Charlotte messenger. [volume] (Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) 1882-18??, 1888-01-07
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIvINE's SUNDAY
SERMON.

ITCHY OF many clouds discharged in one bolt,
a river put through mill race. When Christ
quotes the proverb Of the text He means to
set forth the ludicrous behavior of those who
make a great buster about small sins and
have no appreciation of great ones.
In my text a small insect and a large quad
ruped are brought into comparisons gnat
and camel. You heve in museum or on the
desert seen the latter, a great awkward,
sprawling creature, with back two stories
high, and stomach having a collection Of
reservoirs for desert travel, an animal for
hidden to the jews as food, and in many
literatures entitled ''the ship of the desert. !"
The gnat spoken of in the text is in the grub
form. 1t is born in pool or pond after few
weeks becomes chrysalis, and then after a
few days becomes the gnat as we recognize
it. 1t is in its smallest shape, and yet inhabits
the water-for my text is misprint, and
ought to read, ''strain out gnat"
Ny text shows you the Prince of inconsis-
tencies. 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 the
grand parent of gnat. He goes and gets
sieve or strainer. He takes the water and
pours it through the sieve in the broad light.
He says: Il would rather do anything almost
than drink this water until this larva be ex-
tirpated." This water is brought under in
QUESTION. The experiment is successful The
water rushes through the sieve and leaves
against the side of the sieve the grub or gnat.
and drinks the water in placidity. But going
out one day, and hungry, he devours ship
of the desert the camel, which the Jews
were forbidden to eat. The astronomer has
TO compunctions of conscience He suffers
from no indigestion. He puts the lower jaw
under the camel's fore foot and his upper
jaw over the hump of the camels back, and
gives one swallow and the dromedary disap-
pears forever. He strained out gnat; be
swallowed camel.
the apposit eness and wit of 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" Punctiiious about small things; reck-
less about affairs Of great magnitude No
subject ever withered under surgeons knife
more bitterly than did the Pharisees under
Christ's scalpel of truth. As an anatomist
will take human body to pieces and put
them under a.microscope for examination, SO
Christ finds His way to the heart OF the dead
rharisee and cuts it out and puts it under the
glass of inspection for all generations to ex-
anime. Those fharisees thought that Christ
would fatter them and compliment them,
and how they must have writhed under the
redhot words as he said: rye fools, We whited
sepr4lchres, We blind guides, which strain out
gnat and swallow a camel"
There are in our day great many gnats
strained out and great many camels swal-
lowed, and it is the object of this sermon to
sketch a few persons who are extensively en-
gagged in that business.
First. l remark that all those ministers of
the Gospel are photographed in the text who
are very scrupulous about the conventionali-
ties Of religion, hut put no particular stress
upon matters of vast importance Church
services ought to be grave and solemn. There
is no room for frivolitv in religious couvoca-
ton. But there are illustrations and there
are hyperboles like that of Christ in the text
that will irradiate with smiles any intelli-
gent auditory. There are men like those blind
guides of the text who advocate only those
things in religious service which draw the
corners OF the mouth down. and denounce all
those things which have tendency to draw
the corners of the mouth up, and these men
will go to installations and to presbyteries
and to conferences and to associations, their
pockets full of fine sleeves to strain out the
gnats, while in their own churches at home
every Sunday there are fifty people sound
asleep. Bhey make their churches a great
dormitory, and their somnferous sermons
are a cradle, and the drawled out hymns
lullaby, while some wakeful soul in pew
with her fan keeps the flies off unconscious
TO sleep in church than to smile in church,
for the latter implies at least attention,
while the former implies the Indifference of
the hearers and the stupidity of the speaker
In old age, or from physical infirmity, or
from long watching with the sick, drow-
siness will sometimes overpower one;
but when a minister of the Gospel
looks OIL 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 The
great fault of church services to-day is not
too much vivacity, but too much SOM
Violence. The one is an irritating gnat
that may be easily strained out; the other is
great, sprawling and sleepy-eyed camel of
the dry desert. In all our Sabbath-schools
f.Io aull
need to brighten up our religious message
with such Chrlst-like vivacity as we find in
the text.
| take down from my library the biogra-
pines OF ministers and writers of past ages,
inspired and uninspired, who have done the
most to bring souls to Jesus Christ. and
find that without single exception, they con
seeTated their wit and their humor to Christ
Elijah used it when he advised the Baalites
as they could not make their God respond
telling them to call louder, as their Goo
might be sound asleep or gone a-huntiIg
JOB used it when he said to his self-conceiUed
rOmforters: "Wis1om will die with Won u
Christ not only used it in the text, but when
tie ironically complimented the putrefied
thatlsees, saying: THE whole need not a
physician" and when by one word He de-
scrlDed the cunning of HerOd, saving: "GC
We, and tell that fox" Matthew Henry,r
commentaries from the first page to the
last coruscated with humor as summer
clouds with heat and lightning. John Bun
yans writings are as full of humor as thew
ere Of saving truth, and there is not an aged
inan here who has ever read " Pilgrims Pro-
Pres" who does not remember that while
Leading it he smiled as often as he wept.
Shrysostom, George Herbert, Robert South,
John Wesley, George Nhiteflsd, Jeremy
Taylor, Rowland Hill, George G. FinDey and
~ men OF the past who greatly advanced
tl'e kingdom of God consecY.ated their wit
aud their humor TO the cause of Christ. So
II has been in all the ages, and say to these
young theological students. who cluster in
these services Sabbath by Sabbath, sharpen
your wits as keen as cimeters and then take
Them into this holy war.
u IS very short bridge between smile
sd tear, suspension bridge from eve 20
MP and 1t Is soon crossed over, and a smile il
sometimes just as sacred as tear. There is
~ much religion, and think little more
10 spring morning than in a starless mid.
nisnt. Religious work without any humor
nr wit IN IL Is a banquet with side Of beef
Apd that raw, and no condiments, and no
dessert succeeding. People will not sit down
q such a banquet By all means remove ali
nlvoiity and all bathos and all lightness and
eli yulvarlfV--ets-afr, thar. ont ~ ~