The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-08-15
CHRISTIAN
How to Use Tact I'm Dealing with Men
II Cor. tx. 1923.

How to Use Tact I'm Dealing with Men
Il Cor. tx, 1928.
Paul was free from all men," That Is one
reason why he could help all men-he did not
need them to help him. His own hands could
earn his bread, his own soul had abundant reser-
voirs of peace and power. Such Independence is
a royal vantage ground The more you have I'm
yourself the more of other lives will YOU be able
to add to yourself.
And yet Paul made himself servant unto all. "
He was "all things to all men" The question
with him was not. What COMFORTS with my
dignity?' but what comforts their sorrow /?
What ministers to their need?" He was not in
that upper room. but he had learned the lesson
Of feet-washing. No one can help men IL he
blust choose his way Of helping them. 1t is they
their sins and suferings-that select the way
and force it on the Christian worker.
The great secret Of Pauls success as a soul
winner was his sympathy. ITO the weak be-
came I as weak" he nobly says. We can AL
most imagine him STOPPING as he passed a dwarf
and hob5ling as he walked with a cripple. He
put himself in another's place, as the prereoui-
site for drawing that other up into his own
place with Christ. The initial step OF tact IS
contact. You must touch men before Won can
lift them. You must know men before you can
bring them to the knowledge Of Christ. yo,
must enter their lives by the door of loving sym
pathy before you can implant within them the
eternal life.
Paurs tact won men because it was unselasb
as, indeed, all true tnct must be. Tact means
touch" and no one can touch another through
the enveloping sac OF self. This I do for the
gospels sake said Paul. not for his own sake.
that he might be called the prince Of evangelists.
the imperial apostle. He was less than the least
Of them all. he humbly confessed. because he
had prosecuted the church. But he was content
to fall that Christ might rise, and that lowIiness
and self-abnegatior impressed men. as nothing
else could have impressed them. with the sin
certify Of the message he brought.
Have you ever shut your eyes and passed your
finger tips over the raised letters OF a book for
the blind? You can make nothing OF IL. Your
tact your touch. is crude and undeveloped.
But watch the nervous wEste fingers OF some
girl from Perkins Institute as they move swiftly
and steadily along the lines. pressing them ever
SO lightly. and flashing as they go bright CLEANS
Of intelligence to the curtained brain. That
miracle Is the child of practice. II did not come
In an hour or a day. 1t means months OF patient
cropping. partial failure and undaunted determi-
nation.
Equally crude are the first efforts OF the Chris
tian worker. How clumsy is his tact" his
touch. How many bl1nders he makes. what dis
neartening failures. But as the outreachings Of
his sincere sympathy pass along the roushnesses
OF human life. over and over. patiently and per-
s.stently. he learns 10 read them more and more
easily tiIl at last there bursts from them The
glorious meaning that God has hidden within
every soul. however sinful and sad. And then
he. too. like Paul. has become a missionary and
an apostle. AMOS r. WELLS.