The southern sentinel. (Winnfield, La.) 1883-1910, 1886-05-14

church walks, and coldn,bine to Chamber
over the church wall: and have smile on
the lin. and have the mouth filed with
holy water There is no man in the world
except the Christian that has right to
feel an untrammeled glee. He is promised
every thing is to be for the hest here, and
he is on the way to delight which Will
take all the professions with palm
branches, and all the orchestras, harped
and CIV inhaled and tIumpted, to express-
"Oh," you say, 81 have SO much troubled"
Have YOU more trouble than Paul had?
What does he say; 'Sorrowful, yet al
ways rejoicing. Poor, yet making many
rich. Having nothing, yet possessing all
things"
The next laughter mentioned in tina Bible
that shall speak Of, is the FOOLS laughter,
or the expression of sinful Merriment.
Solomon was very quick at smile; when
he makes a comparison we all catch it.
What is the laughter OF a fool like! He
SAYS: at is the cracking of thorns under
a pot" The kettle is swung, a bunch of
brambles is put under it. and the torch 10
applied to it and there is = great noise and
u
tinguishment; then it is darker than it was
before. FOOLS laughter. The most mis-
cradle thing on earth is bad mans fun.
There they are-ten men in bar
room; they have at home wives,
mothers, daughters. The impure jest
starts at one corner Of bar
room and crackle. crackle, crackle it goes
all around. In five hundred such outlaws
-, -aps item of happiness. They
all feel bemeaned il they have any con-
science left. Have nothing to do with men
or women who tell immoral stories. / have
no confidence either in their Christian
character or their morality.
so, all merriment that springs out OF the
defects of others-caricature of lame foot
or a curved spine Of a blind eye or a deaf
ear-wili be met with the judgments of
God either upon you or your children
Twenty years ago in this city I knew q
man who was particularly skillful in imi-
tating the lameness Of neighbor. Not
long ago a SON Of the skillful mimic had
his leg ampuiated for the very defect
which his father had mimicked years be-
fore. do not say it was q judgment OF
God; leave you to make your own in
ference. SO, all ,rerriment born OF dissipa-
ton, that which starts at the counters OF
the drinking restaurant, or from the wine
glass in the home circle, the maudlin sim
per, the meaningless joke, the saturnalian
gibberish, the paroxysm of mirth about
nothing that YOU sometimes see in the
fashionable club-roow or in the exquisite
parlor at twelve o'clock at night,
are the cracking of thorbs under
pot Such laughter and such sin end in
death. When Was lad a / ook came
out, entitled, "Don Jcur's Patent Ser
mons" 1t made great stir, very wide
laugh, all over the country. that book did.
1t WAS n caricature of rhe Christian minis
try, and of the word of God and OF the
Day Of Judgment Oh. we had great
laugh! The commentary on the whole
thing is that not long ago the author OF
that book died in poverty. shame, debauch-
cry, kicked out of society and cursed Of
Almighty God. The laughter of such men
is the echo of their own damnation.
The next laughter that shall mention
as being in the Bible is the laugh OF Gods
condemnation. she that stitch in the
heavens shall laugh" Again: "The Lord
will laugh at him." Again: 81 win laugh
at his calamity" With such demonstra-
ton will God greet every kind of great
sin and wicke1ness. But men build up
villainies higher and higher. Good men
almost pity God because He is so schemed
against by men. Suddenly pin drops
out Of the machinery of wickedneas, or .
secret is revealed, aud the foundation be-
z ins to rock, and finally the whole thing is
koA he IL $ha n Mill
tell you what the matter is. The crash of
ruin il only the reverberation OF Gods
laughter.
On Wall street there are q great many
good men and great many fraudulent
men. A fraudulent man there says: 81
mean to have my million" He goes to
work, reckless of honesty. and he gets his
first one hundred thousand dollars. He
gets after awhile his two hundred thou
sand dollars. After awhile he gets his
five hundred thousand dollars. "Now,"
he says. 81 have only one more move to
make and / shall have my million" He
gathers up All his resources: he makes
that one last grand move; he fails and
loses all, and he has not enough money
left to pay the cost of the c. to his home.
People can not understand this spasmodic
revulsion. Some said it was . sudden
turn in Erie Railway stock, or in Western
Union, or in Illinois Central; some said II
was Jay Gould; some said il was one spec
ulator, some said il was another. They
all guessed wrong. win Tell You what II
MAa: He that sitteth in the heavensn
laughed.
A man in New York said he would be
the richest man in the city. He left his
honest work of chairma king and gut into
the city councils some way, and in ten
years stole fifteen million dollars from the
city government. Fifteen million dollars.
He held the Legislature OF the STATE Of
New York in the grip of his right hand.
Suspicious were sroused. The grand Jury
presented indictments. The whole land
stood aghnst. The man who expected to
put half the city in his vest pocket
goes to Blackwell's Island, goes to Ludlow
street Jail, breaks prison and goes across
the sea, is rearrested and brought back
and again remanded to jail and died
there. Why. HE that stitch in the
haavens0 laughed