The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1892-03-30

men who had contempt for petty |
theft will burglarize the wheat bin OF
nation and commit larceny upon the
American corncrib. And men will sit
in churches and in reformatory institu-
tions trying to strain out the small
gnats of scoundrelism, while in their
grain elevators and in their storehouses
they are fattening huge camels which
they expect after while to swallow.
Society has to be entirely reconstructed
on this subject. We are to find that a
sin is inexcusable in proportion as 1t is
great.
know in our time the tendency is to
charge religious frauds upon good men.
They say, 80, what n class of frauds
you have in the church of God in this
day." and when an elder of n church, or
q deacon, or a minister of the gospel, or
n superintendent of Sabbath-school
turns out defaulter, what display
heads there are in many of the news
papers. Great primer type. Five-line
plea. Another Saint Absconded,"
"Clerical Scoundrelism," Religion at
a Discount" "Shame on the Churches"
while there are a thousand scoun-
drels outside the church to where
there is one inside the church,
and the misbehavior of those who never
see the inside of church is so great 1t
is enough to tempt q man to become
Christian to get out of their company.
But in all circles, religious and irrei-
gious, the tendency is to excuse sin in
proportion as it is mammoth. Even John
Milton in his Paradise Lost, while he
condemns Satan, gives such 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 gallery
in which thousands Of people may see
their lilSenesses. For instance, all those
people who, while they would not rob
their neighbor of a farthing, appropri-
ate the money, and the treasure OF the
public. A man has house to sell, and
he tells his customer it is worth $4,000.
Next day the assessor comes around
and the owner says 1t is worth $4,000.
The government Of the United States
took off the tax from personal in
come, among other reasons because so
few people would tell the truth, and
many a man with an income of hum
dreds of dollars day made statements
which seemed to imply he was about to
be handed over to the overseer OF the
poor. Careful to pay their passage from
Liverpool to New York, yet smuggling
In their Saratoga trunk ten silk dresses
from Paris, and half dozen watches
from Geneva, Switzerland, telling the
custom-house officer On the wharf,
"There is nothing in that trunk but
wearing apparel" and putting a five
dollar gold piece in his haud to punctu
ate the statement
Described in the text are all thost
who are particular never TO break the
law Of grammar, and who want al
their language an elegant specimen O
syntax. straining out all the inaccur
acies of speech with fine sieve of liter
ary criticism, while through their con
versation go slandcr and innuendo ant
profanity and falsehood larger than |
whole caravan OF camels, when the,
might better fracture every law of tn
language and shock their intellectual
taste, and better let every verb seek II
vain for its nominativc, and every nouI
for its government, and every PROPOSE
ton lose its way in the sentence, ant
adjectiyes and participles and pronoun
get into grand riot worthy Of tn
Fourth ward on election day than b
commit moral .inaccuracy. Bette
swallow thousand gnats than on
camel.
Such persons nre also described In tn
text who are very much alarmed abou
the small faults OF others, and have n
alarm about their own great transgres
sions. There ere in every communit
and in every church watchdpgs VIII
feel called upon 10 keep their eyes o.
Others and growl. They nI'c full Of suf
picions. They wonder II TINT man
not dishonest. II that man Is not ur
clean, II there Is not something wron
about the other man. They are alwsy
the first 10 hear OF anything wrong
Vultures are always the first to smel
carrion. They are self-appointed detect
ives. lay this down asa rule without an
exception, that those people who have th
most faults themselves arc most mere
less in their watching of others. Fror
scalp Of head to sole OF foot they are fu
Of jealousies and hypercritisisms The
. spend their life in hunting for musl
rats and mud turtles instead of huntin
for Rocky Mountain eagles, always fc
something mean instead Of somcthin
grand. They look at their neighbor
Imperfections through microscope, IN
look at their own imperfections throug
a telescrope upside down. Twent
faults of their own do not hurt thel
half 80 much as one fault OF someb9d
else. Their neighbors' inperfectior
! are like gnats, and they strain thel
, out: their own imperfections are In
camels, and they swallow them.
But lest any might think they oscar
1 the scrutiny Of the text, have to te
you that we all come under the divir
, satire when we make the questions I
1 time more prominent than the question
5 OF eternity, Come now, let us all 9
q into the confessional. Are not a
tempted to make the question, Whel
. shall live now? greater than the que
5 ton, Where shall live forever? Ho
r shall get more dollars hers9 great
+ than the question, How shall