Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1892-04-07

! NitSo COotlS IL IlOO UOO 1llttCll FlNttClty,
but too much somnolence. 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
classes, in all our pulpits we need to
brighten up our reli gious message
with such Christ-like vivacity as we
find in the text.
1t is q very short bridge between O.
smile and q tear, q suspension bridge
| from eye to lip. and it is soon crossed
over, and q smile is sometimes Just
as sacred as a tear. There is as much
religion, and think q little more, in
a spring morning than in q starless
midnight. Religious work without any
humor or wit in it is q banquet with
a side OF beef, and that raw, and no
condiments and no desert 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 discrimi-
nation: but. on the other hand, be-
ware OF that monster which over
shadows the Christian Church to-day,
conventionality, coming up from the
Great Sahara Desert OF Ecclesiastic-
ism, having on it's back a hump of
sanctimonious gloom, and vehement
ly refuse to swallow that 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 q bank cashier should make a
mistake and send in a roll OF bills So
too much would dispatch a messenger
in hot haste to return the surplus,
yet to 90 into stock company in which
after awhile he gets control OF the
stock, and then waters the stock and
makes $4,000 appearlike 5000, 600.
He only stole 100000 by the opera
| ton. Many men offortune made their
wealth in that way. One of those
men, engaged in such unrighteous acts
! that evening, the evening OF the very
| find q wharl-rat stealing an evening
newspaper from the basement door
| way, and will 90 out and catch the
urchin by the collar, and will twist the
| collar so tightly that the poor fellow
cannot say that it WAS thirst for
knowledge that led him to the dis
honest act, but grip the collar tighter
and tighter, saying, "Ihave been look
ing for you a long while; you stole my
paper four or five times, haven't you?
you miserable wretch" And then the
old stock gambler, with IL voice they
can hear three blocks, will cry out:
"Police, polce!" That same man, the
evening OF the day in which he watered
the stock, will kneel with his family in
prayer and thank God for the pros
perity OF the day, then kiss his chill
d"en good night with an air which
seems to say, 81 hope you will all grow
up to be as good as your father!"
Prisons for sins insectile in size, but
palaces for crimes dromedarian. No
mercy for sins animalcule in proper
ton, but great leniency for mastodon
iniquity.
1t IS time that we learn in America
that sin is not eXcusable in proper
ton as it declares large dividends and
has outriders in equipage. Many a
man is riding to perdition position
ahead and hackney behind. TO steal
a dollar is q gnat; to steal many
thousands Of dollars is camel. There
is many a fruit dealer who would not
consent to steal basket OF peaches
from a neighbours stall, but who would
not scruple to depress the fruit mar
ct; and as long as | can remember we
have heard every summer the peach
crop OF Maryland is a failure, and by
the time the crop comes in the mis-
representation makes u difference OF
millions of dollars. A man who would
not steal one peach basket steals fifty,
thousand peach baskets. Any sum-
mer 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 phraseology is very much the
same, and the same men wrote them.
METHODICALLY AND UNANIMOUSLY
carrying out the huge lying about the
grain crop from year to year and for
score OF years. After a while there
is a corner" in the wheat market,
and men who had q contempt for a
petty theft will burglarize the wheat
bin OF q nation and commit larceny
upon the American corn crib. And
men will sit in churches and in reform
atory institutions trying to strain out
small gnats OF scoundrelism, while in
their grain elevators and in their store
houses they are tattening huge camels
which they expect after awhile to
swallow. Society has to be entirely
reconstructed on this subject. We are
to find that sin is inexcusable in
proportion as it is great.
] know in our time the tendency is
to charge religious frauds upon good
men. They say. "Oh, what class
of frauds you have in the Church of
God in this day." and when an elder
OF a church, or deacon, or a minis
ter of the Gospel, or a superintend-
ent OF a Sabbath school turns out a
defaulter, what display heads there
are in many of the newspapers. Great
primer type. Five-line plea. can
I