new school
Presbyterian church and the old school
Presbyterian church became one. The
different parts of the Presbyterian or
der, welded by a hammer, a little ham,
mer, n Christian hammer that the
Scripture calls "a soft tongue"
Yon have a dispute with your neigh
Dor. You say to him, 81 despise you"
He replies, 81 can't pear the sight of
YOU" You say to him, "Never enter
nv house again" He says IF you
come on my door sill I'll kick you off"
You say to him, I'll put you down"
He says to you, You are mistaken;
I'll put you down" And S o the contest
RACES; and year after year you act the
unchristian part, and he acts the I'M
christian part. After awhile the better
spirit seizes you, and one day you go
over to the neighbor and say: "Give
me your hand. We have fought long
enough. Time is SO short, and eternity
is so near, that we cannot afford any
longer to quarrel. | feel you have
wronged me very much; but let us
settle all now in one great hand shak-
sa-1- Co., all fha
rest of our lives" You have risen to
a higher platform than that on which
before you stood. You win his admi-
ration, and you get his apology. But
if you have not conquered him in that
way, at any rate you nave won the APP
plause of your own conscience, the
high estimation of good men, and the
honor of your Lord, who died for his
armed enemies.
But" you say, "what are we to do
when ISLANDERS assault us, and there
come acrimonious 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, so are born. All your
demonstrations of indignation only ex-
haust yourself. You might as well on
some summer night when the swarms
of insects are coming up from III
meadows and disturbing you and dis
turbing 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 hat
....o -a, IN 1ifnO Won ara In
1--we them DOWN. 1 saw a farmer go
out to get back a swarm of bees that
had wandered off from the hive. As
he moved amid them they buZZed
around his head, Inc buZzed around
his hands, and buzzed around his feet.
If he had killed one they would have
stung him to death. But he moved in
their midst in perfect placidity until
he had captured the swarm of wan
dering bees. And SO l have seen men
moving amid the annoyances, and
the veXations, and the assaults of life
in such claim, Christian de~liberation,
that all the buZzing around about their
soul amounted to nothing. They con-
quered them, and, above all, they con-
quered themselves 49," you say,
that's a very good theory to preach
on a hot day, but 1T won't work. IL
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 i'll
September, and still others In October,
and | have to admit that this grace of
Christian forgiveness is about the last
fruit of the Christian soul. We ear a
great deal about the bitter tongue,
and the quick tongue. and the sting
ing tongue; but we know very little
about 1.-The soft tongue that breaketh
the bone" We read Hudibras, and
Stcrne, and Dean Swift, and the other
apostles of acrimony, but give little
time to studying the example of Him
who was reviled, and yet reviled not
again. o, that the Lord, by His spirit,
would endow us all with 1.-THE soft
tongue that breaketh the bone"
Inow pass to the other thought that
l desire to present, aud that is kind
ness as a means of usefulness. In all
~communities You find skeptical men.