The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1899-1900, 1899-07-19

COubcCEdlcu tnclT VIII ana Lnelf numOr
to the cause of Christ. So it has been in
all the ages, and l say to all our young
theological students, sharpen your
wits until they are as keen as scimiters
and then take them into this holy war.
1t is very short bridge between a smile
and tear, suspension bridge from eye
to lip, and it is soon crossed over, and
a smile is sometimes just as sacred as a
tear. There is as much religion, and,
think, little more, in spring morn
ing than in a starless midnight. Re
ligious work without any humor or wit
in it is banquet with side of beef,
and that raw, and no condiments and no
dessert succeeding. People will not sit
down to such banquet. By all means
remove all fyivolity and all pathos and
all lightness and yulgarity. Strain them
out through the sieve of holy discrimi-
nation, but, on the other hand, beware
of that monster which overshadows the
Christian church to-day--conventional-
ity-coming up from the great Sahara
desert of ecclesiasticism, having on its
back hump of sanctimonious gloom,
and vehemently refuse to swallow that
camel.
Oh, how particular great many peo-
pie are about the in1lnitesimals 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 q bad thing to have un-
clean hands. II is a 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 a
way of measuring a gnat until it is
larger than camel.
Again, my subject photographs all
those who are abhorrent OF small sins
while they are reckless in regard to
magnificent t.efts. You will find
many merchant who, while he is so
careful that he would not take a yard
of cloth or spool of cotton from the
counter without paying for il, and who,
if bank cashier should make mistake
and send in roll of bills five dollars too
much, would dispatch a messenger in
hot haste to return the surplus, yet who
will go into stock company, in which
after awhile he gets control of the
stock, and then waters the stock and
makes 100000 appear like 100000.
lie only stole 100000 by the operation.
Many of the men of fortune made their
wealth in that way.
One of those men engaged in such un-
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
il was thirst for knowledge that led him
to the dishonest act, but grip the collar
tighter and tighter, saying: ~ have
been looking for you Nng 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, ,OOC
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 om-
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
cquipage. Many man is riding to per
dition, position ahead and lackey be.
hind. To steal one copy of newspa-
per is gnat; to steal many thousands
of dollars is a camel. There is many q
fruit dealer who would not consent to
steal basket of peaches from neigh
boris stall, but who would not scruple
to depress the fruit market, and as long
asA can remember we have heard every
summer the peach crop of Maryland is
failure, and by the time the croT
comes in the Misrepresentation makes
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
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