Connecticut western news., 1892-03-31


 die with you" Christ not only used 1t in the text, but when he ironically com plimented the putrefied Pharisees, say ing, "The whole need not physician" and when by one word he described the cunning of Herod, saying. "Go, ye, md tell that fox
 Matthew Henry's Commentaries from the first page to the last corus- cated with humor as summer clouds with heat lightning. John Bunyans writings are us full of humor us they are of saving truth. and there is not an aged man here who has ever read "Pilgrim's Progress" who does not remember that while reading it he smiled as often as he wept. Chrysostom, George Herbert, Robert South. John Wesley, George Whitefeld. Jeremy Taylor, Rowland Hill, Nettleton, George c. Finney al.a all the men of the past who greatly ad- vanced the kingdom of God consecrated their wit and their humor to the cause of Christ.
 So it 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 us scimiters and then take them into this holy war. It is a very short bridge be- tween smile and tear, n suspension bridge from eye to lip, and it is soon crossed over. and smile is sometimes just as sacred as a tear. There is us much religion. and think d little more, in a spring morning than in n 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 a 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 crimination: but on the other hand, be. ware of that monster which overshadows the Christian church today, convention ality, coming up from the Great Sahara desert of Ecclesiasticism, having on it's back a 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 say2 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. It is bad thing to have un- clean hands: it is a 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 a 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 UNRIeHTEoUs sPEcULAToR-
 Again: My subject photographs all those who are abhorrent of small sins while they are reckless in regard to mag. nificent 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 bank cashier should make mistake and send in a 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 $l00, ,000 appear like $2O0,000. He only stole $l00.000 by the operation. Many of the men of fortune made their wealth in that way.
 One of those men, engaged in such un- 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, "l have been looking for you long while you stole my paper four or five times, haven't youl you miserable wretch. | And then the old stock gambler, with a voice they can hear three blocks, will cry out, "Policel Policei"
 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, ''l hope you will all grow up to be as good us your fa- cs. la ,Y,c cfs but palaces for crimes dromedarian. No mercy for sins animalcule in proportion, | but great leniency for mastodon iniquity. It 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 Il man is | riding to perdition postilion ahead and | lackey behind. To steal dollar is a gnat: to steal many thousands of dollars is camel. There is many fruit dealer who would not consent to steal n 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- cantile 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 infamously 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- l tarr, rf for a ratfv theft will hnrulariZf