The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1897-06-18

bNllu tue sea- VI NiNaNN IhS
until the earth jars, and roars, and
rings, and crackles, and booms with
strange mechanism, and ships with
nostrils of hot steam and Jokes OF IRE.
draw the continents together.
1 say nothing against healthful Gu
riosity. May 1t have other Leyden
Jars, and other electric batteries, anu
other voltaic piles, and other magnify
ing-glasses, with which to storm the
barred castles of the natural world uu-
til 1t shall surrender its last secret.
We thank God for the geological Gu
riosity of Professor Hitchcock, and the
mechanical curiosity of Liebig, and the
geological curiosity of Cuvier, ana the
inventive curiosity of Edison; put we
must admit that unhealthful and irreg-
ular inquisitiveness has rushed thou-
sands and tens Of thousands into ruin.
Eve just tasted the fruit. She was
curious to find out how it tasted, and
that curiosity blasted her and blasted
all nations. So there are clergymen IN
this day inspired by unhealthful in
QulSlllNtncSS WIN hdNS III W AOON
through the keyhole of Gods mystic
ries-mysteries that were barred anu
bolted from all human inspection, and
they have wrenched their whole moral
nature out of joint by trying to pluck
fruit from branches beyond their reach
or have come out on limbs Of the tree
from which they have tumbled into
ruin without remedy. A thousand trees
of religious knowledge from which we
may eat and get advantage; but from
certain trees of mystery how many
have plucked their ruin! Election,
free agency, trinity, resurrection-in
the discussion of these subjects hun
dreds and thousands of people ruin the
soul. There are men who actually
have been kept out OF the kingdom OF
heaven because they could not under
stand who Melchisedec was not!
Oh, how many have been destroyed
by an unhealthful inquisitiyeness! 1t
is seen in all directions. There are
those who stand with the eye-stare and
mouth-gape of curiosity. They are the
first to hear a falsehood. build 1t an
other story high and two wings to 1t.
About other peoples apparel, about
other peoples business, about other
peoples financial condition. about 9TH
er peoples affairs, they are over
anxious. Every nice piece of gossip
stops at their door, and they fatten and
luxuriate in the endless round of the
great world of tittle-tattle. They in
vite and sumptuously entertain at their
house Colonel Twaddle and Esquire
Chitchat and Governor Smalltalk.
Whoever hath an innuendo. whoever
hath scandal, whoever hath a valua-
BILE secret. let him come and sacrifice
it to this Goddess of Splitter. Thou
sands of Adams and Ewes do nothing
but eat fruit that does not belong to
them. Men quite well known as math-
ematicians failing in this computation
of moral algebra: good sense plus good
breeding, minus curiosity, equals mind
ing your own affairs!
Observe also in this subject how re-
polling sin is when appended to great
attractiveness. Since Ewes death there
has been no such perfection of woman
hood. You could not suggest an at
tractiveness to the body or suggest any
refinement to the manner You could
add no gracefulness to the gait, no lus-
tire to the eye, no sweetness to the
voice. A perfect God made her a per-
feet woman, to be the companion of a
man in a perfect home, and her entire
nature vibrated In accord with the
beauty and song of Paradise. But she
rebelled against Gods government,
and with the same hand with which
she plucked the fruit she launched up
on the world the crimes. the wars, the
tumults that have set the universe a.
wailing.
A terrible Offset to all her attractive
ness. We are not surprised when we
find men and women naturally vulgar
going into transgresslon. We expect
that people who live in the ditch shall
have the manners of the ditch; but
how shocking when we find sin APP
pended to superior education and TO the
refinements of social life! The accom-
plishments of Mary Queen of Scots
make her patronage of Darnley, the
profligate, the more appalling. The
genius of Catharine ii. of Russia only
sets forth in more powerful contrast
her indispensable ambition. The trans
lations from the Greek and the Latin
by Elizabeth, and her wonderful quail
fications for a queen, make the more
disgusting her capriciousness of af-
lection and her holiness of temper.
The greatness of Byron's mind makes
the more alarming the Byron's sensual
ity.
Let no one think that refinement of
manner or exquisiteness of taste or
superiority of education can in any
wise apologize for ill-temper. for an
oppressive spirit. for unkindness, for
any kind of sin. Disobedience God
ward and transgression MAYNARD can
give no excuse. Accomplishment
heaven-high is no apology for vice hell
deep.
My subject also impresses me with