Connecticut western news., 1899-07-20
AN ANCIENT EPIGRAM
DR. TAlMAGE POUNDS HIS SERMON
 ON AN OLD SAYING.
He Uses It to Illustrate the Ludicrous Behavior of Those Who Magnify Small Sins and Ignore Great Ones. Much I'm Little.
ICopyright. Louis Klopsch. 1s99.l

Small Sins and Ignore Great Ones.
 Much I'm Little.
 ICopyright, Louis Klopsch. ls99.l
 WASHINGTON, July 16.-In this dis course, founded on an ancient epi- gram repeated by Christ, pr. Talmage illustrates the folly of being very par ticular about insignificant things, while neglectful of vast concerns. The text Is Matthew xxiii, 24: "Ye blind swallow camel"
 A proverb Is compact wisdom, knowl edge in chunks, library in a sentence, the electricity of many clouds dis charged in one bolt, a river put through & mill race. When Christ quotes the proverb of the text, he means to set forth the ludicrous be havior of those who make great buster about small sins and have no appreciation of great ones. Tn my text a small insect and a large quad. ruped are brought into comparisons Hnat and a camel. You have In mu. scum or on the desert seen the latter. great awkward. sprawling creature, with back two stories high and stom. ach having collection of reservoirs for desert travel an animal forbidden to the Jews as food and in many lit. eratures entitled ''the ship of the des. ert" The gnat spoken of in the text is in the grub form. It Is born in pool or pond, after a few weeks becomes a chrysalis and then after a few days becomes the gnat as we recognize 1t. But the insect spoken of in the text Is in It's very smallest shape, and 1t yet inhabits the water, for my text Is a misprint and ought to read "strain out . gnat"
 My text shows you the prince of in- constituencies. A man after long ob- servation has formed the suspicion that in a cup of water he Is about to drink there Is a grub or the grand parent of a gnat. He goes and gets sieve or strainer. He takes the water and pours 1t through the sieve in the broad light. He says, "I would rather do anything almost than drink this water until this larva be extirpated." This water Is brought under inquisi- ton. The experiment Is successful. The water rushes through the sieve and leaves against the side of the sieve the grub or gnat. Then the man care fully removes the insect and drinks the water in placidity. But going out one day and hungry, he deyours ship of the desert" the camel, which the Jews were forbidden to eat. The gastron- omer has no compnnctions of con science. He suffers from no indiges- tion- He puts the lower jaw under the camers forefoot and his upper jaw over the hump of the camePs back and gives one swallow, and the dromedary disappears forever. He strained out a guAt: he swallowed a camel
 Christ's scalpel.
 While Christ's audience was yet smiling at the appositeness and wit of lees they were too stupid to under stand the hyperbole-Christ practical ly said to them, '.That Is you" Pune tflious about small things; reckless about affairs of great magnitude. No subject ever winced under a surgeons knife more bitterly than did the Phari- sees under Christ's scalpel of truth. As an anatomist will take a human body to pieces and put the pieces un- der a microscope for examination, so Christ finds his way to the heart of the dead Pharisee and cuts 1t out and puts 1t under the glass of inspection for all generations to examine. Those Pharisees thought that Christ would flatter them and compliment them, and how they must have writhed un- der the redhot words as he said, "Ye fools. ye whited sepulchers, ye blind guides, which strain out a gnat and swallow a camel"
 There are in our day a great many gnats strained out and great many camels swallowed, and 1t is the object of this sermon to sketch few per sons who are extensively engaged in that business.
 First, I remark, that all those minis ters of the gospel who are very scru- pulous about the conventionalities of re- ligion, but put no particular stress up on matters of vast importance, are photographed in the text. Church serv- ices ought to be grave and solemn. There is no room for frivolity in re- hgious convocation- But there are H. lustrations, and there are hyperboles like that of Christ in the text, that will irradiate with smiles any intelli- gent audience. There are men like those blind guides of the text who ad- vocate only those things in religious service which draw the corners of the mouth down and denounce all those things which have a tendency to draw the corners of the mouth up, and these men will go to installations and to preSbyteries and to conferences and to associations, their pockets full of fine sieves to strain out the gnats, while in their own churches at home every Sunday there are 50 people Sound asleep. They make their churches a great dormitory, and their somniferous sermons are cradle and the drawled out hymns lullaby, while some wake ful soul In a pew with her fan keeps the flies off Unconscious persons ap- proximate. Now, say it is worse to sleep in church than to smile in church, for the latter implies at least atten- ton, while the former implies the in- difference of the hearers and the stu pidity of the speaker.
 In old age or from physical inf1rml- ty or from long watching with the sick drowsiness will sometimes over power one. but when a minister of the gospel looks off upon an audience and finds healthy and intelligent people struggling with drowsiness 1t Is time for him to give out the doxology or pronounce the benediction. The great fault of church services today Is not too much vivacity, but too much somnolence. The one Is an irritating gnat that may be easily strained out; the other Is 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.