News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1894-07-19

no confidence either in their Christian
character or their morality.
So all merriment that springs out OF
the defects Of others-caricature Of a
lame foot, or a curved spine, OF blind
eve, or "A deaf ear-will be met with the
Judgment Of God either upon you or
upon your children. Twenty years ago
I knew a man who was particularly
skillful in initiating the lameness of n
neighbor. Not long ago son of the
skillful mimic had his leg amputated
for the very defect which his father had
mimicled years before. do not say it
was a Judgment of God. leave you TO
make your own inference. So all merri-
ment born of dissipation, that which
starts at the counter of the drinking res
taurant or from the wineglass in the
home circle, the maudlin shipper, the
meaningless joke, the saturnalian glib
berish, the paroxism of mirth about
nothing which you sometimes see in the
fashionable clubroom or the exquisite
parlor at ~ o'clock at night, are the
cracking of thorns under pot. Such
laughter and such sin end in death.
When was a lad, a book came out en-
titled, Dow Juniors Patent Sermons. "
1t made great stir, very wide laugh,
all over the country, that book did. 1t
was a caricature of the Christian min
isty, and of the word of God, and Of the
day of Judgment. Oh, we had a great
taught 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 AL
mighty God The laughter of such men
is the echo of their own damnation.
The Laugh of the Almighty.
The next laughter that l shall men
ton as being in the Bible is the laugh
of Gods condemnation, HE that sit
teth in the heavens shall laugh. " Again,
"The Lord will laugh at him" Again,
81 will laugh at his calamity" With
such demonstration will God greet ev-
cry 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 pin drops out of the machin-
cry of wickedness or a secret is revealed,
and the foundation begins to rock. Final
ly the whole thing is demolished. What
is the matter? l will tell you what the
matter is. That crash of ruin is only
the reverberation of Gods laughter. In
fln ,,,orl-ot flp1.o
many good men and great many fraud
ulent men. A fraudulent man there
says, 81 mean to have my million" He
goes to work reckless of honesty, and he
gets his first 500, OOO He gets after
awhile his 5000, 900. After awhile he
gets his $500, 600. "Now, he says, Il
have only one more move to make, and
1 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 spasmod-
ic revulsion. Some said it was 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.
He left his honest work as a mechanic
and got into the city councils some way
and in 10 years stole $50, 900, 900 from
the city government. Fifteen million
dollars! 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 expected 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 rearrestCd
and brought back and again rcmanded
to Jail Why? He that sitteth i'll the
heavens laughed"
Rome was great empire. She had
Horace and Virgil among her poets;
she had Augustus and Constantine
among her emperors But what mean
the defaced Pantheon, and the Forum
turned into cattle market, and the
broken walled Coliseum, and the
architectural skeleton of her great
aqueducts? What was that thunder!
ooh, you say, that was the roar Of
the battering rams against her walls.
No. What was that culver? "Oh, " you
say, that was the tramp Of hostile
legions. No. The culver and the roar
were the outburst Of omnipotent laugh
ter from the deied and insulted heav-
ems. Rome defied God, and he laughed
her down. Thebes defied God, and he
laughed her down. Nineveh deied God,
and he laughed her down. Babylon de-
fed God, and he laughed her down
There is great difference between God IS
laugh and his smile His smile is eter-
nal beatitude. He smiled when David
sang, and Miriam clapped the cymbals,
and Hannah made garments for her
son, and Paul preached, and John kin.
died with apocalyptic vision, and when
any man has anything to do and does it
well His smiIel Why, it is the 18th
of May, the apple orchards in full bloom;
it is morning breaking on arippling sea;
1t is heaven at high noon, all the bells
beating che marriage peal. But hii
laughter-may it never fall on us 1t is Q
condemnation for our sin; it is a wasting
away.
The Scoffers at Truth.