Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1878-10-20
LITTLE SINS.

LITTLE SINS.
Thou shalt not have in thine house divers
measures, great and small: But thou shalt
have perfect and just weight, perfect and
just measure shalt thou have.-DEUTER )NOMY
1xv:I4-15.
We have the authority of Solomon for say
ing that 'sa false weight is an denomination to
the ord" Fair dealing Justice to ali men
is everywhere enjoined by the scriptures.
The laborer, we ire told, is worthy of his
hire, and by inference we are taught that the
laborer must earn his wages, for there must
be justice on both sides of every transaction.
1t is not only an insult to deity to be unjust
to ones fellow man, but when that injustice
is perpetrated by one who processes to OBJ
serve the laws laid down in the bible it
brings reproach both upon himself and the
religion he processes to follow. In these de-
generate days it is not considered dishonor
able in a church member to put sand in his
sugar, provided he does not put in too much;
it does not subject him to church discipline
If he sells piece of domestic cloth for a
foreign article; he is not regarded as an I'M
just man, unfit for the fellowship of the
saints, if he knocks off pound or two in the
weight of every bushel of wheat he buys; his
services in the Sunday School are just US &C
ceptable if he weighs heavy sheet of brown
paper with his teas. Petty thefts such as
these are not condemned by the church as
they should be; hence there is tendency
among men to add to their accomplishments
in this direction, and too often they learn to
disregard wholly the sacredness of the prop
erty rights of others.
The bible lays especial stress upon the
enormity Of petty dishonesty. Little things
show the character of the man. He who
cheats customer of an ounce of sugar or
tea, needs but the opportunity to steal a
large amount, and it is as dishonest and as
worthy of reproof as he who steals million.
Preachers who arise in the pulpit and ap-
propriate passages from newspaper edi-
torlal, or an essay in some magazine, palm
ms them off upon their hearers as their own
thoughts, or the product of their own re-
search, are as guilty of theft as those who
steal the goods or the money of their neigh
bors. Yet this is very common species of
dishonesty, and is becoming more common
because of the fact that the perpetrators are
so seldom detected and exposed. We have
known clergymen whose sermons were mere
ly compilations of brilliant thoughts and
ideas cleaned here and there from the writ
ings of philosophers, essayists and poets.
The bible furnishes the text, Barnes the
commentary, Macauley the historical analogy,
Emerson the reasoning, and poetical quo
tation of some sort the peroration. 70 ex-
pect entire originality of thought and
reasoning is, we admit, preposterous, but we
are not finding fault with those who draw an
idea from this, that, or the other author and
enlarge upon it, Such things are pardonable.
But when preacher takes bodily from an
essay, not only the ideas, but the words of
another, his offense constitutes larceny.
There is too much of this sort of thing in
the pulpit, and even those who are esteemed
brilliant preachers are guilty of purloining
their best points from others. The truth of
the matter is, that the clergy of to-day are,
as class, too indolent to devote the mental
labor their Pensioners have a right to
expect they should give to the preparation of
their sermons. If man is paid from
two to ten thousand dollars a year it is not
too much to ask that he give his people
fresh, original and timely sermons. If they
preach those that they delivered years ago
they are doing an injustice to those who en-
ploy them, for they are defrauding them out
of the results of later, ripper thought, the re-
suit of years of observation. It is folly 10
assert that a man who is deserving of place
in any pulpit can add nothing to sermon he
may have prepared five years ago. It is
equivalent to saying that for five years he
has observed and learned nothing; that for
that length of time he has been an unreason-
ing animal, incapable of improvement, and
is therefore unworthy of place in the pull
pit of any church. When he breaches
such sermon he defrauds the people lust
as much as the grocer who gives false
weight.
The church wants stricter application of
the moral law as applied to small things.
Little s1ns-white lies and small thefts-are
overlooked too much for the reputation of
religion, which should be spotless in all
things. The theft of pin, or the appropri-
alton of the mental products of another, are
just as heinous crimes in the sight of heaven
as the theft of city, of the Presidency of a
nation, or of a grade of wheat.
The Democrats of Iowa are seriously con-
teznplating the holding of Congressional
elections in that State in November next.
They hold that the election of last week was
illegal because of the act of Congress passed
in 1873 fixing the election for members of
Congress on the first Tuesday after the first
Monday in November. This law was not in
tended to apply to States in which the cleo
ton day Eas fixed nv the organic low. ri