The Red Cloud chief., 1892-04-08

IA IA
past ages, inspired and uninspired, who
have lone the most to bring souls to
Jesus Christ, and l find that without a
single exception they c~onsecrated their
wit n thel humor toEhrist. Elijah
used 1t when he advised the Baalites,
as they could not make their god re-
spond; telling them to call louder, as
their god might be sound asleep or gone
a hunting. job used it when he said to
his self-conceited comforters, ''Wisdom
will die with you" Christ not only
used it in his text, but when he ironi-
cally complimented the purified Phari-
sees, saying: ''The whole need not a
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 coruscated with
humor a. summer clouds with heat
lightning. John Bunyan's writings are
as full of humor as they are of saying
truth, and there is not an aged man
here who has ever read 'Pilgrim's
Progress" who does not remember
that while reading it he smiled
as often as he wept. ~Chrysostom,
George Herbert, Robert South. John
Wesley, George Whitefield. Jeremy
Rowland Hill, Nettleton, George G.
Finney and all the men of the past who
greatly advanced the kingdom of God
consecrated their wit and their humor
to the cause of Christ. So it has been
in all the ages. and l say to these young
theological students, who cluster in
these services Sabbath by Sabbath,
sharpen your wits as keen as scimiters
and then take them into this holy war.
1t is a very short bridge between a
smile and a 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 re-
ligion, and l think a little more. in a
spring morning than in a starless mid
night. Religious work without any
humor or wit in it is a banquet with a
side of beef, and that raw, and no con-
diments and no dessert succeeding.
People will not sit down at such a
banquet. BY all means remove all
frivolity and all pathos and ali light
ness and all vulgarity-strain them out
through the sieve of holy discrimina-
ton; but. on the other hand, be-
ware of the monster which over
shadows the Christian church to-
day, conventionally, coming up
from the great Sahara desert of &c
clesiasticism, having on its back a hump
of sanctimOniOus gloom and vehemently
refuse to swallow that camel.
o, 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
We're so careful to wash their hands be-
fore a meal. but did not wash their
hearts? 1t is a 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
anxious that after their death they shall
be buried with their 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 which
ever way they are buried. How many
there are chiefly anxious that a min
lister of the gospel shall come in the line
of apostolic succession, not caring SO
much whether he IN from Apostle
Paul or Apostle Judas. They have a
way of measuring a gnat until it is
larger than u camel.
Again: My subject photographs all
those who are abhorrent of small sins
while they are reckless in regard to
magnificent thefts. You will find many
a merchant who, while he is so careful
that he would not take a yard of cloth
or a spool of cotton from the counter
without paying for it, and who, if a bank
cashier should make a mistake and send
in a roll of bills S. too much, would dis
patch a messenger in hot haste to return
the surplus, yet who will go into a stock
company in which after a while he gets
control of the stock, and then waters
the stock and make 500, 900 appear like
$500, 900. He only stole 500, 900 by the
operation. Many of the men of fortune
made their wealth in this way. One of
those men, engaged in such unrighteous
acts. that evening, the evening of the
very day when he watered the stock,
will find n 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 tight
~ the poor fellow cannot say it was
thirst for knowledge that led him to the
dishonest act. but grip the collar tight
er, saying: Il have been looking for
you a long while; you stole my paper
four or five times, haven't You? you mis-
cradle wretch" And then the old stock
gambler, with a voice they can hear
three blocks, will cry out: Police, po-
lice,."
That same man, the evening of the
dav in which he watered the stock, will
kueel with his family in prayer and
thank God for the prosperity of the day,
then kiss his children good night with
an air which seems to say: Il hope you
will all grow to be as good as your
father Prisons for sins insectile in
size, but palaces for crimes dromedari-
an. No mercy for sins a~niInalcule in
proportion, but great leniency for mas
todon iniquity.
1t is time that we learn in America
that sin is not excasable in proportion
as it declares large dividends and has