Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1892-03-31
At THE TABERNACLE.
DR.. TALMAoE SCORES HYPocRITES
AND DISHONEST TRADERS.

church Then as Now-Various Forms
of Inconsistency.
BROOKLYN. March 27.-The tendency to
Journalism in religion and to hypocritical
bretcnse in society received severe casti-
cation from the pulpit of the Brooklyn
Tabernacle this morning. DR.. Talmage
made vigorous onslaught upon it, basing
his remarks on the text, Matthew xiii, "a,
Eye blind guides, who strain at a gnat
and swallow camel"
A proveTb is compact wisdom, knowl-
edge in chunks, library in a sentence, the
electricity of many clouds discharged in
one bolt, a river put through millrace.
When Christ quotes the proverb Cf the
text he means to set forth the ludicrous
behavior Of those who make a great blus-
ter about small sins and have no apprecia-
ton OF great ones
In my text small insect and a large
quadruped are brought into comparison
a gnat and a camel You have in museum
or on the desert seen the latter, a great
awkward, sprawlng 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 mare literatures entitled 1.-The ship
of the desert" The gnat spoken of in the
text is in the grub form. 1t is born in
nool or non1. after few weeks becomes a
cbrysalis and then after a few DAYS be-
romes the cnat as we recognize it. But
the insect spoken of in the text is in it's
Yery smallest shape and it yet inhabits the
Eater-for my text is a misprint and ought
to read "strain out a gnat."
STREAMING OUT THE GNAT.
My text shows you the prince of incon-
sistencies A man after long observation
has formed the susnicion that in a cnn of
water he is about to drink there is a grub
or the rrandparent of a gnat. He goes
and oets q sieve mr. q strainer He takes
the water and nours IL through the sieve
in the broad light. He saws. II would
rather do ANYTHING almost than drink this
water until tbis lorva he evtirnotad ,,
This water ia brought under inouisition
1he exneriment is euccessfu1 The water
pushes tbrourb the siaveand leaves against
tbo eida of tLa sieva tbe or,,h ~, e,not
Then the man carefnIlv remoyas tbo j.,
scot and drinks tho wotnri in nIociditv PIT
Going ont one dav and HUNGRY he devonrs
a "ahin of the desert - the co,ne1 ,,bicb
the .Jews were forbidden to eat The Gas
trononer has no communications of con.
sriance He srfrors from M indio,as+ion
He nuts the lower law nnder tho came1,s
fprpfOpt and his rDDpr inv ovar ba b,,,,1
of tho cay,a1,s bacL and o;ves ono e,,-o1lo,,,
and the dronedarv disannears foreyor 10
strained ont n gnat. he Swallowed a car,al
While Cbristis audience were ye+ emil.
inc at tho annositenass and yrit Of bis ;ll,,s-
tretion--for smile thev did in cbnrch
unless they were too stnnid to nnderstond
the Observation-Disclosures nractical1v cold ~
them t"Tbat ;s Won y prncti1in,e oho,,t
email things. reck1ess about Affairs of
,,rs,+ r,ooni+,da No e,b;oo+ o,,o, tel
cred nnder n enroeon,s knifa ,,,ora hi++.rIr
tban did tho Pborisees nrdor Christ;s
sco1nel of truth
AZ ana+or1is+ will tol,a hoar-
70 ,,iacos and NUT Nav, ,,,,dor io,,,1e1I.,
for axamipation ca Chriet fnds b;s ,,,n,r e..
the heart of the dead pbprisee and c,,ts IL
ont and nuts it under the GLASS of inenec-
zion for alI conventions toeyauina THOSE
pbarisees Thought that Christ wonld fat
Ter them and commitment them and how
thew must have vrithed under the red hot
words as he said. aye fools. We wbited
sepulchers, We blind guides which strain
ont a pnat and swallow q carelr
There are in our dav n great rnanv o-nats
strained ont and n great MANY camels
swallowed and il is the object Of this Scr
mon to sketch n few persons who are en-
tensively engaged in thet business
FyTRFNEfy FoPNAI pnEACuFps
First. I remark that all those minister's
of the Gospel are PHOTOGRAPHED in the text
who are very sorunulons about the conven-
tiopalties of religion but mt no narticular
stress upon matters of vast irnnortance
Church services ought to be grave and
solemn. There is no room for frivolitv in
religious convocation. But there are illus
trations. and there are hyDerboles like that
of Christ in the text that will irradiate
with smiles apv intelligent auditory Tbnra
are men like those bland 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 n tendency 70 draw tho
corners of the mouth m and these men
will 90 To Installations and to nresbvteries
and to conferences and to associations
their pockets full of fine sleeves to strain
ont the rnats. while in their own churches
at home every Sunday there are fiftv neo-
nile sound asleen They make their
Churches a great dormitorv and their
sompiferous sermons are n cradle and the
drawled out HYMNS lullaby willie some