Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 July 1894 — BIBLE LAUGHTER. [ARTICLE]

BIBLE LAUGHTER.

‘‘Ye shall not respect persons in judgment; but ye shall hear the small as well as the great; for the judgment’s is God’s; and the cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me and I wilt hear it.” This year's college commence-; ments have been joined by an inno-’ vation at Harriman, Teiin. The! Temperance University at that place; graduated a class of ten, equally di-j vided as to sex. The first year of' this new institution has been very successful, two hundred and fifty' students having been enrolled.

A New York physician has trained; i microscope on a telephone receiver' that enjoys an extended and miscellaneous acquaintance, and the hor-j rible things he saw, according to hisj iccount, were frightful enough toj give a sober man delirium tremens.i Pestilence and black death lurk in aj mysterious way their murders to; oerform, and the bacteria are forev-! ?r seeking whom they can devour. The new postmaster at Lisbon is: i curiosity according to all accounts.; He is not at all impressed with thei aurry and rush of modern times and| mnsiders that there is no necessity' for rushing things. He is charged! with saving up the mail matter de-! posited in his office till lie gets a bag-; ’ul and is entirely oblivious to the schedule fixed by the Department} ’or the arrival and departure of nails. Recent investigations of the ancestral line of Abraham Lincoln, in Berks county, Pennsylvania, where; the family settled in 173(1, show that out one direct descendant of the; name survives. His name is John! Lincoln, and he is an inmate of thei Berks County Almshouse. Abraham Lincoln, who was President* Lincoln’s grandfather, was a distinguished man in his da} - , and held! many official positions, being, wealthy and very enterprising.

There are really a few dudes in. Indiana who feel offended when anyone refers to their personality by using the- term “Hoosier.” Anyone who is ashamed of the record of diana and who is “too nice” to ac cent that good old-fashioned nick - name might as well be transported to some foreign shore. We don’t need such people in The Old Hoosier State. - —- For tis grand, it is great And we're glad we're a Hoosier, as we say, For the gas it is a flowin'. And the corn it is a growin'. And pumpkin pie and turkey's on the way.

“Dr." W. H. Hale. the projector of the Gun Wa Chinese Doctor ‘•fake.’’ recently arrived in New York from England, where lie served 1 a term of imprisonment for fraud. He was immediately arrested andtaken to Denver for trial on the charge of using the United States mails for fraudulent purposes. It is" alleged that Hale made SIO,OOO a month from his various “Gun Wa'l establishments throughout the country’ while they were running, and that the only medicine he ever gave was mountain sage tea. Hale flourTshed atrindi uiapolis foF-a time. but . his “Gun Wa’ parlors on Washington street were found empty one morning and the whereabouts of the enterprising “Dr.” have been unknown until the dispatch announcing his arrest at New York cleared uji the mystery.

Few persons realize or appreciate the benefaction conferred upon the! human race by a great novelist like! Charles Dickens or Walter Scott. Aside from the pleasure and instruction their works afford to their ad- 1 mirers there is a more practical l side to their work. Statistics are difficult to obtain, but when we consider the innumerable editions andi the hundreds of thousands of volumes scattered over the world the aggregate revenue involved in their publication and sale can to a certain extent be understood. The bread and butter of hundreds of employes has thus indirectly come to them because of the wonderful industry and; versatile imaginations of these wizards of the pen. The popularity off (the works of Dickens and Scott eon(tinues unabated and the demand for] itheir books is almost as steady andi J’eliable as the staples of corn and! ■wheat. One printing firm in Edin-i (burg alone for the past thirty years; have uninterruptedly employed thir-i ity hands in the production of Sir; (Walter Scott’s books. Pflfioe George of TVfflos comtnannou a torpedo boat during the recent British naval maneuvers. When nt lost the pennant was hauled‘down, ho personally thanked and shook hands with every member of the orew, and gavo to er.ch his photograph and a sovow I ;n.

