The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1898-10-20

nature into Sembtance OF this virtue.
but the grace of God can sublimely
lift you into it. Sailing on the River
Thames two vessels ran aground. The
owners of one got 100 horses and
pulled GU the grounded ship, and pulled
it to pieces. The owners of the other
grounded vessel waited till the tides
came in, and easily floated the ship out
Of all trouble. So we may pull AMI
haul at our grounded human nature
and try to get it in better conditions;
but there is nothing like the oceanic
tides of Gods uplifting grace. If,
when under the flash of the Holy
Ghost, we see our own foibles and de-
fects and depravities, we will be very
lenient, and very easy with others.
We will look into their characters for
things commendatory, and not damna-
tory. If you would rub your own eye
4 little more vigorously you would find
a mote in it, the extraction of which
keep you SO busy you would not have
much tine to shoulder your broadax
and go forth to split up the beam in
your neighbors eye. In Christian
Of those you meet, and l am sure you
will find something in them fit for
foundation of friendliness.
You invite me to come to your coun-
tryseat and spend few days. Thank
yon! arrive about noon of beaut-
tul day. What do you do? AS soon as
| arrive you take me out under the
Sh ho al, @,1,
me down to the artificial lake: the
spotted trout floating in and out
among the white pillars of the pond
lilies. You take me to the stalls and
kennels where you keep your fine
stock, ard here are the Durham cattle
and the Gordon settlers; and the high
stepping steeds, hy paving and neigh
ing, the only language they can speak.
asking fOr harness or saddle and a
short turn down the road. Then we
go back to the house, and you get me
in the right light, and show me the
hensctts and the Hierstadts on the
wall. and take me into the music room
and show me the bird cages, the ca
naries in the bay window answering
the robins in the tree tops. Thank
you. | never enjoyed myself more in
| the same length of time. Now, why
do we not do so with the characters of
others, and show the bloom and the
music and the bright fountains? No.
Ne say: Come along, and let me
| show YOU that mans character. Here
is a green-scummed frog pond, and
| there's filthy cellar, and l guess un-
der that hedge there must be a black
! snake. Come, and let us for an hour
or two regale ourselves with the nui-
sances."
Oh, my friends, better cover up the
| faults and extol the virtues; and this
| habit once established of universal
friendiless will become as easy as it
is for syringa to flood the all with
ther on in the season for a quail to
| whistle up from the grass. When we
hear something bad about somebody
whom we always supposed to be good
take out your lead pencil and say:
Let me see! Before / accept that bale
|
| will take off from it 25 per cent. fol
the habit of exaggeration which be.
longs to the man who first told the
story; then will take off 25 per cent
for the additions which the spirit Of
gossip in every community has put
upon the original story; then l will
take off 25 per cent. from the fact thai
the man may have been put into cir
cumstances of overpowering tempta
ton. So | have taken off IS per cent
Rut | have not heard his side of the
story at all. and for that reason | take
off the remaining 25 per cent. Excuse
me, sir. don't believe word of it,
But there comes in defective max
i'm, so often quoted: "Where there il
so much smoke there must be som'
fire. Look at all the smoke for year
around Jenner, tic introducer Of fvacci
nation: and the smoke around Colum
bus. the discoverer: and the smOk
around Martin Luther, and Savonaro
la. and Galilee. and Paul, and John,an'
tell me where was the fire. That is on
of the arts to make smoke without fire
Slander, like the world, may be mad
/ out nothing.
: Now, supposing that you have, by
l divine regeneration, got right towar
, God and humanity, and you start on
to practice my text. "a man that hat
i friends must show himself friendly.
Fulfill this by all forms of appropriat
9 salutation. Have you noticed that tn
head is SO poised that the easiest thin
: on earth is to give nod of recogn
Z ton? To swing the head from side I
side, as when it is wagged in derisior
e is unnatural and unpleasant; to thro'
t it back, invites vertigo; but to dro
:, the chin in greeting is accompanie
= with so little exertion that all da
: long, and every day, you might pra
+ tice it without the least semblance .
}, fatigue. So, also, the structure of tt
n hand indicates hand-shaking; tt
c knuclsles not made SO that the finge,
l. can turn out, but SO made .that tt
4 fingers can turn in, as in :claspir
/. hands: and the thumb divided fro
r and set aloft from the fingers. so tn;