Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1892-03-28

as we find in the text.
WIT AND PATHos IN THE PULPIT.
take down from my library the biog-
raphies of ministers and VII CTS Of past
ages, inspi e. ;l1d unilspi1'esl. WHO have
done the most TO bring souls to Jesus
Christ, and find that without a single
exception they consecrated t.2elr wit AID
their humor to Christ. Elijah used it
when he advised the Baalites, rs they
sould not maze their god respond, tell
ing them to call louder as their god
might be sound asleep OF gone ;,-hunt-
ing. Job used it when he said to his
self conceited comforters, ''WisdoIn Will
die with you" Christ not only used It
in the text, but when he ironically COM
plimented the putrefed Pharisees, say
ing, 1.-The whole need not IL physician
and when by one word he described the
cunning of Herod saying, go, We, and
tell that fox"
Matthew; Henry's Commentaries"
from the first page to the last corus-
Gated with humor as summt. clouds
with heat lightning. John Bunyans
writings are as full of humor as they are
Of saving truth, and there is not an aged
man here who has ever read ''Pilgrims
Progress who does not remember that
while reading it he smiled as often as he
wept. Chrysostom, George Herbert,
Robert South, John Wesley George
Whitefeld, Jeremy Taylor, Rowland
Hill, Nettleton, George G. Finney AID
all the men of the past who greatly adj
'vanced the kingdom Of God consecrated
their wit and their humor to the cause
of Christ
So it 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 us
scimiters and then take them into this
holy war. 1t is a very short bridge be-
tween smile and tear, a suspension
bridge from eye to lip, and it is soon
crossed over, and a smile is sometimes
Just as sacred as a tear. There is as
much religion, and think Il little more,
in spring morning than iii a starless
midnight.
Religious work without any humor or
wit in it is banquet with side of beef,
and that raw, and no condiments and no
dessert succeeding. People will not sit
down at such banquet. By all means
remove all frivolity and all bathos and
all lightness and all vulgarity-strain
them out through the sieve of holy dis
elimination; but on the other hand, be-
ware of that monster which overshadows
the Christian church today convention
atty, coming up from the Great Sahara
desert Of Ecclesiasticism having on its
back hump of sanctimonious gloom
and vehemently refuse to swallow that
camel.
Oh, how particular a great many peo
pie are about the infinitesimals while
they are quite reckless about the magni-
tudes. What did Christ say? Did he
not excoriate the people in his time who
were so careful to wash their hands be-
| fore a meal, but did not wash their
hearts. It is bad thing to have I'M
| clean hands; it is a worse thing to have
an unclean heart. How many people
| there are in our time who are very anx
ious that after their death they shall be
| buried with aheir feet toward the east,
and not at all anxious that during their
whole life they should face in the right
direction so that they shall come up in
the resurrection of the just whichever
way they are buried. How many there
| are chiefly anxious that minister of the
Gospel shall come in the line of apostolic
succession, not caring SO much whether
he comes from Apostle Paul OF Apostle
Judas They have way of measuring
gnat until it is larger than a camel.
THE UNRIGHTEOUS SPECULATOR.
Again: My subject photographs all
those who are abhorrent of small sins
while they are reckless i'll regard to mag
nifcent thefts You will find many
merchant who, while he is SO careful
that he would not take yard of cloth
or spool of cotton from the counter
without paying for it, and who if a bank
cashier should make mistake and send
in a roll of bills five dollars too much
would dispatch messenger in hot haste
to return the surplus, yet who will go
into a stock company in which after
awhile he gets cont1o of the stock, and
then waters the stock and makes 800, goo
appear like $20O,OO0 He only stole
100000 by the operation. Many Of the
men of fortune made their wealth in
that way.
One of those men, engaged In such I'M
righteous acts, that evening, the evening
of the very day when he watered the
stock, will find wharf rat stealing an
evening newspaper from the basement
doorway, and will go out and catch the
urchin by the collar, and twist the collar
so tightly the poor fellow cannot say
that it was thirst for knowledge that led
him to the dishonest act, but grip the
collar tighter and tighter, saying, 81
| have been looking for you long while;
you stole my paper four or five times.
haven't you? you miserable wretch. :"
And then the old stock gambler, with a
voice they can hear three blocks, will
cry out s'Police! Policer'
That same man, the evening of the day
in which he watered the stock, will
kneel with his family in PRAYER and