The Bossier banner., 1888-01-12
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
a Honily on s'Too Much Ado About
Small Things"
Heaven Lost Sight of i'm Worrying Ovor
the Trifies of Earth--The Tendency
to Excuse Big Sins and Mag
nifty Little Ones.

subject of a recent sermon in the Brooklyn
Tabernacle: "Too Much Ado About
Small Things" preaching from the fol-
lowing text:
Ye blind guides, which strain at gnat, and
swallow camel-Matthew xxiii., "a.
The preacher said: A proverb is COM
pact wisdom, knowledge in chunks, a
library in a sentence, the electricity of
many clouds discharged at one bolt a
river put through a mil-race. When
Christ quotes the proverb OF text he
means to set forth the ludicrous behavior
OF those who make great bluster about
small sins and have no appreciation about
great ones.
In my text a small insect and large
quadruped are brought into comparison
gnat and q camel. You have in museums
or on the desert seen the latter, great,
awkward, sprawling creature. with back
two stories high, and stomach having
collection of reservoirs for desert travel,
an animal forbidden to the Jews
as food, and in many literatures
entitled ''the ship of the desert"
Tho gnat spoken of in the tex
is in the grub form. 1t IS born in pool
Or pond, after few weeks becoming a
chrysalis, and then, after a few days, be-
the insect spoken of in the text is in its
very smallest shape, and it yet inhabits
the wa tsr-for my text is a misprint, and
onght to read "strain out gnat."
My text shows you the prince of incon.
ss.oncies. A man after long observation
has formed the suspicion that in cup of
water he is about to drink there is grub
or tho grandparent of a gnat. He goes
c,>I
tho water and pours it through the sieve
in the broad light. He says: 81 would
rather do any thing almost than drink
this water until this larva be extirpated."
This water is brought under inquistion.
The experiment is successful. The
wator rushes through the sieve and
leaves against the side of tho sieve
the grub or gnat. Then the man care
fully removes the insect and drinks the
water in placidity. But, on going out one
day, and hungry, he devours sship of
tho desert" the camel which the Jews
were forbidden to eat. the gastron omer
has no compunctions of conscience. He
puts the lower jaw under the camel's fore
foot and ths upper jaw over the hump of
the camel's back and gives one swallow,
and tho ydromedary disappears forever.
camel.
VIII 1st Christ's audience were yet smil-
ing at the appositeness and wit of his il
lustration-for smile they did in church,
unless they We're too stupid to understand
the hyperbole-Christ practically said to
them: "That is YOU" Punctillious about
small things; reckless about aft airs of great
magnitude. No subject ever writhed un.
ri n nnr,tc bril- IL r.,
did tho Pharisees under Christ's scalpel of
truth. AS an anatomist win take human
body to pieces and put them under a
microscope for examination, so Chri st
finds his way to the heart of the dead
Pharisee and cuts it out and puts it under
the glass of inspection for all generations
to exem;ne. Those Pharisees thought
that Christ would fat ter them and COM
plimant them, and how they n, ,st have
writLed under the red hot words as he said:
Ye FOOLS yc whited sepulchres. ye blind
guides. which strain out gnat and swallow q
camel
There are IN our day great many gnats
strained out and a great many camels
swallowed, and it is the object of this ser.
mon to sketch a few persons who are ex-
tons!vely engaged in that business.
First, romark that all those ministers
of the Gospel are photographed in the
text who are very scrupulous about the
conventionalities of religion, but put no
particular stress upon matters of vast i'm.
portance. Church services ought to be
grave and solemn. There is no room for
frvolity in religious convocation. But
thero aro illustrations and there are
hypcrboles, like that of Christ in the text.
that viii irradiats with smiles any in.
toligent auditory. There are men, like
those blind guides of the text, who adyo.
cato 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 corn
ers of the mouth up; and these mon will
go to installations and to presbvteries
and to conferences and to associations.
their pockets full Of fine sieves to strain
out the gnats, while in their own churches
at home every Sunday there are fifty
people sound asleep. They make their
churches great dormitory, and their
sonniferous sermons are q cradle, and the
drawlcd-out hymns a lullaby, while
some wakeful soul in pew with her fan
keeps the flies off unconscious persons an.
proximate. Now, say it is worse to sIeep
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 infirmitv, or
from long watching with the sick, drows-
mess will sometimes overpower one: but
when a minister of the GOSPEL looks off
upon an audience and finds healthy and
intelligent people struggling with drows.
ness, it is time for him to give out the
Doxology or pronounce the benedction,
The great fault of church services to-day
Is not too much v;vacity, but too much
somnoence The one is an irritating gnat
that may be easily strained out; the other
is great, sprawlng and sleepy-eyed
camel of the dry descrt In all our Sab.
bath schools, in all our Bible classes, in
all our pulpits we need to brighten up our
rehglous message with such Christ-like
Vivac!ty as we find in the text.
l take down from my library the bior.
rarhles Of ministers and writers of past
ages, inspired and uninspired, who have
done the most to bring souls to Jesus
Christ, and find chat, without a single
exception, they consecrated their wit and
their humor to Christ. Elijah used it
when he advised the Baalites, as they