Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1892-03-31

Matthew Henry's Commentaries from
the first page to the last cor
uscated with humor as sum- Ter clouds
with heat lightning. John Bunyan's
writings are as full of humor as they
are of saving truth, and there is not
an aged man here who has ever read
Pilgrims Progress who does not re.
member that while reading it he smiled
as often as he wept. Chrysostom,
George Herbert, Robert South, John
Wesley, George Whitefield, Jeremy
Taylor, Rowland Hill, Nettleton.
George G. Finney, and all the men OF
the past who greatly advanced
the kingdom of God consecratea
their wit and their humor to the cauGc
of Christ. So it has been in all the
ages, and / say to these young theologi
cal students, who cluster in these serv-
ices Sabbath by Sabbath, sharpen your
wits as keen rs scimitars, and then take
them into this holy war 1t is very
short bridge between smile and q
tear, suspension bridge from eye t.
lip, and it is soon crossed over, and
smile is sometimes just as sacred as o
tear. There is as much religion, and
think little more, in spring morn
ing than in starless midnight Re-
ligious work without any humor
or wit in it is n banquet with
side of beef and that raw, and no con-
diments and no dessert succeeding.
People will not sit down at such a BAN
quet by all means remove all frivolity
and all bathos and all lightncss and
all vulgarity-strain them out through
the sieve of holy discrimination; but,
on the other hand, beware of that
monster which ovcrshadows the Chris
tan church to-day, conventionality,
coming up from the Great Sahara
Desert of Ecclesiasticism, having on
its back hump of sanctimonious
glooU-sES vsAemently refused to
swallow that camel.
Oh, how particular great many
people are about the intinitesimals
while they are quite reckless about the
magnitudes What did Christ say? Did
he not eXcoriate the people in his time
who were so careful To wash their
hands before meal, but did not wash
their hearts? 1t is bad thing to have
unclean hands; it is 4 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 easel 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 whichever way they are
buried. How many there are chiefly
anxious that a minister of the Gospel
shall come in the line of apostolic sue
ceSsion, not caring so much whether he
comes from Apostle Paul or Apostle
Judas. They have a way of measur-
ing gnat until it is larger than Il
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 a yard of cloth
or spool of cotton from the coun-
ter without paying for it, and who
if bank cashier should make mis-
take and send in n roll of bills five
dollars too much would dispatch a
messenger in hot haste to return
the surplus, yet who will go into a
stock company in which aftera while he
gets control of the stock add then wa
tiers the stock and make 500, 900 APP
pear like $500, 900. He only stole $780,
600 by the operation Many of the men
of fortune made their wealth in that
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 a wharf-rat
stealing an evening newspaper from
the basement doorway, and will go out
and catch the urchiu by the collar, and
twist the collar so tightly the poor fell
low cannot say that it was thirst for
knowledge that led him to the dishon-
est act, but grip the collar tighter and
tighter, saying, 81 have been look
ing 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: "Po-
lice, police" That same man, the even
ing of the day in which he watered the
stock, will kneel with his family in
prayer and thank God for the prosper
ity of the day, then kiss his children
goodnight 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. M mercy for
sins animalcule in proportion, but great
leniency for mastodon iniquity.
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