The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1892-04-08

| UO sc dLu ucAt OiidJ ION. MaIIHeN
Henry's commentaries from the first
page to the last coruscated with
humor as 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 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 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 I 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 tear. There is as much re-
ligiOn. and | think little more, in a
spring morning than in starless mid
night. Religions work without any
humor or wit in it is 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 all 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 hump
of sanctimonious gloom and vehemently
refuse to swallow that camel.
o, how particular a great many peo-
pie are about the ininitesimals. 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 meal, but did not wash their
hearts? 1t is bad thing to have I'M
clean hands; it is 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 comes from Apostle
Paul or Apostle Judas. They have
way of measuring a gnat until it is
larger than a 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 yard of cloth
or a spool of cotton from the counter
without paying for it, and who, if bank
cashier should make 4 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 stock
company in which after while he gets
control of the stock. and then waters
the stock and make 100000 appear like
$500, 900. He only stole Sl00.0 900 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 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
ly 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 voice they can hear
three blocks, Will cry out: Police, po-
lice"
That same man, the evening of the
day in which he watered the stock. will
l1neel 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 animalcule in
but great leniency for mas
todon iniquity.
1t is time that we learn in America
that sin is not eXcusa5le in proportion
as it declares large dividends and has
outriders in equipage. Many man is
riding to perdition position ahead and
lackey behind. To steal dollar is
gnat; to steal many thousand dollars is
a camel. There is many fruit dealer
who would not consent to steal basket
of peaches from neighbours stall, but
who would not scruple to depress the
fruit market; and as long as l can re-
we have heard every summer
the peach crop of Maryland is failure,
and by the time the crop comes in the
makes a difference
of millions of dollars. A man who
would not steal one peach basket steals |
fifty thousand peach baskets Any
summer go down into the mercantile |
library, in the reading rooms, and see
the newspaper reports OF the crops from
all parts of the country, and their |
is very much the same, and
the same men wrote them. methodically |
and infanously carrying out the huge |
lying about the grain crop from year
to year and for score of years. After |
a while there IS corner" in the wheat |
market. and men who had a contempt |
for a petty theft will burglarize the |
wheat bin of a nation and commit lar
cenY upon the American corn crib. And |