The Princeton union., 1892-04-07
THE WIT OF CHRIST.
Rev. Talmage Discusses It in the
Great Brooklyn Tabernacle,
at Length.
Ministers Who Make a Dormitory Of
Their Sanctlaries Had Better Quit
The Business Of Preaching.

1llS AnAOunCement:
Il am happy to say that as a
church, after the exhaustive work of
building three immense churches, two
OF them having been destroyed by fire
"a burden never before put upon the
back OF any congregation-we are now
financially in smooth waters. Arrange
ments have been made by which our
pecuniary difficulties are fully adjust
ed. Our income exceeds our outgo,
and this church will be yours and your
children's hereafter.
"When I came to Brooklyn, came
to small church with q big indebted
ness. We now worship in this, the
largest Protestant church in America,
and financially, as q congregation, we
are worth over and beyond all indebt-
edness, considerably more than 81 So
900. ask you to rise, and led by the
cornet and organ; to join in singing
praise God From Whom All BLESSINGS
Flow"
THE SERMON.
The tendency to Journalism in religion
and to hypocritical pretence in society
received a severe castigation from the
pulpit of the Brooklyn Taber-
nacle. DR.. Talmage made
vigorous onslaught upon it, basing
his remarks on the text, Matt. XIII,
"a: eye blind guides, who strain at
gnat and swallow a camel"
A proverb is compact wisdom,
knowledge in chunks, a library in a
sentence, the electricity ofmany clouds
discharge in one bolt, a river put
through mill race. When Christ,
quotes the proverb of the text, he
means to set forth the Fudicrous be-
havior of those who made a great
bluster about small sins and have no
appreciation of great ones.
My text shows you the prince of in
consistencies. A man after a long
observation, has formed the suspicion
that in the cup of water he is about
to drink, there is grub OF the grand
parent OF q gnat. He goes and gets a
sieve or strainer. He takes the
water and pours it through the sieve
in the broad light. Hesays, II would
rather do anything almost than drink
this.water until this larva be extirpat-
ed" This water is brought under
inquisition. The experiment is sue
cessful. The water rushes through
the sieve and leaves against
the side of the sieve the
grub or gnat. Then the man careful
ly removes the insect and drinks the
water in placidity. But going out one
day, and hungry, he devours a .tship
OF the desert" the camel, which the
Jews were forbidden to eat. The
gastronomer has no compunctions OF
conscience. He suffers from no indi-
gestion. He puts the lower jaw under
the camels fore foot, and his upper
jaw over the hump OF the camel's
back, and gives one swallow and the
dromedary disappears forever. He
strained out q gnat, he swallowed q
camel.
While Christ's audience were vet
smiling at the appositeness 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,
reckless about affairs of great magni-
tude. No subject ever withered under
a surgeons knife more bitterly than
did the Pharisees under Christ's
SCALPEL OF TRUTH.
AS an anatomist will take q human
body to pieces and put them under q
microscope for examination, so Christ
finds his way to the heart of the dead
Pharisee and cuts it out and puts it
under the glass OF inspection for all
generations to examine.
There are in our day q great many
gnats strained out and @ great many
camels swallowed: and it is the object
of this sermon to sketch few persons
who are extensively engaged in that
business.
First, remark, that all those min
listers OF the gospel are photographed
in the text who are very scrupulous
about the econventionalities ofreligion,
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 re-
igious convocation. But there are
illustrations and there are hyperboles
like that OF Christ 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 service 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 IN
stallations and to presby teries and
to conferences and to associations,