Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1892-04-07
AT THE TABERNACLE.
DR.. TALMAGE SCORES HYPocRlTEs
AND DISHONEST TRADERS.

Christ Used Keen wit Against the Phari
Church Then as Now-yarious Form
of Inconsistency.
BROOKLYN. March 27-The tendency tt
Journalism in religion and to hypocritica
pretense in society received a severe casti
cation from the pulpit of the Brooklyn
Tabernacle this morning. DIR. Talmagt
made vigorous onslaught upon it, basinQ
his remarks on the text, Matthew xiii, "a
"Ye blind guides who strain at a gnat
and swallow camel"
A proverb is compact wisdom, knowl.
edge in chunks library in a sentence, the
electricity of many clouds discharged in
one bolt, a river put through millrace.
When Christ quotes the proverb of the
text he means to set forth the ludicrous
behavior of those who make a great blus-
ter about small sins and have no apprecia-
tion of great ones.
In my text SHALL insect and large
0uadruped are brought into comparison
gnat and camel. You have in museum
of on the desert seen the latter, great
awkward, sprawling creature, with back
two stories high and stomach having a
collection of reservoirs for desert travel
an animal forbidden to the Jews as food
and in many literatures 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 few weeks becomes
chrysalis and then after few days be
comes the gnat as we recognize it, But
the insect spoken of in the text is in its
very smallest shape and it yet nhabits the
water-for my text is a misprint and ought
70 read "strain out gnat"
STREAMING OUT THE GNAT.
My text shows you the prince of incon-
sistenciss. a man after long observation
has formed the suspicion that in cup OF
water he is about TO drink there is a grub
~ the grandparent of gnat. He goes
and gets sieve or a strainer. He takes
tie water and pours it through the sieve
IN the broad light. He says, II would
rather do anything almost than drink this
water until this larva be extirpated y
This water is brought under inquisition.
The experiment is successful. The water
rnshes through the sieve and leaves against
The side of the sieve the grub or gnat
Then the man carefully removes the in
sect and drinks the water in placidty But
going out one day and hungry, he devours
ship of the DESERT" the camel, which
the Jews were forbidden to eat. The gas
tronomer has no computations Of con
science. He suffers from no indigestion
He puts the lower jaw under the camels
forefoot and his upper jaw over the hump
OF the camel's back. and gives one swallow
and the lromedary disappears forever lie
strained out gnat, he swallowed camel
While Christ's audience were yet smil-
lug ut the appositcness and wit of his illus
traton-for smile they did in church,
unless they were too stupid to understand
the byperbole-Christ practically said to
them, THAT Is you" Punctilious about
small things: reckless about affairs Of
great magnitude No subject ever with
cred under surgeons knife more bitterly
than did the Pharisees under Christ's
scalpel of truth.
As an anatomst will take human body
20 pieces and put them under a microscope
for examination. 50 Christ finds his way to
the heart of the dead pharisee and cuts it
out and puts it under the glass of inspec-
tion for all generations to examine Those
Pharisees thought that Christ would fiat
Ter them and compliment them, and how
they must have Writhed under the rel hot
words as be said. "Ye fools, We whited
sepulchers, We blind guides which strain |
out gnat and swallow camcl.'
There are in our day great many gnats
strained out and a great many camels !
swallowed, and it is the object Of this ser
mon to sketch few per'ons who are ex |
tensively engaged in that business.
EXTREMELY FORMAL PREACHERS
First, | remark. that all those ministers !
Of the Gospel are photographed in the text |
who are very scrupulous about the conveii- |
tionalties 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
convOcation. But there are illus
trations, and there are hyperboles like that
OF Christ in the text that will irradiate
with smiles any intelligent auditory There
are men like those bland guides of the text
who advocate only those things in religious
service which draw the corners of the
mouth down, aud denounce all those things 4
which have n tendency to draw the
corners of the mouth up, and these men
viii go to installations and to presbyteries
and to conferences and to associations
their pockets full of fine sleeves to strain
out the gnats, w lie in their own churches
nj home every Sunday there are fifty peo
pie sound asleep. They make their
churches great dormitory, and their
sermons are cradle, and the
Irawled out hymns lullaby, while some
vakeful soul in pew with her fan keeps
The flies off unconscious persons approx
mate. Now, say it is worse to sleep in
church than to smile in church, for the
after implies at least attention, while the
former implies the indifference of the hear
FRS and the stupidity of the speaker.
In old age, or from physical iniirmity, or
rom long watching with the sick, drowsi-
ness will sometimes overpower one, but
when a minister Of the Gospel looks off
upon an audience aud finds healthy and in
elligent people struggling with drowsi-
ness it is time for him to give out the dox
,logy or pronounce the benediction. The
yreat fault of church services today is not
90 much vivacity, but too much SOM
iolence. The one is an irritating gnat that
nay be easily strained out; the other is
treat, sprawling and sleepy eyed camel OF
be dry desert In all our Sabbath schools
n all our Bible classes. in all our pulpits