The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1892-04-01

1
Robert South, John Wesley, George
Whiteield, Jeremy Taylor, Rowland
Hill, Nettleton, George G. Finney and
all the men of the past who greatly ad-
yanced the kingdom of God consecrated
their wit and their humor to the cause
| of Christ.
So 1t has been in all the ages, and
say to these young theological students
who cluster in these services Sabbath by
Sabbath, sharpen your wits as keen as
scimiters and then take them into this
holy war. II is very short bridge be-
tween smile and tear, a suspension
bridge from eye to lip, and it is soon
crossed over, and smile is sometimes
just as sacred as tear. There is as
much religion, and think a little more,
in spring morning than in a starless
midnight.
Religious work without any humor or
wit in it is banquet with side of beef
and that raw, and no condiments and no
dessert succeeding. People will not sit
down at such banquet. By all means
remove all frivolity and all bathos and
all lightness and all vulgarity-strain
them out through the sieve of holy dis
elimination; but ON the other hand, be-
ware of that monster which overshadows
the Christian church today, convention
| atty, coming up from the Great Sahara
desert of Ecclesiasticism, having on its
back hump of sanctimonious gloom
and vehemently refuse to swallow that
camel.
Oh, how particular great many peo-
pie are about the intinitesimals while
they are quite reckless about the magni-
tudes. What did Christ say? Did he
not excoriate the people in his time who
were so careful to wash their hands be-
fore a meal, but did not wash their
hearts. 1t is a bad thing to have I'M
clean hands; it is d worse thing to have
an unclean heart. How many people
there are in our time who are very anx-
ious 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 so that they shall come up in
the resurrection Of the just whichever
way they are buried. How many there
are chiefly anxious that minister of the
Gospel shall come in the line of apostolic
succession, not caring so much whether
he comes from Apostle Paul or Apostle
Judas They have way of measuring
a gnat until it is larger than a camel.
THE UNRIGHTEOUS sPEoULAToR.
Again: My subject photographs all
those who are abhorrent of small sins
while they are reckless in regard to mag
nifcent thefts. You will find many
merchant who, while he is so careful
that he would not take yard of cloth
or spool of cotton from the counter
without paying for it, and who if bank
cashier should make mistake and send
in roll of bills five dollars too much
would dispatch messenger in hot haste
to return the surplus, yet who will go
into stock company in which after
awhile he gets control of the stock, and
then waters the stock and makes 800, 900
appear like 100000. He only stole
100000 by the operation. Many Of the
men of fortune made their wealth in
that way.
One of those men, engaged in such I'M
righteous acts, that evening, the evening
of the very day when he watered the
stock, will find wharf rat stealing an
evening newspaper from the basement
doorway, and will go out and catch the
urchin by the collar, and twist the collar
so tightly the poor fellow cannot say
that it was thirst for knowledge that led
him to the dishonest act, but grip the
collar tighter and tighter, saying, 81
have been looking for you long while;
you stole my paper four or five times,
haven't you? you miserable wretch"
And then the old stock gambler, with a
voice they can hear three blocks, will
cry out, Police! Police!"
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 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 IA
Their" Prisons for sins insectile in size,
but palaces for crimes dromedarian. No
uCiCy lOl olllo plOpOI
but great leniency for mastodon iniquity.
1t is time that we learn in America
that sin is not excusable in proportion
as it declares large dividends and has
outriders in equipage. Many man is
riding to perdition position ahead and
lackey behind. To steal dollar is
gnat; to steal many thousands of dollars
is 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 re-
member we have heard every summer
The peach crop Of Maryland is failure,
and by the time the crop comes in the
Misrepresentation makes difference of
millions of dollars. A man who would
not steal one peach basket steals fifty
thousand peach baskets.
Any summer go down into the Mer-
camille 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, method
ically and UNANIMOUSLY carrying out the
huge lying about the grain crop from
year to year and for score of years.
After awhile there is Corner in the
wheat market, and men who had con-
tempt 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 re-
formatory institutions 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 awhile
to swallow. Society has to be entirely
reconstructed on this subject. We are
to find that sin is inexcusable in pro-
portion as it i reat
THE WORLDS SHEER AT A FALLEN CHRIS
TIAN.
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 church. or
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