Hooks and Velvet, or Paws and Claws.
By H. L. H.
There are two aspects in which you may view a cat's paw. In one condition the hooks predominate—it presents to you a set of articles which can hardly be matched for purposes of scratching and tearing. At another time puss is in a more placable mood, and lo! the claws are turned into paws, and the hooks are exchanged for the softest pads of velvet that you ever felt. And yet they are the same identical feet, and it depends upon the disposition of puss whether you have paws or claws, hooks or velvet. Here is a man who has both of these elements in him,—most men have. Now to his neighbors, customers, and the world in general, he is all velvet; but when he gets at home, with his wife and children, how the claws stick out! Wouldn't it be well for you, my friend, to try the velvet principle at home? You would not like to treat others as you do your own family. Suppose you carry a little of your velvet home, and see if you cannot find a market for it there. Here is a man who tries to save sinners, and he is wise and careful. How gently he works! how softly he treads! how diligently he labors! And he has his reward, for he sees many souls gathered to the Saviour's arms. Another man wants to see men saved, but he works with hooks, and claws, and files, and rasps, and saws. He uses hard words, and scolds, and frets, and drives, and when all is done he never gains his end, but rather makes himself a public pest, and religion and truth both suffer through his bitterness of spirit. He serves God very much as we might expect a man to serve the Devil, provided he was frank and used no deception. And yet he has good motives, purposes, and desires; but all is spoiled by his spirit of hooks and claws. He would do much better if he would try the velvet principle a little. There are preachers who are gentle, and neither quench the smoking flax, nor break the bruised reed; but there are others,—oh, how they tear and rend things! how they desolate and destroy! Out of the true believer flow rivers of living water, and their course is marked by verdant banks, and fertile vales, and fruitful trees, on either hand; but the track of these men is marked by blackness, darkness, ruin, division, and dismay. They are more like rivers of burning lava, than they are like rivers of living water. Clouds are they without water, trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead and plucked up by the roots. They may brag of being the best trees, and prate of excellent culture, and may practise grafting, and use all other appliances, but where is the fruit? "Trees whose fruit withereth." So be it. If they do not serve God, harshness and bitterness befit their case,—such is their element. But Christians can do better. They can try the velvet principle. They can catch more flies with a spoonful of molasses than with a barrel of vinegar. They can show all meekness to all men. They can speak the truth in love. May God help us so to do. H. L. H.—in World's Crisis.