Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1892-04-08

caravan of camels, wnen they might better
fracture every law of the language and
shock their intellectual taste, and better let
verb seek in vain for its nominative, and
every noun for its government, and every
proposition lose its way in the sentence, AMI
adjectives and participles and pronouns get
into a grand riot worthy Of the Fourth ward
on election day, then TO commit moral in-
accuracy. Better swallow thousand gnats
than one camel.
Such persons are also described in the
text who are very much alarmed about
the small faults OF others and have no
alarm about their own great tranSgres-
sions- There are in every community and
in every church watchdogs who feel called
upon to keep their eyes on others anG
growl. They are full Of suspicious. They
wonder If that man is not dishonest, II tna6
man is not unclean,lt there Is not something
wrong about the other man. 1hey are al
ways the first to hear OF anything wrong.
VulUures are always the first TO smeu car
rion They are self appointed detectives.
lay this down as a rule without any excep-
tian-that those people who have the most
faults themselves are most merclless In tneLr
watching of others. From scalp of head to
sole of foot they are full of jealousles ana
hypercrlticisms.
they spend their life in hunting for musk
rats and mud turtles instead of hunting Tor
Rocky Mountain eagles; always for some
thing mean instead of something grand.
They look at their neighbors' lmperfectlons
through microscope, and look at their own
imperfections through a telescope upside
down. Twenty faults of their own do not
hurt them half so much as one fault of some
body else. Their neighbours imperfections
are like gnats, and they strain them out:
their own imoerfections are like camels, and
they swalloTSthem.
But lest any might think they escape the
scrutiny of the text, have to tell you we
all come under the divine satire when we
make the questions of time more prominent
than the questions Of eternity. Come now,
let US all go into the confessional. Are not
all tempted to make the question, Where
shall L live now? greater than the
question, Where shall [ live forever?
How shall | get more dollars here? greater
than the question, How shall I lay
up treasures IN heaven? the question: How
shall pay my debts to man? greater than
the question. How shall / meet my obliga-
tions to God? the question, How shall |
gain the world? greater than the question,
What if [ lose my soul? the question, Why
did God let sin come into the world? greater
than the question, How shall | get it ex-
tirpated from my nature? the question,
w hat shall do with the twenty or forty
or seventy years OF my sublunar existence?
greater that the question, What snail [ do
with the millions of cycles OF my post
terrestrial existence? Time, how small it is!
Eternity, how vast it is! The former more
insignificant IN COMPARISON with the latter
than gnat is insignificant when compared
with camel. We lodged the text. We
said, "That doesn't mean me, aud that
doesn't mean me-" and with ruinous be-
nevolence we are giving the whole sermon
away.
But let US all surrender to the charge
What an ado about things here. What
poor preparation for great eternity. As
though a minnow were larger than behe-
moth, as though a swallow took wider cir
cult than an a?batross, as though a nettle
were taller than a Lebanon cedar, as
though giant were greater than camel,
as though a minute were longer than
century, as though time were higher,
deeper, broader than eternity. SO the
text which flashed with lightning of wit as
Christ uttered it, is followed by the crash
ing thunders Of awful catastrophe to those
who make the questions of time greater than
the questions Of the future, the oncoming,
overshading future. o Eternity! Eternity!
EternitY