Connecticut western news., 1892-03-31
THE GNAT AND CAMEL
DR. TALMAGE PoRTRAYS SOME OF THE HYPocRITrS OF TODAY.

The Man Who scorns . Petty Thief, but
 Robs the Public in Trade-yIlIainy in
 the Grain Market-Perjury In Ev>ding
 Taxes-smuggiingA and Bribery.
 BROOKLYN. March 27.-The tendency to Journalism in religion and to hypo- critical pretense in society received a severe castigation from the pulpit of the Brooklyn Tabernacle this morning. Dr. Talmage made a vigorous onslaught upon it, passing his remarks on the text Matthew xiii. 24. "Ye blind guides, camel"
 A proverb is compact wisdom. knowl- edge in chunks, library in a sentence, the electricity of many clouds discharged in one bolt, river put through mill race. When Christ quotes the proverb of the text, he means to set forth the lu- dicrous behavior of those who make a great bluster about small sins and have no appreciation of great ones.
 In my text small insect and a large quadruped are brought into comparison "a gnat and camel. You have in museum or on the desert seen the latter. great awkward, sprawling creature, with back two stories high and stomach having a collection of reservoirs for des- ert travel, an animal forbidden to the Jews as food, and in many hteratures entitled ''the ship of the desert" The gnat spoken of in the text is in the grub form. It is born in pool or pond. after a few weeks becomes a chrysalis. and then after few days becomes the gnat as we recognize it. But the insect spoken of in the text is IL very small est shape and it yet inhabits the water for my text Is a misprint and ought to read .'strain out gnat."
 My text shows you the prince of incon- sistencies. A man after long observa- ton has formed the suspicion that in a cup of water he is about to drink there is a grub or the grandparent 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, ''l would rather do anything almost than drink this water until this larva be ex- tirpated." This water is brought under inquisition. The experiment is success ful. The water rushes through the sieve and leaves against the side of the sieve the grub or gnat. Then the man care fully removes the insect 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 gastronomer has no compunctions of conscience. He suffers from no indi- gestion. He puts the lower jaw under tl ofso nd r.,xx over the hump of the camels back, and gives one swallow and the dromedary disappears forever. He strained out a gnat. he swallowed a camel.
 THE SELF RIGHTEOUS PHARIsEEs. While Christ's audience were yet smil- ing at the appositeness and wit of bis illustration-for smile they did in church, unless they were too stupid tc understand the hyperbole-Christ prac- tically said to them, That is you. " Punctilous about small things: reckless about affairs of great magnitude. Nc subject ever withered under a surgeons knife more bitterly than did the Phari- sees under Christ's scalpel of truth. AS an anatomist will take human body to pieces and put them under 8 microscope for examination, so Christ | finds his way to the heart of the dead | Pharisee and cuts it out and puts it un der the glass of inspection for all gen. | erations to examine. Those Pharisees | thought that Christ would fiatter them | and compliment them, and how they must have writhed under the red hot words as he said, ''Ye fools, ye whited sepulchers. ye blind guides, which strain | out gnat and swallow a camel" There are in our day great many | gnats strained out and great many camels swallowed, and it is the object | of this sermon to sketch a few persons who are extensively engaged in that l business.
 First. remark that all those minis ters 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 importance. Church services ought to be grave and solemn. There is nc room for frivolity in religious convoca- | ton. But there are illustrations, and there are hyperboles like that of Christ | in the text that will irradiate with smiles any intelligent 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 de- nounce all those things which have a tendency to draw the corners of the mouth up, and these men will go to in- stallations and to presbyteries and tc 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 theiI churches a great dormitory, and their | somniferous sermons are a cradle. and the drawled out hymns a lullaby, while | some wakeful soul in a pew with her fan keeps the flies of unconscious per sons approximate.
 Now. l say it is worse to sleep in church than to smile ill 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
 Intirmity. or from long watching with
 the sick. drowsiness will sometimes
 overpower one. but when a minister of
 the Gospel looks of upon an audience
 and finds healthy and intelligent people
 struggling with drowsiness, it is time
 for him to give out the doxology or pro.
 nounce the benediction. The great fault
 of church services today is not too much | sivacity, but too much somnolence. The
 one is an irritating gnat that may be
 easily strained out; the ot5er is great
 sprawling and sleepy eyed camel of the
 dry desert. In all our Sabbath schools
 in all our Bible classes, in all our pull
 pits we need to brighten up our religious
 message with such Christlike vivacity | as xua find in fha faYf