Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1892-03-28

i DING OuI HIidb anu
swan7W camel"
t. Z are in our day a great many gnats
strained out and great many camels swal-
/ lowed, and it is the object of this sermon TO
sketch a few persons who are extensively
engaged in that business.
First, remarked that al those ministers
! of the gospel are photographed in the text
who are very scrupulons about the conTen-
! tionanties of religion, but put no particular
stress upon matters of vast importance.
/ Church services ought &c be grave and sol
emn. There is no room for friVolity in re-
ligious convocation. But there are illustra-
lions, and there are hyperboles like that of
! Christ in 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 serv-
ice 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 go to irst2lla-
| tiops and to presbyteries and to conferences
fine sleeves TO strain out the gnats, while in
| their own churches at home every Sunday
4 there are fifty people sound asleep.
| They make their churches great dormi-
tory, and their somniferous sermons are
| cradle, and the drawled-out hymns a lul-
! laby, while some wakeful soul in pew with
| her fan keeps the fes off uncons eious per-
sons 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 the Indifference of
the hearers and the stupidity of the
speaker. In old age, or from physical in
trinity, or from long watching with the
sick, drowsiness will sometimes oyerpower
one; but when a minister of the gospel
looks OF upon an audience and fluids healthy
and intelligent people struggling with
drowsiness, it is time for him TO give out
the doxology or pronounce the benediction.
The great fault of church services TO-DAY is
not too much vivacity, but too much SOM
Violence. The one is an irritating gnat that
may be easily strained out; the other is q,
great, sprawling and sleepy-eyed camel of
the dry desert In all our Sabbath schools.
in all our Bible classes, i'll all our pulpits
we need to brighten up our religious mes
sage with such Christ-like vivacity as we
find in the text
take down from my library the biog-
raphies of ministers and writers of past
ages, inspired and uninspired, who have
done the most to bring souls to Jesus Christ
and l find that without single exception
they consecrated their wit and their humor
to Christ. FL iiah used it when he ad-
vised 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-hunting. Job used it when he
said to his self-conceited comforters:
''Wisdom will die with you" Christ not
only used it in the text, but when he ironi-
cally complimented the purified Pharisees,
saying, ''The whole need not physician"
and when by one word he described the
coming of Herod, saying, $50, We, and tell
that fox.' Matthew Henry's Commenta-
ries from the first page to the last corus-
Gated with humor as summer clouds with
heat lightning. John Bunyan's writings are
as full of humor as they are of saving
ms
who has ever read Pilgrims 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 G. Finney, and all the men of the
past who greatly advanced 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 theologi-
cal students, who cluster in these services
Sabbath by Sabbath, sharpen your wits as
keen as scimitars, and then take them into
this holy war. 1t IS very short bridge be-
tween a smile and a tear, suspension
bridge from eye to lip,an it is soon crossed
over, and smile is sometimes just as
sacred as a tear There is as much religion,
and 1 think little more, in a spring morn
ing than in a starless midnight Religious
work without any humor or wit in it is a
and no condiments and no dessert succeed
ing. People will not sit down at such
banquet. By all means remove all frivolity
and all pathoS and all lightness and all vul-
garity-strain them out through the sieve
of holy discrimination; but, on the other
hand, beware of that monster which over
shadows the Christian church to-day, con-
ventionality, 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 people
are about the infinitesimals while they are
quite reckless about the magnitudes.
What did Christ say2 Did he not ex-
coriate the people in his time who were
so careful to wash their hands before a
meal but did not wash their hearts? 1t is
bad thing to have uEclean hands; it is a
worse thing to have an unclean heart.
How many people there are in our time who
are very anxious 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 Cos
pei shall come in the line of apostolic sue
cessiOn, not caring so much whether he |
comes from Apostle Paul or Apostle Judas. |
They have way of measuring gnat until |
ii is larger than camel
Again: My subject photographs all those |
who are abhorrent of small sins while they |
are reckless in regard to magnificent thefts. |
You will find many merchant who, while |
he so careful that he would not take a yard |
of cloth or a spool of cotton from the !
counter without paying for it, and who if |
bank cashier should make q mistake and |
send in a roll OF bills S. too much would |
dispatch messenger in hot haste to return |
the surplus, yet who will go into a stock |
company in which after a while he gets
control of the stock, and then waters the |
stock and make 100000 appear like S20O, 900. |
He only stole 100000 by the operation.
Many of the men of fortune made their !
wealth in that way. One of those men en-
gagged in such unrighteous acts, that even
ing, the evening of the very day when he
watered the stock, viii find wharf-rat
stealing an evening newspaper from the
basement doorway, and will go out and
catch the urchin by 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 tigher, saying.
Il have been looking for you for a long
- NlU IL