The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1899-07-21

eyed camel of the dry desert. In all our
Sabbath schools, in all our Bible
classes, in all our pulpits, we need 10
brighten up our religious message with
such Christlike vivacity as we find in
the text.
Oh, how particular great many peo-
ple are about the infinitesimals while
they are quite reckless about the magni-
tudes! What did Christ say? Did He
not excoriate the people in his time who
were so careful to wash their hands be-
fore a meal, but did not wash their
hearts? 1t is a bad thing to have I'M
clean hands. 1t is worse thing to have
an unclean heart. How many people
there are in our time who are very anx-
ious that after their death they shall be
buried with their faces toward the east
and not at all anxious that during their
whole life they should face in the right
direction, so that they shall come up in
the resurrection of the just, whichever
way they are buried! How many there
are chiefly anxious that minister of
| the Gospel shall come in the line of
apostolic succession, not caring so
much whether he comes from Apostle
Paul or Apostle Judas! They have
way of measuring a gnat until it is
larger than a camel.
Again, my subject photographs all
those who are abhorrent of small sins
while they are reckless in regard to
magnificent thefts. You will find
many a merchant who, while he is so
careful that he would not take a yard
of cloth or a spool of cotton from the
counter without paying for it, and who,
if bank cashier should make a mistake
and send in a roll of bills five dollars too
much, would dispatch a messenger in
hot haste to return the surplus, yet who
will go into a stock company, in which
after awhile he gets control of the
stock, and then waters the stock and
makes 100000 appear like 100000.
He only stole $780, by the operation.
Many of the men of fortune made their
wealth in that way.
One of those men engaged in such I'M
righteous acts that evening, the evening
of the very day when he watered the
stock, will find wharf rat stealing a
daily paper from the basement doorway
and will go out and catch the urchin by
the collar and twist the collar so tightly
the poor fellow has no power to say that
1T was thirst for knowledge that led him
to the dishonest act, but grip the collar
tighter and tighter, saying: II have
been looking for you a long while. You
stole my paper four or five times,
haven't you, you miserable wretch?"
And then the old stock gambler, with a
voice they can hear three blocks, will
cry out: Police, police!" That same
man the evening of the day in which he
watered the stock will kneel with his
family in prayers and thank God for the
prosperity of the day, then kiss his chill
dren good night with an air which
seems to say: II hope you all will grow
up to be as good as your father" Pris- |
ons for sins insectile in SIZE but palaces
for crimes dromedarian. No mercy for
sins animalcule in proportion, but great |
leniency for mastodon iniquity. A poor
boy slyly takes from the basket of a |
market woman a choke pear saving |
some one else from the cholera-and |
you smother him in the horrible at |
mosphere of Raymond street Jail or |
New York tombs, while his cousin, who |
has been skillful enough to steal $50 ,OOO |
from the city, you make candidate for |
the state Legislature.
There is a good deal of uneasiness |
and nervousness now among some peo- |
pie in our time who have got unright-
eous fortunes-a great deal of uneasi- |
ness about dynamite. | tell them that |
God will put under their unrighteous |
fortunes something more explosive than
dynamite-the earthquake of His ON
nipotent Indignation. 1t is time that |
we learn in America that sin is not ex-
cusable in proportion as it declares
large dividends and has outriders in |
equipage. Many man is riding to per-
dition, position ahead and lackey be-
hind. To steal one copy of a newspa-
per is gnat; to steal many thousands
of dollars is a camel. There is many
fruit dealer who would not consent to
steal a basket of peaches from a neigh
boris stall, but who would not scruple
to depress the fruit market, and as long
as 1 can we nave nedTu every
summer the peach crop of Maryland is
a failure, and by the time the crop
comes in the misrepresentation makes
a difference of millions of dollars. A
man who would not steal one basket of
peaches steals $4,000 baskets of peaches.
Go down into the public library, in
the reading-rooms, and see the newspa-
per reports of the crops from all parts
Of the country, and their phraseology is
very much the same, and the same men
wrote them, methodically and infa-
mously carrying out the huge lying
about the grain crop from year to year
and for a score of years. After awhile
there will be corner" in the wheat
market, and the men who had con-
tempt for petty theft will burglarize
the wheat bin of nation and commit
larceny upon the American corn crib.
And some of the men will sit in churches
and in reformatoTy institutions trying
to strain out the small gnats of scoun-
1reGsm, while in their grain elevators
md in their storehouses they are fat