Rensselaer Republican, Volume 24, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 March 1892 — THE GNAT. [ARTICLE]

THE GNAT.

Tins pastor of a Baptist church in Norwich. N. Y., Sunday had among bis hearers a traveling minstrel troupe, whpitti he had especially in* vited to the service. It was a new experience for the burnt cork artists, ind it is said the fine sermon, full of charity and brotherly love, visibly effected some of them. !" . ... 1 < It strikes our traditional conceptions as little short of sacrilege that a locomotive will soon go puffing and shrieking through Palestine, landing you by palace car right within the sacred precincts of Jerusalem, where the worldly brakeman will yell out the hameof the station and the gong of some provident dis* penscr of sandwiches will jar upon your retrospective imagination. Yet to this pass is modern progress bringing us.

• The 40,000 French coal miners who are making a concerted protest against the hardships of life and the injustice of employers have really little reason to believe that flattering prospects are before them.. All that* has been written about the collieries of France and England for several years tends to show that seams are being worked out, and that miners must go deaper and endure more dust and heat. The fact that deeper mining will add to the cost of production does not improve the prospects that the miners of the future are to have better pay and shorter hours.. The work is hard and unhealthful, and the faithful toilers deserve the utmost consideration of the capital that employs them and every device that may mitigate the perils and discomforts of thei r service.

A significant indication of the changes in theideas and sentiments of the people of the South, and in the material condition of things throughout the Southern States, is contained in the incidental remark es a Richmond newspaper that •‘Many hundred young ladies are employed in the various factories of Richmond, and the number is daily growing.” Many Northern people still hold firmly to the belief that the woman who works for her living in the South is looked down upon and slighted, and that working girls and women are at a great social disadvantage there. That may have been the case at one time, but it is not so now. The item notes the refusal of a license to a bar-room in the neighborhood of one of the factories where the women are employed, for the reason that the city was determined to see that the environments of the women were “such as they have a right to expect.” Another interesting item is that statistics show that the South now has 1,200,000 more spindles than it had eleven years ago.

The recent street car strike at Indianapolis had an interest to people in all parts of the State. Its permanent settlement will be a relief to many who feared a fearful outcome. The settlement was due largely to the disposition of both sides to "let go.” It is not evident that the strikers gained a victory, however, nor even a compromise. Of the eight demands made of the company but one is positively known to have been granted, and this one at a time fixed by the company itself, namely, the reinstatment of the five discharged employes. Of the other demands none seem to hate been granted the wages were not increased, the non-union employes were not discharged, the badges for free rides were not restored. These were the a demands that were of vital interest to the brotherhood. The lesson that is to be gained from this strike is that strikes do not pay except as a last resort. The street car employe’s union at Indianapolis was a strong one, and the union sentiment of the city is also strong. The employes felt that with such a thorough organization there was no such word as fail. The result has taught them that failurir may come even with a strong organization. It is very generally regretted that their demands were not acceded to or gained by the strike, for all of them (probaby with one exception) seemed to be just. But they did not succeed, and they heed not be surprised if the great corporation becomes more arrogant in the future than it has been in the past—probably requiring the drivers 'to walk while driving.

Strain at a Gnat and Swallow a Camel. A Vlg»rou» Onslaught on Formalism and Hypocrisy—Dr. Talmage’s Sermon. ■' > Dr. Talmage preached at Brooklyn, last Sunday. Text. Matt, xxiii.. 24He said: A proverb is compact wisdorh: knowledge in chunks, a library in a sentence, the electricity of many clouds discharged in one bolt, a river put thro'ugh a mill race. When Christ quotes the proverb of the text He means to set forth the ludicrous behavior of those who make a great bluster about small sins ;a»d nave no appreciation of great ones. My text shows you the prince of inconsistencies. A man after long observation has formed the suspicion that in a cup of water he is about to drink there is a grub or grandparent of a gnat. He goes and gets a sieve ' ppurs it through the seive in the broad light. He says: “I Would rather do anything almost than drink this water until this ,larvae be extirpated.” This water is brought runder inquisition. The experiment is successful. The water rushes through the seive and leaves against the side of the seive the grub or gnat. Then the man carefully removes the insect and drinks the water in placidity. But going out one day, and hungry, he devours a “ship of the desert.a camel, which the Jews were forbidden to eat. The gastronomer has no compunctions of conscience. He suffers from po indigestion. He puts the lower jaw unde? the camel’s forefoot, and his upper jaw over the hump of the camel’s back, and gives one swallow, and the dromedary djse ppbars fore ver. Restrained out* a gnat, he swallowed a camel. = While Christ’s audience were yet smiling at the appositeness and wit V 4 His illustration —for smile they did in church, unless they were too stupid to understand the hyperbole —Christ practically said to them, “That is you.” Punctilious about

