Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1899-07-17

gnat that may be easily strained out;
the other is a great, sprawling and
sleepy eyed camel of the dry desert.
In all our Sabbath schools, in all our
Bible classes, in all our pulpits we
need to brighten up our religious mes
sage with such Christlike vivacity as
we find in the text.
Wit and HumOr.
/ take down from my library the
biographies Of ministers and writer's
of the past ages, inspired and unin-
spired, who have done the most to
bring souls to Jesus Christ, and 1 find
that without single exception they
consecrated their wit and their humor
to Christ. Elijah used it when he adj
vised the Baalites, as they could not
make their god respond, to call louder,
as their god might be sound asleep or
gone a-hunting. Job used it when he
said to his self conceited comforters,
wisdom will die with you" Christ
not only used it in the text, but when
he ironically complimented the cor
rupt Pharisees, saying, ''The whole
need not a physician" and when by
one word he described the cunning of
Herod, saying, eco We and tell that
fox" Matthew Henry's commentaries
from the first page to the last cor
ruscated with humor, as summer
clouds with heat lightning.
John Bunyan's writings are as full
of humor as they are Of saving truth,
and there is not an aged man here who
has ever read Pilgrims Progress"
reading 1t he smiled as often as he
wept. Chrysostom, George Herbert,
Robert South. George Whiteield, Jere-
my Taylor, Rowland Hill, Ashael Net
Teton, Charles G. Finney and all the
men of the past who greatly advanced
the kingdom of God cOnSecrated their
wit and their humor to the cause OF
Christ. So 1t has been in all the ages,
and I 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. It is very
short bridge between a smile and
tear, a suspension bridge from eye to
lip, and it is soon crossed over, and
smile Is sometimes just as sacred as a
tear. There is as much religion, and I
think a little more, in a spring morn
ing than in a starless midnight. Re-
ligious work without any humor or wit
in it Is q banquet with a side of beef
and that raw and no condiments and
no dessert succeeding. People will not
sit down to such a banquet. By all
means remove all frivOlity and all
bathos and all lightness and vulgarity;
strain them out through the sieve of
holy discrimination; but, on the other
hand, beware Of that monster which
overshadows the Christian church to-
day, conventionality, coming up from
the Great Sahara desert Of ecclesi-
asticism, having on it's back a hump
of sanctimonious gloom, and vehement
ly refuse to swallow that camel.
Particular About Small Things.
Oh, how particular great many peo-
pie are about the inf1nitesimals, while
they are quite reckless about the mag
nitudes. What did Christ say? Did
he not excoriate the people in his time
who were so careful to wash their
hands before a meal, but did not wash
their hearts? 1t is bad thing to have
unclean hands; it is a worse thing to
people there are in our time who are
very anxious that after their death
they shall be buried with their face
toward the east and not at all anxious
that during their whole life they
should come up in the resurrection Of
the just whichever way they are
buried. How many there are chiefly
anxious that a minister of the gospel
shall come in the line of apostolic sue
ceSSiOn, not caring SO much whether
he comes from Apostle Paul or Apos-
tie Judas. They have way of meas
uring a gnat until it is larger than a
camel.
Again, my subject photographs all
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 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 d roll of bills SIS 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.
He only stole 100000 by the opera
ton. Many of the men of fortune made
their wealth in that way.
One of those men engaged In such
unrighteous acts that evening, the
evening of the very day when he wa
tered the stock, will find q wharf rat
stealing a daily paper from the base
ment doorway and will go out and
catch the urchin by the collar and
twist the collar SO tightly the poor fell
low has no power to say that it was
thirst for knowledge that led him to