The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1894-07-16


corpse, and they steal ride TO the GENIE
terry but all healthy people enjoy wed
ding better than they do a burial. NoW,
you make the religion of Christ sepulcnrai
and hearselike and you make IL repulslVe'
I say plant the rose of Sharon along the
church walks and columbne 10 ciaihor
over the church wall. and have smile on
the lip and have the mouth filled with
holy laughter There is no man IN the
world except the Christian that has rlgnt
to feel an untrammelled glee. lie Is prom
ised everything is to be for the best mere,
and he is the way to a de1Sht Whlcn VIII
take all the professions with palm branches
and all the orchestraS harped and Gym
balled and trumpeted to express. 90, you
saw II have so much trouble" Have you
more trouble than Paul had? What does he
say? "Sorrowfu yet always rejoicing.
Poor yet making many rich. Having moth
ing, yet possessing all things The merrt-
est laugh 1 think l ever heard has been
in the sick room of Gods dear children.
When TheodosiuS was put upon the rack
he suffered very great torture at the
first Somebody asked him how he en-
dured all that pain on the rack. He re-
piled: when / was first put on the rack L
suffered a great deal, but very soon a young
man In white stood by my side, and, with
a soft and comfortable handkerchief, he
wiped the sweat from my brow and my
a
for me TO get from the rack because
when the pain was all gone the angel was
gone" O, rejoice evermore. You know how
1t is In the army-an army encampment.
If today news comes that our side has
mad a defeat and tomorrow another portion
of the tidings cCnAs saying we have had
another defeat, 1t d"moraliZes all the host
But If the news comes of victory today and
victory tomorrow the whole army is i'm
FASHIONED
kingdom Of our Lord Jesus Christ report
fewer defeats; tell US the NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
over sin and death and hell. Rejoice ever
more, and again l say rejoice [ believe
there Is more religion in q laugh than in
a groan. Anybody Groan, but to laugh
in the midst of Punishment and persecution
and indescribable trial, that requires a
David Daniel a Paul, a modern
heroine.
ne next laughter mentioned in the Bible
that shall speak of is the FOOLS laughter.
or the expression of sinful merriment Solo
mon was very quick at simile when he
makes a comparison we all catch it, What
Is the laughter of q fool like? He saws:
1t is the cracking of thorns under a pot"
me kettle Is swung. Il bunch of brambleS
s put under it, and the torch is applied to
II, ana there is great noise ana a big
maze ana a sputter, and a quick eXtin-
Suishment. Then il is darker than it was
before. Fools laughter. The most misera-
Die thlnS on earth is bad mans fun
Ihere they are-ten men in "a barroom;
daughters The impure Jest starts at one
corner OF the barroOm. and crackle, crackIe
crackle II goes all around. In five hundred
such outlaws there is not one item Of hap
piheSs. They all feel beneaned. if they
nave any conscience left. Have nothing
to 90 with men or women who tell i'm
moral stores. / have no confidence even
n their Christian character or their moral
ny 50, all merriment that springs out of
Itf1A nf f,Etg
loot, or curved spine, or q blind eye or q
deaf ear-Will be met with the Judgments
OF God either upon you, or upon your chill
dren. Twenty years ago | knew a man
who was particularly skilltul in initiating
the lameneSS of a neighbOr. Not long ago
a son Of the skillful mimic had his leg am
putaued for the very defect which lis
father had mimicked years before. | DO
not say it was a Judgment of God; | leave
you 10 make your own Inference. So all
nlerrment born of dissipation, that which
starts at the counter of the drinking res
taurant, or from the wine GLASS III the
home circle, the maudlin sjuper, the mean
inglesS joke, the saturnalian Sibi elsh the
paroxysm of mirth about nothing. which
you sometimes see in the fashionable club
room the exquisite parl0r at y o'clock
at night. are the cracking Of thOrns nnder
a pot. Such laughter and such sin ends in
death. When ] was lad, book came
out, entitled Dow Juniors Patent Ser
mons II made a great stIr-a very wide
laugh-alI over the county, that book did.
1t was a carcature of the Christian MIN
istry, and OF the word OF God, and Of the
day of Judgment. O: we mad a great laugh.
The commentary of the whole thing is,
that the author of that book died in pow
crtv, shame debauchery. kicked out of So
ciety, and cursed of Almighty God,
laughter of such men is the echo of their
own damnaton.
The next laughter that I shall mention
being in the Bible. is the laugh Of GODS
condemnation; lie that stitch m the
heavens shall laugh" Again: Il will laugh
at his calamity" With such demonstra-
ton will God greet every kind of great sin
and wickedness But men build up vii
lanies higher and higher. Good men al
most pity God. because he is SO s,1emed
AGAINST by men. Suddenly pin drops out
of the machinery of wickedness, or a secret
is revealed, and the foundation heGins to
What is the matter? | viii tell yoH what
the matter is. That crash of ruin s only
the reverberation of GODS laughter. In the
money market there are . great many %oot
men. and a great many fraudulent h1en. a
fraudulent man there gays: Il mean to have
my million" He goes to work reckless Of
gets after awhile his 009o; After awhile
he gets his 100000. Now he says, =
shall have my million" He gathers Up al
his resources; he makes that one tst grand
move he fails and loses all, and he mas not
enough money Of his own left 70 p"y the
cost OF the car to his home. People c3Hnot
understand this spasmodic reVuislon. Some
said It was a sudden turn in Erie railway
stock or in Western Union or in Illinois
Central; some said one thing and some
another. They all gues..Sfg5d wrong VIII IL
the heavens laughed" a man i'll New York
said he would be the richest man IN the
city. He left his honest work as ne
c cl,all1i some ne way 2aGy and in ten years
stole $4,000 600 from the city ;,0V ernn%nt
Fifteen million dollars! He hsld the leg
islature Of the state of New YORK n the
grip of his right hand Susp lions were
aroused. The grand jury presented m
dictmcnts. The whole land stood aghast
The man who expected to put hall the city
in his vest pocket, goes to BlaGKWfll Isl
and goes to Ludlow street JAN, breaks
prison, and goes across the sea; is rearreSt-
ed and brought back and again relh2lldeu
to ja1l Why? He that stitch in the heaV-
ems lau"hed' Rome was a great empire;
she had Horace and Virgil among her
Doets; she had Augustus ana constantine
among her emperOrS. But what mean the
defaced Pantheon, and the Forum turned
into a cattle market. and the broNen- Wailed
GolIisa11m. and the architectural skeleton Of
her great aQueductS. What was tnal mum
derp ~"Oh,' YOU say, that was the roar or
the batterng rams against heF Wals' 80
What was that CULVER? "On! you say;
that was the tramp Of hostile regions.
No The culver and the roar were lhe oitt-
hurst of omnipotent laughter from the 9e,
fed and insulted heavens. Rome uelleu
go and he laughed her down. IhebeS ue-
fed God and he laughed her down. Nine
ven dened Cod and ne laughed her o9 gown nar
Rahvlon defied God, and he laughed her
doWn. There is a great difference between
Gods laugh and his smile. lbs sil Ne IS
eternal beatitude. He smiled WhGn DdVl9
sang ana Miriam capped the cympalS any any
IIonnah made garments of her son. ana
pm I,reached and John kinded with apo
caivntic vision. and when any man mas