The morning news., 1892-03-28


spring morning than in starless midnight.
Religious work without any humor or wit
in it is a banquet with a side OF beef, and
that raw, aud no condiments and no des-
sert 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-straln them out
through the sieve Of holy discrimination
but, on the other hand. beware Of that
monster which overshadows the Christian
church to-day, conventionality, coming up
from the Great Sahara desert Of ecclesias-
ticism, having on its back hump of sancti-
monious gloom-and vehemently refuse TO
swallow that camel.
o, how particular a great many people
are about the infinitesimals while they are
quite reckless about the multitudes. What
did Christ say Did he not excoriate the
people In his time who we're 80 careful 20
wash their hands before O meal but did not
wash their heartsl Ii is e bad thing 10 have
unclean hands; 1t 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 30 that
they shall come up in the resurrection OF the
just whichever 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 50 much
whether he comes from Apostle Paul or
Apostle Judas. They have a way of meas
uring gnat until 10 is larger than a camel.
Again: My subject photographs all those
who are abhorrent of small sins while tley
are reckless in regard to magnificent thetts-
You will fnd 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 II
A.r. ,.aH,. b . Ia a
send in roll of bills five dollars too much
would dispatch messenger In hot haste TO
return the surplus, yet who will go into a
stock company in which after q while he
gets control of the stock and then waters
the stock and make one hundred thousand
dollars appear like two hundred thousand
dollars. He only stole one hundred thou
sand dollars by the operation. Many OF the
men Of fortune made their wealth in that
way. One OF these men, engaged in such
nnrighteous acts, that evening. the evening
of the very day he watered the stock. will
hnd a wharf rat stealing an evening
newspaper from the basement doorway,
and will 60 out and catch the urchin by
the collar, aud twiAt the collar so tightly
the poor fellow cannot say that 1t was thirst
for knowledge that led him to the dishonest
act, but grip the collar tighter and tighter,
saying, Il have been looking for you long
while; you stole my paper four or five
GlIOot, uhN6D your you mla6r6Dlo WTeLCQ.
And then the old stock gambler, with
voice they can hear three blocks, will cry
out: police, policol" That same man,
she evening of the dav in which he watered
the stock, will kneel with bis 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, II hope
you will all grow up TO be as good as your
fatherm Prisons for sins insectile in size,
but palaces for crimes dromedarian. No
mercy for sins antmalcule IN proportion,
but great leniency for mastodon iniquity.
It Is time that we learn In America that
sin is not excusable in proportion as 10 de-
clares large dividends and has outriders in
equipage. Many a man iB riding to peIdi-
tiOn position ahead and lacKey behind. To
steal a dollar Is a gnat; to steal many thou
sands Of 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 / can remem>
ber We have heard every summer the peach
crop OF Maryland is a failure, and by the
time crop comes in the Misrepresentation
makes a difference of millions of dollars.
A man who would not steal one
peach basket steals fifty thousand
peach baskets. Any summer 90 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 phraseology ls very
much the same. and the same men wrote
them, methodically and infamously carry
ing out the huge lying about the grain crop
from year to year and for a score of years.
After while there is corner" in the
wheat market. and men who had contempt
for petty theft will burglarize the wheat
bin OF a nation and commit larceny upon
the American corn crib. And men will sit
in churches and in reformatory institutions
trying to strain out the small gnats of
scoundrelism, while in their grain elevators
and in their store houses they are fattening
huge camels which they expect after a while
TO swallow. Society has to be entirely re-
constructed on this subject We are 70 find
that sin is inexcusable in proportion as it
il great
know IN our time the tendency is 20
charge religious frauds upon good men.
They say: 20, what a class of frauds YOU
have in the church of God in this day" and
when an elder Of a church, or a deacon, or q
minister Of the gospel. or superintendent of
o Sabbath school turns out adefaulter, what
display heads are in many Of the news
papers. Great primer type. Five line plea.
"Another Saint Absconded," Clerical
Scoundrelism, I" Religion at a Discount ~
''Shame on the Churches while there are
. thousand scoundrels outside the church to
where there 10 one inside the church, aud
knc tuleDeuAFlOf OF LnOee VINO never see the
Inside OF church is SO great it is enough to
tempt a man to become a Christian to get
out OF their company. But in all circles, re-
lgtous and irreligious, the tendency is to
excuse sin in proportion as it is mammoth
Even John Milton in Paradise Lost while
he condemns Satan, gives such a grand de-
scription OF him, you have hard work to
suppress your admiration. o, this strain
ing out OF small sins like gnats, and this
gulping down great iniquities like camels.
This subject does not give the picture Of
one or two persons, but is a gallery In which
thousands OF people may see their likenesses.
For instance, all those people who, while
they would not rob their neighbors of a
farthing, appropriate the money and the
treasure OF the public. A man has a house
90 sell. and he tells his customer it is worth
twenty thousand dollars. Next day the as
eessor comes around and the owner says it il
worth fifteen thousand dollars The gov
ernment of the United States took Off the
tax from personal income, among other rea-
sons because so few people would tell the
rutn, and many a man with an income
ct hundreds OF dollars day made state
ments which seemed TO imply he was about
10 be handed over to the overseer of the
poor. Careful to pay their passage from
Liverpool to New York, yet smuggling in
tfeir Saratoga trunk ten silk dresses from
Paris and half dozen watches from Ge-
neva, Switzerland, telling the custom house
ofi1cer on the wharf, There is nothing in
that trunk but wearing apparel :" and put