The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1898-09-14

wall, and take me into the music room
and show me the bird cages, the
canaries in the bay window answering
the robbins in the treetops. Thank
you! 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
green-scummed frog pond, and there's
filthy cellar, and | guess under that
hedge there must be a black snake.
Come, let us for an hour or two regale
ourselves with the nuisances."
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 flood the air with
sweetness, as easy as it will be further
on in the season for 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 l accept that baleful
story against that mans character, /
will take off from it 25 per cent, for
the habit of eXaggeration which be-
longs to the man who first told the
story, then / will takes 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 that
the man may have been put into cir
cumstances of overpowering tempta-
ton. So have taken off Is per cent.
But l have not heard his side of the
story at all, and for that reason l take
off the ramaining 25 per cent. Excuse
me, sir, don't believe word of it."
But here comes in a defective max
i'm, 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 vac
cination; and the smoke around Co.
lumbus, the discoverer; and the smoke
around Martin Luther, the Savonarola,
and Galilee, and Paul, and John, and
| tell me where was the fire! That is
one of the satanic arts to make smoke
without fire. Slander, like the world,
may be made out of nothing. If the
| Christian, fair-minded, common-sensi-
cal spirit in regard to others predomi-
mated 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 but the. grace of God can
ever put us into such a habit of 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 mans note. I gave beggar
ten cents, and five minutes after saw
him entering liquor store to spend
it. l will never again give cent to a
beggar. | helped that young man start
in business, and 10, after while, he
came and opened store almost next
door to me, and stole my customers
L will never again help young man
to start in business. / trusted in what
my neighbor promised to do, and he
broke his word, and the psalmist was
right before he corrected himself, fol
"all men 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 anoth
er bolt to the door that shuts them out
from sympathy with the world. They
get cheated out of thousand dollars
or misinterpreted, or disappointed, OIL
betrayed, and higher goes the wall
and faster goes another bolt, not re
alizing that while they lock others out
they lock themselves in; and some day
they wake up to find themselves i'm
prisoned in dastardly habit. Nc
friends to others, others are no friends
to them. There's an island halfway
between England, Scotland and Ire
land, called the Isle of Man, and the
seas dash against all sides of it, anC
am told there is no more lovely place
than that Isle of Man; but when 6
man becomes insular in his dispo
sition, and cuts himself off from the
main land of the worlds sympathies
he is despicable, and all around him il
an Atlantic Ocean of selfishness. Be
hold that Isle of Man.
Now, supposing that you have, by {
divine regeneration, got right toward
God and humanity, and you start ou
to practice my text. "a man that hatf
friends must show himself friendly
Fulfill this by all forms of appropriate
salutation. Have you noticed that thu
head is so poised that the easiest thing
on earth is to give nod of recog
milton? To swing the head from sid'
to side, as when it is wagged in de
rision, is unnatural and unpleasant
to throw it back invites vertigo; bu
to drop the chin in greeting is accom-
panied with so little eXertion that al
day long, and every day, you nigh
practice it without the least semblanc,
of fatigue. So, also, the structure o
the hand indicates hand-shaking; tht
knuckles are made so that the fingers
can turn in, as in clasping hands; ant
the thumb divided from and set aloo
from the fingers, so that while tn,
fingers take your neighbor's hand OIL
one side, the thumb takes it on tn,
other, and, pressed together, all th'
faculties of the hand give emphasis
to the salutation. Five sermons il
every healthy hand urge us to hand
shaking.
Besides this, every day when yol
start out, load yourself up with kline
thoughts, kind words, kind expires
sions, and kind greetings. When
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