smull things; reckless abeut affairs of grefit magnitude. No subject ever writhed under a surgeon’s knife more bitterly than did the Pharisees under Christ’s scalpel of truth. There are in our day a great many •jt-mals swallowed, and it is the object of this sermon td sketch a few persons who are extensively engaged in First, I remark, that all those minix \ers of the Gospel are photographed in the text who are very scrupulous about the con ven ionalities of religi n, but put no particular stress upon metters tof vast importance. Church S 3, vices ought to be grand and soledit. There is no room for frivolity ia religious convocation. But there are illustrations, and there are hyperboles like that of Christ in the text that will irradiate with smiles any intelligent auditory. There are men like those blind guides of the text *ho advocate only those things ir religious service which draw the corners of the mouth down, and denounce all those things which have a tendency to draw the corners of the mouth ud, and these men will go to installations and presbyteries and to conferences and to associations, their pockets full of fine, sieves to strain out the gnats, while in their own churches at home every Sunday there are fifty people sound asleep. They make their churches a great dormitory, and their somniferous sermons are a cradle, and the drawled-out hymns a lullaby, while some wakeful soul in a pew with her fan keeps the flies off unconscious persons approximate. /Now, I say it is worse to sleep .n church than to smile in church, for the latter implies at least attention, while the former implies the indifference of the hearers and the st pidity of the speaker. In old age or from physical infirmity. or from Icing watching with the sick, drowsiness will sometimesoverpower one; but n hen a minister of the Gospel looks off upon an audience and finds healthy and intelligent people struggling with drowsiness, it is time for him to give out the doxology or pronounce the benediction. Tne great fault of church service to-day is not too much vivacity, but too much somnolence. The one is an iritating gnat that may be easily strained out: the other is a i great, sprawling 'and sleepy-eyed camel of the dry desert. In all our Sabbath-schools in all our Bible classes, in all Our pulpits, we need to brighten up our religious message with such Christian-like vivacity as we find in the text: I take down from my library the biographies ministers and writers of past ages, inspired and uninspired who have done the most to bring | souls to Jesus Christ, and I find that I without a single exception they consecrated their wit and their humor to Christ. Elisha used it when he advised the Baalites. George Her bert, Robert Smith, John Wesley, George Whitfield, Jeremv Taylor, Rowland Hill, Nettleton, George G. Finney* and all of the men of the past who have advanced the Kingdom of God concentrated their wjl and their humor to the of Christ. So it has been in all the ages, and 1 say to these voung theological students who cluster in these Services Sabbath by Sabbath, sharpen your wits as sharp as scimetersk and then take them into this holy, far. It is a very short bridge between a smile and a tear, a suspension bridge from eye to lip, and it is soon erased over, and a smile is vymetimes just as a tear. Th*, re L as mueh religion add I think a UtCle more, in-a spring morning Ahan in a starless midnight Religion werks without anyhumoror wit

in it is a banquet with a Side of beef and that raw, and no condiments and no desert succeeding. Again: My subject photographs all those who are abhorrent of* small sins, while they are reckless in regard to magnficent thefts. You will find many a merchant who, while hq is so careful that he wcuid not take a yard of cloth or a spool of cotton from the counter without paying for it, and who, if a bank cashier should make a mistake and send in a roll of bills fh,too much, would dispatch a messenger in hot haste to return the surplus, yet who will go into a stock company, in which, after awhile, he gets control of the stock and then waters the stock and makes SIOO,OOO appear like $200,000. He only stole SIOO,OOO by the operation. Many of ■the men of fortune made their wealth in that way. One of those men, engaged in such unrighteousness, that evening, the evening of the very day when he watered the stock, will find a wharf rat stealing an evening paper from the basement doorway, and will go out and catch the urchin by the collar and twist the collar so tightly the poor fellow cannot say it was thirst for knowledge that led him to the dishonest act, but grip the collar tighter and tighter, saying: “I have been looking for you a long while; you stole mp paperfour or five times, haven’t you? You miserable wretch!” And then the old stock gambler, with a voice they can hear three blocks, will cry out, “Police! Police!” That same man, the evening of the day in which he watered, his stock, will kneel with his family in prayer and thank God for the prosperity of the day, then kiss his children good-night with an air which seems to say: “I hope you will all grow up to be as good as your father.” Prisons for sins insectile in size, but palaces for crimes dromedarian. No mercy for ,sins animalcule in*propertion, but great lenieney for a mastodon iniquity. .

It is time that we learn in America that sin is not excusable in proportion as it declares large dividends and has outriders in equipage. Many a man is riding to perdition position ahead and lackey behind. To steal a dollar is*a gnat; to steal many thousands of dollars is a camel.

