The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1894-07-18

JNNNo 'aANhpo Va pOu uDOh 1ou vi
upon your children. Twenty years ago
knew man who was particularly
skillful in initiating the laneness Of
neighbor. Not long ago son Of the
skillful mimic had his leg amputated
for the very defect which his father
had mimcked years before. l do not
say it was Judgment of God; / leave
you to make your own inference. So,
all merriment born of dissipation, that
which starts at the counter of the
drinking restaurant, or from the wine
glass in the home circle, the maudlin
'simper, the meaningless joke, the
saturnalian gibberish, the paroxysm OF
mirth about nothing, which you some
times see in the fashionable club room
or the exquisite parlor at ~ o'clock at
night, are the cracking of thorns un-
der pot. Such laughter and such sin
ends in death. When ! was lad, q
book came out entitled "Dow Juniors
Patent Sermons" 1t made a great stir
"a very wide laugh, all over the coun-
try, that book did. 1t was caricature
OF the Christian ministry and of the
word of God and of the day Of judg-
ment. OH we had great laugh. The
commentary on the whole thing is,
that the author of that book died In
poverty, shame, debauchery, kicked
out of society, and cursed of Almighty
God. The laughter of such men is the
echo Of their own damnation.
The next laughter that | shall men
tion as being in the Bible, is the laugh
OF Gods condemnation: "He that sit
teth in the heavens shall laugh" Again:
~ will laugh at his calamity" With
such demonstration will God greet
every kind of great sin and wickedness.
But men build up villainies higher and
higher. Good men almost pity God, be-
cause he is so schemed against by men.
Suddenly apin drops out of the machin-
cry wickedness, or n secret is revealed,
and the foundation begins to rock;
finally, the whole thing is demolished.
What is the matter? | will tell you
what the matter is. The crash Of ruin
is only the reverberation Of Gods laugh
ter. In the money market there are a
great many good men, and great
many fraudulent men. A fraudulent
man there says: 81 mean to have my
million" He goes to work reckless Of
honesty, and he gets his first 800, 900
He gets after awhile, his $500, 900. After
awhile he gets his 100000. "Now,"
he says, II have only one more to
make, and shall have my million" He
gathers up all his resources; he makes
that one last grand move, he fails
and loses all, and he has not enough
money of his own left to pay the
cost Of the car to his home. People
cannot understand this spasmodic re-
vulsion. Some said it was n sudden
turn in Erie railway stock, or in West
ern Union, or in Illinois Central; some
said one thing and some another They
all guessed wrong. | will tell you
what it was: He that sitteth in the
heavens laughed" A man in New York
said he would be the richest man in
the city. lie left his honest work as a
mechanic, and got into the city cOun-
ellis some way, and in ten years stole
s15, ,OOO,O 900 from the city government.
Fifteen million dollarsl He held the
legislature Of the state of New York in
the grip of his right hand.
Suspicious were aroused. The grand
jury presented indictments. The whole
land stood aghast. The man who ex-
pected TO put half the city in his vest
pocket goes to Blackwell's Island; goes
TO Ludlow street Jail, breaks prison,
and goes across the sea; is rcarrested
and brought back, and again remanded
to jail. Why? "IIe that sitteth in the
heavens laughed" Rome was 4 great
empire; she had Horace and Virgil
among her poets: she had Augustus
and Constantine among her cmper-
ors. But what means the defaced
Pantheon, and the Forum turned
into cattle market, and the broken
walled coliseum, and the architect
ural skeleton of her great nqucducts?
What was that thunder? oh" you
say. that was the roar of the battcring
rams against the walls No. What
was that culver? OH" you say, that
was the trampof hostile legiors.' No.
The quiver and the roar were the out
burst Of omnipotent laughter from the
defied and insulted heavens. Rome de-
fed God and lie laughed her down.
Thebes dehed God. and lie laughed her
down. Nineveh defed God, and lie
laughed her down. Babylon Gehcd God,
and He laughed her down. There is
great difference between Gods laugh
and His smile. His smile is eternal
beatitude. lie smiled when David sang,
and Miriam clapped the cymbals, and
Hannah made garments for her son,
and Paul preached, and John kindled
with apocalyptic vision, and when any
man has anything TO do and does IL
we'll His smile! Why, IL is the fif-
teenth of May, the apple orchards in
full bloom; IL is morning breaking on a
sea; IL Is Heaven at high noon,
all the bells beating the marriage peal.
But His laughter-may IL never fall on
usl II is n condemnation for our sin; II
is wasting away. We may let the
satirist laugh at us, and we may be
made the target for the merriment of
earth and hell; but God forbid that we
should ever come to the fulfllment Of
the prophecy against the rejectors Of
the truth: 81 will laugh at your ca
lamity." But, my friends, all of us
who reject Christ and the pardon Of
the gospel must come under that tre-
mendous bombardment. God wants us
all torepent. He counsels, He coaxes, He
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