The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1892-04-13
GNAT AND CAMEL.
We Strain Out the First and Swallow
the Latter.
To Steal Dollar Is the Gnat-To Steal
Thousands of Dollars Is the Camel
Sermon by Rev. I. Dewitt
Talmage, DID.

on the text. Matt xiii, "a: "Ye blind
guides. who strain at gnat and swal-
| low a camel"
A proverb in compact wisdom, knowl-
edge in chunks, library in sentence,
the electricity of many clouds dis
charged in one bolt, river put through
a mill-race. When Christ quotes the
proverb of the text He means to set
forth the ludicrous behavior of those
who make great buster about small
sins and have no appreciation of great
ones.
In nv text small insect and large
quadruped are brought into comparison
"a gnat and 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 a collection of reservoirs for
desert travel, an animal forbidden to
the Jews as food, and in many litera-
lures entitled "the ship of the desert"
The gnat spoken of in the text is in the
grub form. 1t is born in pool or pond,
after few weeks becomes chrysalis,
and then, after few days, becomes the
gnat as we recognize it. But the in
sect spoken of in the text is in its very
smallest shape, and it yet inhabits the
water, for my text is misprint, and
ought to read strain out gnat."
Ny text shows you the prince of in
consistencies. A man after long OBJ
servation has formed the suspicion that
in cup of water he is about to drink
there is a grub or the grandparent of a
gnat. He goes and gets sieve or a
strainer He takes the water and pours
it through the sieve in the broad light.
He says: 81 would rather do anything
almost than drink this water until this
larva be extirpated. This water is
brought under inquisition. The expert
hent is successful. The water PUSHES
through the sieve 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 out one day, and hungry, he de-
YOURS ''ship of the desert" the camel,
which the Jews were forbidden to eat.
The astronomer has no computations
of conscience. He suffers from no indi-
gestion. He puts the lower jaw under
the camel's forefoot, and his upper jaw
Dver the hump of the camel's back, and
the dromedary disappears forever. He
strained out gnat, he swallowed a
camel.
While Christ's audience were yet
smiling at the appositeness and wit of
His illustration-for smile they did in
church, unless they were too stupid to
understand the hyperbole-Christp rac-
tically said to them, THAT is you"
Punctilious about small things; reckless
about affairs of great magnitude. No
subject ever Writhed under a surgeons
knife more bitterly than did the Phar-
isees under Christ's scalpel of truth. AS
an anatomist will take human body
to pieces and put them under a micro
scope for examination, so Christ finds
His way to the heart of the dead Phar-
isee and cuts it out and puts it under
the glass of inspection for
Ill generations to examine. Those
Pharisees thought that Christ would
flatter them and compliment them, and
how they must have writhed under
the red-hot words as He said: "Ye fools,
We white sepulchers, We blind guides,
which strain out a gnat and swallow a
camel"
There are in our day great many
ynats strained out and great many
camels swallowed. and it is the object
of this sermon to sketch few persons
who are extensively engaged in that
business.
First, l 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 grand and solemn. There is no
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 denounce all those things
which have tendency to draw the cor
ners of the mouth up, and these men
will go to installations and presbyteries
and to conferences and to associations,
their pockets full of fine sleeves to strain
put the gnats. while in their own
churches at home every Sunday there
nre fifty people sound asleep. They
make their churches great dormitory,
and their somniferous sermons are a
cradle, and the drawled-out hymns a
lullaby, while some walleful soul in a
pew with her fan keeps the flies off I'M
conscious persons approximate. Now,
l say it is worse to sleep in church
than to smile in church, for the latter
implies at least attention, while the for
liner implies the indifference of the hear
crs and the stupidity of the speaker.
In old age, or from physical infrmity,
or from long watching with the sick,
,lrowsiness will sometimes overpower
one; but when minister of the Gospel
looks off upon an audience and finds
healthy and intelligent people strug-
CLING with drowsiness, it is time for
him to give out the doxology or pro-
nounce the bencdiction. The great
fault of church services to-day is not
too much vivacity, but too much SOM
Violence. The one is an irritating gnat
that may be easily strained out; the
other is great. sprawling and sleepy
eyed camel of the dry desert. In all
our Sabbath schools, in all our Bible
| clncSnS in all n,,r ,,n,lnitS ,rn nnnd 70