Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1898-09-16

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, and here are
the Durham cattle and the Gordon set.
ters and the high stepping steeds, by
paving and neighing, the only language
they can speak, asking for harness or
saddle and short turn down the road.
Then we 20 back 10 the house, and you
get me in the right light and show me
the Kensetts and the Bierstadts on the
wall and take me into the music room
and show me the birdcages, the cana
ries in the bay window answering the
robins in the tree tops Thank youl l
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. We 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 under that hedge there must
be black snake. Come and let us for
an hour or two regale ourselves with the
nuisances.
Extol the Virtues.
Oh, my friends, better cover up the
faults and extol the virtues and this
habit once established Of universal
! friendliness will become as easy as it is
for a syringa TO food the air with
sweetness, as easy as it will be further
on in the season for a quail to whistle
up from the grass. When we hear sonne-
thing bad about somebody whom We
always supposed to be good, take out
your lead pencil and say Let me see
( Before accept that baleful story against
J that mans character l will take off
from it 20 per cent for the habit Of ex-
aggeration which belongs to the man
who first told the story. Then l will
take OF 25 per cent for the additions
which the spirit Of gossip IN every COM
munity has put upon the original story.
Then will take off 2J per cent from
the fact that the man may have been
put into circumstances Of overpowering
temptation. So I have taken of rs per
cent But have not heard his side Of
the story at all, and for that reason /
take off the remaining 25 per cent. Ex-
cuse me, sir, don't believe word Of
it,"
But here comes in a defective maxim,
so often quoted, "Where there is so
much smoke there must be some fire" "
Look at all the smoke for years around
Jenner the introducer Of vaccination,
and the smoke around Columbus, the
discoverer, and the smoke around Mar
tin Luther, and Sayonarola, and Galilei,
and Paul, ard John, and tell me where
was the fire That is one Of the satanic
arts TO make smoke without fire. Sian
der, like the world, may be made out
of nothing. If the Christian, fair mind
ed. commonsensieal spirit in regard to
Others predominated, in the world, we
should have the millennium IN about
six weeks. for would not that be lamb
and lion, COW and leopard, lying down
together? Nothing bat the grace Of God
can ever put Us into such habit Oh
mind and heart as that The tendency
is in the opposite direction. This is the
way the world talks: put my name on
the back Of a mans note, and had to
pay it, and l will never again put my
name on the back of any mans note.
gave beggar 10 cents, and five minutes
after l saw him entering liquor store
to spend it. l will never again give =
cent to beggar. l helped that young
man start in business, and, 10, after
awhile he came and opened store al
most next door to me and stole my Gus
toners. Twill never again help young
man to start in business. l trusted in
what my neighbor promised to do, and
be broke his werd, and the psalmist
was right before he corrected himself.
for "all man are liars" So men become
suspicious and saturnine and selfish,
and at every additional wrong done
them they put another layer on the
wall Of their exclusiveness and another
bolt TO the door that shuts them out
from sympathy with the world. They
get cheated out of $1,000, or misinter-
preted. or disappointed, or betrayed
and higher goes the wall, and faster
goes another bolt, not realizing that
while they lock others out they lock
themselves in, and some day they wake
up to find themselves imprisoned IN
dastardly habit. No friends 10 others
Others are no friends to them. There's
an island half way between England,
Scotland and Ireland, called the Isle OF
Man, and the seas dash against all sides
of it. and | am told there is no more
lovely place than that Isle Of Man, but
when a man becomes insulsr in his dis
nosition and cuts himself off from the
main land of the worlds sympathies he
is despicable, and all around him is an
Atlantic ocean Of selfshnees. Behold
that Isle Of Man!
Sermons In Healthy Hands
Now, supposing that you have, by
divine regeneration, got right toward
God and humanity, and you start out
to practice my text. "A man that hath
friends must show himself friendly"
Fulfill this by all forms Of appropriate
salutation. Have you noticed that the
head is SO poised that the easiest thing
on earth is to give nod of recognition'
To swing the head from side 10 side, as
when it is wagged in derision. is uD-
natural and unpleasant; to throw it
back, invites vertigo, but TO drop the
chin in greeting is accompanied with
so little exertion that all day long and
every day. you might practice 1t With
out the least semblance of fatigue. So
also the structure of the hand indicates
handshaking the knuckles not made so
that the fingers can turn out. but so
made that the fingers can turn In, as IN
clasping hands. and the thumb divided
from and set aloof from the fingers, so
that while the fingers take your neigh
boris hand on one side, the thumb takes
IL ON the other and messed together, all