Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1892-04-02
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
The Eminent Brooklyn Divines Sun.
day Sermon.
Subject: "straining at Gnats and Swallow
ing Cancels"

Subject: "straining at Gnats and Swallow
ing Cancels"
TEXT: "Ye blind guides, tulio strait, at q
gaat, and stodttow a camel. Matthew
xiii. "a.
A proverb is compact wisdom, knowledge
in chunks, a library In sentence, the cleo.
tricity of many clouds discharged In one bolt,
a river put through a millrace. When Christ
quotes the proverb of the text He means to
set forth the ludicrous behavior of those
who make great bluster about small sins
and haveno appropriations of great ones.
In my text small insect and large
quadruped are brought into comparison
gnat and a camel. You have in museum or
on the desert seen the latter, a great awk-
ward, sprawliug creature, with back two
stories high and stomach having collection
of reservoirs for desert travel an animal
FORBIDDEN to the Jews as food, and in many
hteratures entitled 1.-THE ship of the desert"
The gnat spoken of in the text is in the
grub form. 1t is born in pool or pond, after
a few weeks becomes chrysalis, and then
after few days becomes the gnat as we
recognize it, But the insect spoken of in the
texts in its very smallest shape, and yet it
inhabits the water-for my text is msprint
and ought to read strain out gnatn
My text shows you the prince of inconsis.
tencies. A man after long observation has
formed the suspicion that in cup of water
he is about to drink there is grub or the
grandparent of gnat. He goes and gets a
sieve or strainer.- He takes the water and
pours it through the sieve in the broad Ii xht.
He says II would rather do anything al
most than drink this water until this larva
be exdrpated." This water is brought IN
der lnqulsitlon. The experiment is success.
full. The water rushes through the sieve and
leaves against the side of the sieve the grub
or gnat
Then the man carefully removes the insect
and drinks the water in placidity. But go.
ing out one day and hungry, hs devours a
ship of the desert" the camel, which the
Jews were forbidden to eat. The gastrono-
mer has no computations of conscience He
suffers from no indigestion. He puts the
lower jaw under the came's forefoot and his
upper jaw over the hump of the camel's
back, and gives one swallow and the droms-
dairy disappears forever. He strained out a
gnat, he swallowed camel.
While Christs audience were vet smiling
at the oppositeness and wit of His illustration
for smile they did in church, unless they
were too stupid to understand the hyperbole
Christ practically said to them. THAT is
you" Punctilious about small things; rec1-
less about affairs OF great magnitude No
subject over withered under a surgeons
knife more bitterly than did the Pharisees
under Christs scalpel of truth.
As an anatomisb will take human boly
to pieces and put them under a microscope
for examination, so Christ finds His way to
the heart of the dead Pharisea and cuts it
out and puts it under the glass of inspec.
ton for all generations to examine Those
Pharisees thought that Cnrist would fat
ter them and compliment them, and how
fhnV mnSt hq a haA 1ot. hAE
words as He said, "Ye fools, We whited
sepulchers, We blind guides which strain
out gnat and swallow a camel"
There are in our day great many gnats
strained out and great many camels
swallowed, and it is the object OF this SER
mon to sketch few persons who are ex-
tensively engaged in that business.
First remark, that all those ministers
of the Gospel are photographed in the text
who are very scrupulous about the conven-
tionalities of religion. but put no particular
stress upon matters of vast Importance
Church services ought to be grave and
solemn. There is no room for frivolity in
religious convocation. But there are Illus
trations, and there ara hyperboles like that
of Christ in the text that will irradiate with
smiles any intelligent auditory. There are
men Ike those blind guides of the text who
advocate only those things in religious SER
vice which draw the corners Of the mouth
down, and denounce all those things which
have tendency to draw the corners of the
mouth up. and these men will go to installa-
tons and to presbyteries and to conferences
and to associations their pockets full of fine
sleeves to strain out the gnats, while in their
own churches at home every Sunday there
are fifty people sound asleep. They make
their churches great dormitory, AMI their
somniferous sermons are a cradle and the
drawied out hymns lullaby, while some
wakefnl soul in pew with her fan keeps the
flies off unconscious persons approximate.
Now, say it is worse to sleep in church than
to smile in church, for the latter implies at
least attention, while the former implies the
indifference of the hearers and the stupidity
of the speaker.
In old age, or from physical inirmity, OF
from long watches with the sick, drowsiness
will sometimes overpower one, but when a
minister of the Gospel locks off upon an
audience and finds healthy aud intelligent
people struggling with drowsiness it is time
for him TO give ont the doxology or pro-
nouIce the benediction. The great fault OF
church services to-day is not too much viva
city but too much somnolence. The one is
an irritating gnat that may be easily
strained out; the other is a 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 neei to brighten
up our religious message with suc1 Christ
like vivacity as we find in the text
l take down from my library the biog
rapnles OF ministers and writers of the past
ages, inspired and uninspire1, who have done
the most to bring souls to Jesus Christ, aud
lind that without a single exception they
consecrated their wit and their humor to
Christ. liiah used it when he advised the
Baalltes, as they could not make their God
respond, telling them to call louder as their
god might be sound asleep or gone hunt
ing. Job used 1t when he said to his self
conceited comforters, "Wisdom will die
with you Christ not only used it in the
text, but when He ironically complimented
the putrefied Pharlsees, saying, ''The whole
need not physician" and when by one
word He described toe cunning of Herod,
saying, Go ye, and tell that fox"
Matthew Henry's Commentaries from the
first page to the last coruscated with humoT
as summer clouds with heat lightning. Johu
Bunyan's writings are as full of humor az
they are OF saving truth, and there is not an
aged man here who has ever read "Pilgrim'S
Progress" who does notremember 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 con
secrated their wit and their humor to tht
cause of Christ.
So it has been in all the ages, and say to
these young theological students, who clus
ter in these services Sabbath by Sabbath
sharpen your wits as keen as scimiters anl
and then take them into the holy war. 1t i
very short bridge between smile and
tear, suspension bridge from eye to lip
ip aY,tT In
sometimes just as sacred as tear. There il
as much religion, aud l think little more
in spring morning than in starless mid
night.
Religious work without any humor or wi
in it is banquet with side OF beef, an
that raw, and no condiments and no desser
succeeding. People will not sit down at sue
a banquet. By all means remove all frivolit
and ali pathos and all GghJness and all WI
garity-strain them out through the sieve o
holy discrimination; but, on the other hand
beware OF that monster. which overshadow
the Christian church to-day, conventionally
coming up from the Great Sahara Desert o
Ecclesiasticism, having on its back a hum
of sanctimonious gloom-and vehemently re
fuse to swallow that camel.
On, how particular q great many peopl
are about the ininitesimals while they ar
quite reckless about the magnitudes. VIVA
did Christ say? Did He not excoriate Tia,
people in His time who were so careful t.
wash their hands before a meal, but did no
wash their hearts? 1t is a bad thing to hav;
unclean hands; it is a worse thing to hevt
an unclean heart. How many people ther,
are i'll our time who are very anxious tina
after their death they shall be buried will
their feet toward the east, and not at al
anxious that during their whole life they
should face in the right direction SO tina
they shall come up in the resurrection of the
just whichever way they are buried. How
many there are chiefly anxious that a min
lister OF the Gospel shall come in the line OF
apostolic succession, not caring so much
whether he comes from AnostIa Paul O.