“Laugh and the World Laughs With You.” - ' .Unglifrf <>f AH gets mu! the Cocliionation of Ilrvlls—Dr. Talmage’g Sermon. Rev. Dr. Talmage. Who is now in Australia an his Pound the - world - journev, selected as the subject for his sermon through the press, last Sunday. ''Laughter, the text being taken fram _jjsatm_ cxxvi, 2, "Then was our mouth filled with laughter,;’ and Psalm ii. 4, "He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh.” Thirty-eight times does the Bible make reference to this configuration of the features and quick expulsion of breath which we call laughing. Sometimes it is born of sunshine and sometimes the midnight. Sometimes it stirs the sympathies.of angels, and sometimes the cachinnation of devils. All healthy people laugh. Scene, an oriental tent; occupants old Abraham and Sarah. perhaps wrinkled and decrepit. Their three guests are three angels —the Lord Almighty one of them. In return for the hospitality shown by the old people God promises Sarah that she shall become the ancestress of the Lord Jesus Christ. Sarah laughs in the face of God. She does not believe it. She is affrighted at what she has done. She denies it. She says, "I didn't laugh.” Then God retorted',, with an emphasis that silenced ail disputation. “But thou didst laugh!” My friends, the laugh of skepticism, in ail ages, is only the echo of Sarah's laughter. God says .he will accomplish a thing, and men sav it can not be done. A great multitude laugh at the miracles. They sav they arc contrary to the laws of nature. What- is a law of nature? It is God s way of doing a thing..

My friends, there is not a doctrine or statement of God’s holy word that has not been derided by the skepticism of the day. I take up this book of King James’s translation. I consider it a perfect Bible, but here are skeptics who want it torn to pieces. And now, with this Bible in my hand, let me tear out all those portions which the skepticism of this day demands shall be torn out. What shall go first? "Well,” says some one in the audience, "take out ill that about the creation and about the first settlement of the world.” Away goes Genesis. ''Now,’ savs some one, "take out all that about the miraculous guidance of the children of Israel in the wilderness.” A wav goes Exodus. "Now.” says some one else in the audience, “there ire things in Deuteronomy and Kings that are not tit to be read. Away go Deuteronomy and the Kings. "Now.” says some one. "the Book of Job is a fable that ought to come out.” Away goes the book of lob. “Now,” says some one, “those passages in the “New Testament which imply the divinity of Jesus Christ ought to come out. Away vq the evangelists. “Now,' says some one. “the book of Revelation how preposterous! It represents a :nan with the moon under his feet ind a sharp sword in his hand. ’ Away goes the book of Revelations. Now there are a few pieces loft. What shall we do with them? “Oh," Bays some man in the audience, "I don’t believe a word in the Bible, from one end of the Bible to the other.” Well, it is all gone. Now you have put out the last light for the nations. Now it is pitch darkness of eternal midnight. How do you like it? The next laughter mentioned in the Bible is David’s laughter, or the expression of spiritual exultation. “Then was our mouth filled with laughter.” He got very much down sometimes, but there are other chapters where for lour or five times he calls upon the people to praise and exult. It was not a mere twitch of the lips. It was a demonstration that took hold of his whole physical nature. “Then was our mouth filled with laughter. My friends, this world will never be converted to God until Christians cry less and laugh and sing more. The horrors are a poor bait. If people are to be persuaded to adopt our holy religion it will be because they have made up their minds it is a happy religion. They don't like a morbid Christianitv. "

When Theodosius was put upon the rack he suffered very great torture at the first. Some one asked him how he endured all that pain on the rack. He replied: “When I was put on the rack I suffered a great deal, but very soon a young man in white stood by my side, and with a soft and comfortable handkerchief he wiped the,sweat front my brow, and mv pains wore relieved. It was a punishment for me to get from the rack, because when the pain was all gone the angel was gone. Oh. rejoice evermore. You know how it is in the army—an army in encampment. If today news comes that our side has had defeat, and tomorrow another portion of the tidings comes, saying we have had another defeat, it demoralizes all the host. But if the news comes of victory today and victory to-morrow the' whole army is impassioned for the contest. The next laughter mentioned in the BibleYhat I shall speak of is the fool’s laughter, or the expression of siuful merriment. Solomon was very quick at simile. When he makes a comparison, we all catch it. What is the laughter of a fool like? He says, “it is the crackling of thorns under a pot.” The kettle is

