The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1892-04-13
for q petty theft will burglarize tho


men will sit in churches and in reform
atory institutions trying to strain out
the small gnats of scoupdrelism, while
in their elevators and in their store
houses they are fattening huge camels
which they expect after while to swal-
low. Society has to be entirely recon-
structed on this subject. We are to find
that sin is inexcusable in proportion
as it is great.
l know in our time the tendency is to
charge religious frauds upon good men.
They say, "Oh, what class of frauds
you have in the Church of God in this
day." and when an elder of church, or
deacon, or minister of the Gospel
or a superintendent of Sabbath-school,
turns out defaulter, what display
heads there are in many of the news
papers. Great primer type. Five-line
plea another Saint Absconded."
"Clerical Scoundrelism;" "Religion at
Discount" "Shame on the Churches"
while there are thousand scoundrels
outside the church to where there is one
inside the church, and the misbehavior
of those who never see the inside of a
church is so great it is enough to tempt
a man to become Christian to get out
of their company.
But in all circles, religious and ire
ligious, the tendency is to excuse sin in
proportion as it is mammoth. Even
John Milton in his Paradise Lost"
while he condemns Satan, gives such
grand description of him you have hard
work to suppress your admiration. Oh,
this straining out of small sins like
gnats, and this gulping down great
iniquities like camels.
The subject does not give the picture
of one or two persons, but is a gallery
in which thousands of persons may see
their likenesses. For instance all those
people who, while they would not rob
their neighbor of farthing, appropri.
ate the money and treasure of the pub.
lie. A man has a house to sell, and ha
tells his customer it is worth $40, 900.
Next day the assessor comes around and
the owner says it worth $4,000.
The government of the United States
took off the tax from personal income,
among other reasons because so few
people would tell the truth, and many a
man with an income of hundreds of dol
lars day made statements which
seemed to imply he was about to be
handed over to the overseer of the poor.
Careful to pay their passage from Liver
pool to New York, yet smuggling in
their Saratoga trunk ten silk dresses
from Paris, and half dozen watches
from Geneva, Switzerland, telling the
custom house officer on the wharf,
"There is nothing in that trunk but
wearing apparel" and putting a five.
dollar gold piece in his hand to punctu.
ate the statement.
Described in the text are all those
who are particular never to break the
law of grammar, and who want all
their language an elegant specimen OF
syntax, straining out all the inacclra
cies of speech with fine sieve of liter
airy criticism, while through their con
versation to SANDER and innuendo and
profanity and falsehood larger than q
whole caravan of camels, when they
might better fracture every law of the
language and shock their intellectual
taste. and better let every verb seek in
vain for it's nominative, oand every noun
for its government, aud every PROPOSE
ton lose its way in the sentence, and
adjectives and participates and pronouns
get into grand riot worthy of tn,
Fourth ward election day than COMM,
moral inaccuracy. Better swallow
1000 gnats than camel.
Such persons are also described in the
text who are very much alarmed about
the small faults of others, and have nc
alarm about their own great transgres.
sions. There are in every community,
and in every church, watch-dogs who
feel called upon to keep their eyes on
others and growl. They are full of sus.
picions. They wonder if that man is
not dishonest, if that man is not un.
: clean, if there is not something wrong
about the other man. They are always
the first to hear of anything wrong.
Vultmes are always the first to smell
carrion. They are self-appointed de-
: tectives.
} lay this down as a rule without any
: exception, that those people who have
: the most faults themselves are most
: merciless in their watching others
From scalp of head to sole of foot they
are full of jealousies and hypercritic'
: isms They spend their lives in hunt.
ing for Rocky mountain eagles, always
for something mean instead of some
) thing grand. They look at their neigh
bors' impcrfcctions througha microscope
and look at their own i'm
/, PROJECTIONS through telescope
scope upside down. Twenty faults OF
their own do not hurt them half sc
much as one fault of somebody else,
Their neighbors' imperfections are like
gnats, and they strain them out; their
own imperfections are like camels and
they swallow them.
But lest any might think they escape
the scrutiny of the text, l have to tel
, yout that we all come under the Divine
satire when we make the questions OF
time more prominent than the questions
of eternity Come now, let us all GO in
to the confessional. Are not all tempt.
ed to make the question, "Where shall
live now? greater than the question
Where shall live forever? How shall
get more dollars here? greater than the
question, How shall l lay up treasures
, in Heaven? The question, How shall
pay my debts to man? greater than the
question, How shall meet my obi
cations to God? the question
How shall I gain the world? great.