Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-03-28
THE WIT OF CHRIST.
1t Puts to Shame Preachers Who
Allow Their Hearers to Sleep.
BIG THEFTS WORSE THAN SMALL.
The Moral Gnats You Strain Out and the
Camels You Swallow.
A PREFACE on THE NEW TABERNACLE
ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DISPATCH.


this morning by making the following an
nouncement:
am happy TO say that Us church, afte
the exhausting work of building three i'm
mense churches, two of them having beer
destroyed by tre-a burden never before pu
urOn the back of any congregation-we arr
now financially in smooth waters. Arrange
ments have been made by which our pecu
MARY difficulties are fully adjusted. Ou1
income exceeds our outgo, and this church
viii be yours and your children's hereafter
When 1 came to Brooklyn came TO small
church with big Indebtedness. We now
worship in this the largest Protestant
church in America, and financially, as a
congregation, we are worth over anu beyond
all Indebtedness, considerably more than
Sl50,00G. ask you to rise, and led by corne'
and organ, to join in singing,
Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
The sermon this morning was an on
slsugnt on Journalism in religion, and the
text was: "Ye blind guides who strain al
gnat and swallow a camel"
Wisdom Condensed in Proverbs.
proverb is compact wisdom, knowledge
in chunks. library in q sentence, the cleo
tricity of many clouds discharged in one
bolt, a river put through Il mill race. When
Christ quotes the provero 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 large quad
ruDed are brought into comparisons gnat
ard camel You have in museum or on
the desert seen the latter, a great awkward,
sprawling creature, with back two stories
high, and stomach having collection OF
reservoirs for desert travel, an animal for
bidGen to the Hebrews food, and in many
anfjtiad she shin of the desert. -
The gnat spoken of in the text IS in the grub
form. II is born in pool or pond. after a few
weeks becomes chry and then after a
few days becomes the gnat as We recognize
it But the insect spoken of in the text is in
its very smallest shape and it vet inhabits
the wa5er-for my text is a misprint and
ought to read strain on. a Cnat-''
Ny text shows you the prince of incon-
sisrencics. A man after long observation
has formed the suspicion THAI in Il cup of
water he is about TO drink, there is grub or
the @r1InGpareat of GnaI. He goes aud gets
sieve or straineT. He takes the water and
nours is through the SIEVE in the broad light
He says, 81 world rather do anything al
most than drink this water until this larva
be extiTpaeed-"
The Tex Iucialy Explained.
This water IS brought under inqrtsition.
The experiment IS successful. The water
,,lshes through the Steve and leaves against
the side of the sieve the grub or gnat Then
the man carefully removes the insect and
drinks the water in placidity. But going
OFT one day, and hungry, he devours "ship
OF the DESERT the camel, which the Jews
were forbidden to eat. The castron oner has
no compunctions of conscience. He suffers
from no indigestion. He puts the lower jaw
under the camel's forefoot and his upper
law over the hump of the caIne1S back, and
.,iveS one swallow and the dromedary dlSap-
Dears forever. He strained out gnat. he
swallowed a camel
While Christ's audience were yet smiling
Mt the appositeness and wit of his illustra-
tion-for smile they did in church, unless
they were too stupid to understand the
hypeibole-ChIist practically said to them.
THAT is you" Punctlllous about small
things: reckless about affairs of great mag
nitude. No subject ever wlthered under n
surgeons knife more bitterly than did the
Pharlsees under Cbrist-s ScalDel of truth.
As an anatomist will take a human body to
pieces and put them under microscope for
eNaminat ton so Christ finds His way to the
heart of the dead Pharisee and cuts it out
and puts il under the glass of inspection for
all generations to examine. Those Phari-
sees thought that Christ would datter them
and compliment them, and how they must
have writhed under the red-hot words as He
said: "Ye fools, ye whited sepulchres, We
blind guides which strain out grat and
swallow 4 camel"
Worse Sleep Than Smile in Church.
There are in our day great many gnats
strained out and q great many camels swal-
lowed, AID it is the object of this sermon to
sketch few persons who are extensively
engaged in that business.
First, remark, that all those ministers of
the Gospel are photographed in the text who
are very scrrpulous about the conventional
ities OF religion; but put no particular stress
upon matters OF vast imp portance. Church SER
vices ought 70 he grave and solemn. There
IS NJ room for, frivolity in religious convoca-
ton. But there are illustrations and there
are liyrpertoes like that OF Christ in the text
that will irTadlate with smiles any 1ntelh-
gent auditory
T.Ic.c are I.len like those blind guides of
the text who advocate only those things in
religious .erVice which draw the corners of
the mouth down, and denounce all those
things which have q tendency &c draw the
corners of the mouth up, and these men Will
20 to installations and to preshyteries and
to coutercnces and to associations, their
pockets tuli of fire sieyes TO strain out the
gmats, while in their own churches at home
every Sunday there are 60 people sound
asleep. They make their churches great
doGInitory. and their sonniterous sermons
are a cradle and the drawled-out hymns
Lullaby while some wakeful soul in pew
with her ian keeps the flies of unconscious
persons approximate Now, say 1t is worse
10 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.
No Use tor Dull Preachers.
In old age or from physical infirmity, or
from long watching with the sick, drowsi-
ness Will sometimes overpower one; but
" hen a minister of the Gospel looks off upon
an audience and finds healthy and intel
ligert people struggling with drowsiness, it
is time for him to give out the doxology or
pronounce the Denediction. The great tault
OF church services to-day is not too much
yfvacity, but too much somnolence. The
ore is an irritating gnat that may be easily
strained out; the other is a great, sprawling
and SleeDy-eveG camel on the dry desert.
IN all our Sabbath schools in all our Bible
classes, in all our pulpits we need TO brighten
up our religious message with such Christ
like vivacity as we find in the text.
/ take down from nv library the biog-
arhieS 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
tEev consecTated their wit and their humor
TO Christ.
Oh, how particular great many people
are about the in11nitesimals while they are
quite reckless about the magnitudes !
What did Christ say2 Did he not excoriate
to wa sh their hands before a meal but did
no: wash their hearts? 1t is a bad thing to
have unclean hands; it is a worse thing to
have an unclean heart. How many people
there are in our time who are very anxious
that a ter their death they shall be buried
with their feet toward the East, and not at
ali anxious that during their whole life they
should face in the right direction.
Big sins and Little Ones.
Again: MY subject photographs all those
who are abhorent of small sins while they
are reckless in regard to magnificent thefts.
You will find many q merchant who, while
I,a is so careful that he would not take a
rd of cloth or spool of cotton from tine
counter without paying for 1t, and who if a
hank cashier should make mistake and
send in a roll of bills s. too much would
l.. H.,