Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1892-04-08
REV. Or. TAlMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIvINE'S sun
DAY SERMON.
SUBJECT, "STRAINGNG AT GSATs AND
SWALLOWING CAMBELs."

tricity OF many clouds discharged in one bolt,
4 river put through millracn. 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
AMI have no appreciatOns OF great ones
In my text a small insect and large
quadruped are brought into comparisons
guat and a camel. You have in museum or
on the desert seen the latter, a great awll-
ward. sprawling creature, with back two
stories high and stomach having n collection
of reservoirs for desert travel, an animal
forbidden to the Jews as food, and in many
literstures entitled "the ship Of the desert"
The guat spoken of in the text is in the
grub form. 1t is born in pool or pond, after
few weeks becomes a chrysalis, and then
after few days becomes the gnat as
recognize it, But the insect spoken of in the
text is in its very smallest shape and yet it
inhabits the water-for my text is msprint
and ought to read strain out gnat."
My text shows you the prince of inconsis-
tenc.es. A man after long observation has
formed the suspicion that in a cup OF water
he Is about 10 drink there is a grub or the
grandparent OF n gnat. He goes and gets a
sieve or a strainer. He takes the water and
pourS 1t through the sieve in the broad Ii yht.
He says, 81 would rather do anything al.
most than drink this wafer until this larva
lie extirpRted." This water is brought I'M
der nquisitlon. The experiment is success.
full The water rushes through the sieve and
leaves against the side Of this 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, he devours
ship of the desert" the camel, which the
Jews were forbidden 10 eat. The Gastrono.
mer has no compunctions OF conscience He
suffers from no indigestion. He puts the
lower jaw under the clmcl's forefoot aud his
upper jaw over the hump OF the camels
back, aud gives ons swallow aud the drome-
Diary disappears forever. He strained out a
gnat, he swallowed a camel
While Christ's audience were yet 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; reck-
less about affairs of great magnitude. No
subject over withered under surgeons
knife more bitterly than did the Pharisees
, under ChriSt's scalpel Of truth.
AS an anatomist will take a human BODY
to pieces and put them under a microscope
for examination, 50 Christ finds His way 10
the heart OF the dead Pharlsee and cuts it
out and puts it under the glass OF inspec.
tlon for all generations to eIamine. Those
Pharisees thought that Christ would fat
ter them and compliment them, and how
they must have writhed under the red hot
words as He said. "Ye foo.s We whited
sepulchers, ye 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 10 be grave and
solemn. There is no room for frivolity in
religious convocation. But there are illus
| tratlons. and there are hyperboles like that
of Christ i'll the text that will irradiate with
smiles any intelligent auditory. There are
men like 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 q tendency to draw the corners of the
mouth up. and these men will 60 to installa-
tions and to presbyteries and TO conferences
and to associations, their pockets full of fine
sieves to strain out the gnats, while in their
own churches at home every Sunday there
are fifty people sound asleep. They make
their churches a great dormitory and their
somniferous sermons are a cradle, and the
drawled out hymns a lullaby, while some
wakeful soul in a pew with her fan keeps the
! flies Off unconscious persons approximate.
Now, l say it is worse to sleep in church than
to smile in church, for the latter implies at
least attention, while the former implies tho
indifference Of the hearers and the stupidity
| OF the speaker.
In old age, or from physical infrmity, or
from long watches with the sick, drowsiness
will sometimes overpower Que, but when a
minister OF the Gospel locks Off upon an
audience and finds healthy and intelligent
people struggling with drowsuess it Is time
Tor him TO give out the doxology or pro-
/ nounce the benedction. 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 bs 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 pits we need to brighten
up our religious message with such Christ
like vlvacity as we find in the text
l take down from my library the biog-
raphiss Of ministers and writers OF the past
ages, inspired and uninspired who have done
the most to bring souls to Jesus Christ, and
| l find that without single exception they
| consecrsted their wit and their humor to
Christ. Elijah used it when he advised the
Baalites, as they could not make their God
respond, telling them to call louder as their
god might be sound asleep or gone a hunt
| ing. Job used IL when he said to his self
| concoted comforterS, "Wisdom will die
with you" Christ not only used it in the
text, but when He ironically complimented
the putretied Pharisees, saying. THE whole
need not a physician" and when by one
word He described the cunning OF Hero1,
saying, go ye, and tell that fox"
Matthew Henry's Commentaries from the
| first page to the last coruscated with humor
as summer 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 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 Whitefield, jeremy
Taylor, Rowland Hill Nettleton, George e..
| Finney and all the men of the past who
greatly advanced the kingdom OF Col con.
secrated 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 clus.
ter in these services Sabbath by Sabbath,
sharpen your wits as keen as sclmiter5 and
and then take them into the holy war. 1t is
| very short bridge between u smile and q
tear, a suspension bridge from eye to lip
and 1t is soon crossed over, and smile /:
sometimes just as sacred as Il tear. There !:
as much religion, and think little more
in spring morning than in starless mid
night.
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 suci
banquet. BY all means remove all frivolity
and all pathos and all lightness and all vul
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
Eccesiasticism, having on its back humI
of sanctimonious gloom-and yehemently re
fuse to swallow that camel
Oh, how particular a great many peopl