swung, a bunch of brambles is put under it, and the torch is appliedLtQt. and there is a great noise, and a big blnze, and a sputter, and a quick extinguishment. Then it is darker htan it was before. Fool's laughte The most miserable thing on earth is a bad man’s fun. There they are ---ten men in a barroom; they have at home wives, mothers, daughters. The impure jest starts at one corner of the barroom, and crackle, crackle, crackle, it goes all around. In 500 such guffaws there is not one item of happiness. They all feel bemeaned, if they have any conscience left. Have nothing to do with men or women “who tell immoral stories. I have no confidence either in their Christian character or their morality. So all merriment that springs out of the defects of others—caricature of a lame foot, or a curved spine, or a blind eye, or a deaf ear — will be met with the judgments of' God either upon you, or upon your childreu. Twenty years ago I knew a man who was particularly skillful in imitating the lameness of a. neighbor. Not long ago a son of the skillful mimic had his leg amputated for the very defect ‘ which his fafher had mimicked years before. I do not say it was a judgement of God. I leave you to make your own inference. The next laughter that I "shall mention as being in the Bible is the laugh of God's condemnation. "He that sitteth in the condemnation will laugh at him.” Again. "I will laugh at his calamity.” With such demonstration will God greet every kind of sin and wickedness. But men build up villainies higher and higher. Good men almost pity God. because he is so schemed against by men. Suddenly a pin drops out of the machinery of wickedness, or a secret is revealed, and the foundation begins to rock. Finally, the whoje thing is demolished. What is the matter? I will tell-you what the matter is. That crash of ruin is only the re verberation of God’s laughter. Rome was a great empire; she had Horace and Virgil among her poets: she had Augustus and Constantine among her emperors. But what mean the defaced Pantheon, and the Forum turned into a cattle market, and- the broken walled Coliseum, and the architectural skeletons of her great aqueducts. What was that thunder? “Oh,” you say, “that was the roar of the battering rams against her walls.” No. What was that quiver? “Oh,” you say, “that was the tramp of hostile legions.” No. The quiver and the roar were the outburst of omnipotent laugh ter from the defied and .insulted heayons. Rome ylefied God and He laughed her down. Nineveh defied God, and He laughed her down. Babylon defied God, and Be laughed . her down. ./

There is a great difference between God’s laugh and his smile. His smile is eternal beatitude. He smiled when David saner, ami Miriam clapped the cymbals, and Hannah made garments for her son, and Paul preached.and John kindled with apocalyptic vision, and when any man has anything to do and does it well. His smile! Why, it is the 15th of May, the apple-orchards in full bloom; "it is morning breaking on a rippling sea; it is heaven at high noon, and the bells beating, the marriage peal, but his laughtermay it never fall on us! It is a condemnation for our sin; it is a wasting away. We may let the satirist laught at us, and all our companions may laugh at us, and we may be made the target of merriment of earth and hell, but God forbid that we shftuld ever come to the fulfillment of the prophesy against the rejectors of the truth, “I will laugh at your calamity.”

The other laughter mentioned in the bible—the only one I shall speak of—is heaven’s laughter, or the expression of eternal triumph. Christ said to his disciples, “Blessed are ve that weep now. for ye shall laugh." That makes me know positively that we are not to spend our day in heaven singing long meter psalms. The formalistic and stiff notions of heaven that some people have would make me miserable. I am glad to know that heaven of the bible is uot only a of holy worship, but of magnificent sociality. We shall laugh. Yes, we shall congratulate all those who have come out~of great financial embarrassments in this world because they have become millionaires in heaven, Ye shalLiaugh. It shall be a laugh of reassociation. It is just as natural for us to laugh when we meet a friend we have not sefen for years as anything is possible to be natural' When we meet our friends from whom we have been parted ten of twenty or thirty years, will it not be with infinite congratulations? Our perception quickened, our knowledge improved, we will know each other at a flash. We will have to talk over all that has happened since we have been separated, the one that has been ten years in heaven telling us all that has happened in the ten years of his heavenly residence, and we telling him in return all that has happened during the ten years of his absence from earth. Yc shall laugh. You know how the Frenchmen cheered when Napoleon came back from Elba. You know how the Englishmen cheered w’nfen Wellington came back from Waterloo, You know how Americans cheered when Kossuth arrived from Hungary. You know how Rome cheered when Pompev came back victor over nine hundred cities. Every cheer was a laugh. But, olr, the mightier greeting, the gladder greeting, when the s now-white cava.ry troop of heaven shall go through the streets, and,

according to the book of Revelation .Clm&t, iu tfofe crimson coat, on a white horse, and all the armies of heaven following on white horses! Oh, when we see and hear that cavalcade, we shall cheer, we shall laugh. Does not your heart beat quickly at the thought of the great jubilee upon which we are soo i to enter? I pray God that when we getthrough with this world and are leaving it we mav have some such vision as”the dying’Christian had when he saw written all over the clouds in~thc sky the'letter ir W,” and they asked ‘him. standing by his side, what he' thought the letter “W” meant. “Oh. that stands for welcome.” he said. And so may it be when we quit this world, “W” on the gate, “W” on the door of the mansion. “W” on the throne. Welcome! Welcome! I have preached this sermon w ith five prayerful wishes that you might see what a mean thing is the laugh of skepticism, what a bright thing is the laugh of spiritual exultation, what a hollow thing is the laugh of condemnation, what a radiant, rubicund thing js the laugh of eternal -triumph- Avoid the ill. Choose the right. Be comforted. "Blessed are ye that weep now--=ye'shail laugh, yeshalHaugh.”