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SHAKING HANDS

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 26, 1869

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 34, No. 18.

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SHAKING HANDS.

By Dr. John Hall

I MAINTAIN that shaking of hands, rightly administered, is a means of grace. You, my dear sir, are established, and every one knows you to be a solid man. There is a man beside you just fighting his battle and making his way. You know him, and nod to him. Take him by the hand, my dear sir. It will do him good; and if he be cast down a little, as men will sometimes be, it may encourage him. “Our minister shook hands with me.” What made that hulking fellow, too big to be a boy, too raw to be a man, announce that fact so loudly when he went home? The truth is, for sensible effect on him it was more than the sermon. John Smith has been a hard drinker, but is trying fairly to get out of it. Going down the village street, he meets Mr. Brown, who is “boss” at “the works above.” Mr. Brown shakes hands with “Mr. Smith,” in sight of the entire village. Does that do Smith any good? I tell you it is as good to him as one of Mr. Gough’s admirable lectures. It says as plainly as if Mr. Brown had written it: “Mr. Smith, you have only to take care of yourself, and you will be a respectable man in spite of all.” That makes Smith stronger; and when he goes to church next Sabbath, and looks over to Mr. Brown, he will find it easier to believe God’s most loving word: “Their sins and their iniquities I will remember no more.” So “shake hands and be friends”—at market, on the street, and above all, at church. I presume the apostle meant something when he said: “Greet all the brethren with an holy kiss.” Some quit church for want of this means of grace. Everybody looks as if just returned from the North Pole and there had not been time to thaw, and the deacon who “runs the church” (if anything so lifeless can be said to be run), had been in command of the party. I suspect the boys sometimes say: “Well, I guess I ought to be good, but if I ever do, it won’t be long with the deacon.” They wait, poor boys, till some one comes along with heart—getting no good in the meantime—whose genial, life-like ways make them “feel kind o’ good,” and they catch the inspiration “and run with gladness in the way of God’s commandments.”—Dr. John Hall.