And men will sit in churches and in reformatory institutions trying to strain out the small gnats of scoundrelism, while in their elevators and in their store houses they are fattening huge camels which they expect after a while to swallow. Society has to be entirely reconstructed on this subject. We are to find that a sin is inexcusable in proportion as it is great. - I know in our time the tendency is to charge religious frauds upon good men. They say, “Oh, what a class of frauds you have in the Church of God in this day,” and when an elder of a church, or a deacon, or a minister of the Gospel, or a Superintendent of a Sabbath-school, turns out a defaulter, what display heads there are in many of the newspapers. Great Primer type. Five-line pica- “ Another Saint Abscounded.” Clerical Scoundrelism.” Religion at a Discount. ” "Shame on the Churches, while there are a thousand scoundrels outside the church to where there is one inside the church, and the misbehavior of those who never see the inside of a church is so great it is enough to tempt a man to become a Christian to get out of their company. But in all circles, religious and irreligious, the tendency is to excuse sin in proportion as it is mammoth. Even John Milton in his “Paradise Lost,” while hecondemns Satan,gives such agrand description of him you j haye hard work to suppress your admiration. Oh, this straining out of small sins like gnats, and this gulp-ing-down great iniquities like camels. The subject does not give the picture of one or two persons, but is a gallery in which thousands of people may see their likenesses; For instanoe all those people who, while they would not rob their neighbor of a farthing, appropriate the money and the treasure of the public. A man has a house to sell, and he tells his customer it is worth $20,000. I Next day the assessor comes around and the owner says it is worth $15,000. The government of the United States took off the tax from personal ; income, among other reasons because J so few people would tell the truth. ; and many a man with an income of i hundreds of dollars a day made statements which seemed to imply he wus about to be handed over to the overseer pt the poor. Careful to pay their passage from Liverpool to New York, yet smuggling in their Saratoga trunk ten silk dresses from Paris and a half dozen watches from Geneva, Switzerland, telling the Custom house officer on the wharf, "There is nothing in that trunk but wearing apparel.” and putting ass gold piece in his hand to punctuate th* state ment.. - Desbribed in the text are all those who are particular never to break the law of grammar, and who want all their languarge an elegant specimen of syntax, straining out ail the ' inaccuracies of speech with a fine sieve - of literary criticism, while through their conversation go slander and ibnuendo and profanity And falsehood larger than a whole caravan of camels, when they might better fracture every law »f the langu&ge and shock then* taste, and better let e ,T ery verb'seek in* vain for Its nominative, ao4 eve»Q noun for its government, au< w.-ery preposition lose its way in the sentence, and adjectives and paXictples atld pronouns get into a gr; «.d riot worthy of the Fourth War 3 election da\ than commit a moral inaccuracy. Bet>er swallow 1,000 than a camflL . pcCTQos ftlso ucscnaoc in

the text who are very much alarmed about the small faults of others, and have no alarm about their own great* transgressions. There are in every; community and in every church,' watch-dogs who feel called upon ta keep their eyes on others and growl.’ - The/are full of suspicions. They wonder if that man is not dishonest, if that man is hot unclean, if there is not something wrong about the other man. They are always the first to .hear of anything wrong. Vultures are always the 1 first to smell carrion. They are self-appointed detectives. I lay this down as a rule without any exceptions, ' that those people whohave the most faults themselves are most merciless in their watching others. From scalp of head to sole of foot they are full of jealousies and hypereriticismS. They spend their lives iu hunting for musk-rats and mud turtles instead of hunting for Rocky Mountain eagles, always for something mean insteac of for something grand. They 100., at their neighbors’ imperfections through a look at their own through a telescope upside down. Twenty faults of their own do not hurt them half so much as one fault ol somebody else. Their neighbors’ imperfections are like gnats, and they strain them out; their own imperfections are like camels, and they swallow them. But lest any might think they escape the scrutiny of the text, I have to tell you that we all come under the. divine satire when we make the questions of time more prominent than the questions of eternity. Come now, let us all go into the confessional. Are not all tempted to make the question. Where shall I live now? geater than the question, Where shall I live forever? How shall I get more dollars here? greater than the question, How shall I lay up treasures in heaven? The question, How shall I pay my debts to man? greater than the question, How shall I meet my obligations to God? the question, How shall I gain the world? greater than the question, What if I lose my soul? the question, Why did God let sin come into the world? greater than the question, How shall I get it extirpated from my nature? the question, What shall I do with the twenty or forty or seventy years of my sublunar existence? greater than the question. What shall Ido with the

millions of cycles of my post-terres-trial existence? Time, how small it is! Eternity, how vast it is! The former more insignificant in comparison with the latter than a gnat is insignificant when compared with a camel. We dodged the text. We said, “That doesn’t mean me, and that doesn’t mean me, ” and with a ruinous benevolence we are giving the whole sermon away. But let us all surrender to the charge. What an ado about things here. What poor preparation fdr a great eternity. As though a minnow were larger than a behemoth, as though a swallow took wider circuit than an albatross, as though a nettle were taller than a Lebanon cedar, as though a gnat were greater than a camel, -as though a minute were longer than a century, as though time were higher, deeper, broader than eternity. So the text which flashed with lightning of wit as Christ uttered it, is followed by the crashing thunders of awful catastrophe to those who make the questions of time greater than the question of the future, the oncoming, overshadowing future. O Eternity! Eternity! Eternity!