The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1875-06-17

You cannot reason seFiously a. such
times, nor with such people, for they viii
copstrue your seriousness into reasons
why they should cling to their tollies,
Hence, their folly can only be seen
through absurd positions which the love
Of eonsisteney has compelled them to as
sumo. None Wa ever wiser in the con.
dition and movements Of human intel.
lects and moral powers than he who said :
"A bride for the ass, and rod for the
iOols back" How else could Elijah have
done this work. How unsparingly he
piled the whip with knotted lashes
What scorn more terrible than jets OF
burning lava! What ridicule! What
matches humor mingled with all! Did
nobody laugh on that day Of terrific CON
test on Carmel for God and the right ?
To think that the audiences sat US as stiff
as statues, with faces as Icing and eyes as
heavy as they do now in modern service,
would be q greater sarcasm than Elijah
uttered through all that eventiul day.
Humor is only the sunny side OF irony
and satire, and Is as inseparable from
them "a shade from sunshine. We are
not willing to suppose that nobody
laughed when the Mister 50 often dis
committed the hypOcriticSl PhaFisees,
rending their timsy masks into tatters,
We are sure that We should have laugh
ed from sheer satisfaction over the ri.
umph Of the truth. We're the Ritualists
Of to-day 50 sorely pressed BY the Master,
some LoWchurchman or DissenteF could
not help crying out, GOOD Strike them
again" The Oriental mind Is quicker in
its perceptions Of the relations producing
satire and humor than the Western; and
We have no doubt that sympathizing Jews
not only laughed, but cheered the Master
upon every victory over those bigOted,
relentless hypOcrites.
There Is another example OF consum-
mate humor, mingled with irony, in
Jotham's parable q King making a a
business. The peculiar feature Of this
parable is that the Observation-Disclosures
Is to say, the low demagOgue-h apt to
be exalted above his wOTthler fellows.
This feature Is 40 often reproduced in
modern political conventions, and In ex.
hibitiOns OF Honesty and patriotism by
office seekers and office makers, that one
is provoked to laughter at the CariCature
even at this day, Wsare not advocating
irony and humOF Is something that
ought to be cultivated. Irony Is
dangerous, and humOr cannot be cult.
waited. 1t is q gift, and whoever is
witty from any source but nature will not
only fail 10 interest in society, but be i'm
pious In the church. But II a man has
the power to be sarcastic, irOniCal or wit.
", he is'unconsCious OF II; and II be is,
and is q Christian also, II will not do
harm but good. God has work for that
man, and ifhe presents the truth clothed
in some Of the features Of his own per-
sonality, 1t will tell, Ii will arouse the
stolid, awake the slumbering, and set the
idle to thinking. He will capture by his
sharp sword, CleaVing the joints and the
marrow, many a giant for Christ, and by
his humOr, like the first solicitations Of q
spring sunshine, warm many q soul into
life in its coffin Of unrelenting ice. The
sin is in the base imitations-in futile et-
forts to substitute borrowed smartness for
sanctity, and to do this with purpose,
which Is offensive to all that Is sacred.
But when a man Is an unconscious in.
strument In Gods hands TO light absurdity
by the smiles Of good nature, let him 60
on. 1.-The has uncnnsciously in his soul
the forge from which fiery shafts are heat.
ed and sent a.whiIzing at Stolidity and
stupidity in error, let him go on In his
destruction until they surrender.
Nothing gives the mind Of the nearer
such satisfaction as to see q man knock
the props from error. We cannot help
smiling with satisfaction when we see a
man who Is bowling make successive ten
strikes; and something Of the same glad
thrill goes through the soul when u
preacher makes pOint.blank shots, storms
the fort Of error, exposes its weaknesses,
and enters, capturing II for the Master.
The smile Of appreciation is instructive;
II is harmless, and the grace itself will
join in the expression oil glndness.