Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1899-08-03

nis family in prayers and thank God fos1
the prosperity of the day. then kiss MS
children good night with An air which
seems to say, Il hope you Will all gro" up
10 be as good as your father PRISONS
for sins insectile in size. but palaces Tor
crimes dronedarian. No mercy for sins
animalcuie in proportion, but great len
Tor mastodon iniquity. A poor boy
slyiy takes from the basket OF n market
woman 4 choke pear, saving some one else
from the cholera, and you smother him IN
tie horrible atmosphere OF Raymond
street Jail or New York Tombs, while his
cousin. who has teen skillful enough TO
steal $50. 900 from the city, you make a
candidate for the STATE Legislature.
There is II good deal Of uneasiness and
nnryousnes- now among some people In
our time who have got unrislteous for
tunes. a great deal OF uneasfness about
dynamite. | tell them that God will put
under their unrighteous fortunes some
thing more explosive than dynamite, the
earth1uake Of His onnipotent indig-
milton. 1t Il time that we Earn In America
shat sin is not excuaable in proportion rs
i. declares largo dividends aud has out
riders IN cGuipnge. Many a man Is riding
to per !i.ioa position ahead and lackey
behind. To ste.l one copy OF n newspaper
is a cnat: to steal many thousands OF aol-
lars is 4 camel. There Is many q fruit
dealer who would not consent to steal a
basket of peaches from a neighbor's stall,
but who would not scrcple to deDtess the
fruit market, and az long as | can re-
member we have heard every summer the
peach crop Of Maryland ia = failure. and
by tho time the crop comes In the mis-
representation makes II difference OF mil
lions of dollars. man who would not
steal ono basket Of peaches steals $4,000
baake.s OF peaches.
Go down into the public library, in the
reading room, and see the newspaper re-
it, f-Apn oil - &c ~ HI
country, and their phraseology is very
much the same, and the same men wrote
them, mcthodicatly and UNANIMOUSLY carry.
in; ont the huge lying about the grain
crop from year to year and for a score or
years. After awhile there will be a "cor-
nfr' In the wheat market, and men who
had Is contempt for petty theft will burg
larize the wheat bin Of n nation and COM
NIT larceny u"On tho American corn crib,
and some OF the men will sit in churches
and In reformatOrv institutions trying to
strain ont tho small gnats OF scoundrelism,
while in their grain elevators and In their
storehouscs they arc fattening huge
camels which they expect after awhile to
swallow. Society has to be entirely re-
constructed on this subject. We are
to find that n sin is lneXcuSable in pro-
portion as 1t Is great. l know in our
time the tendency Is to charge reli-
giOus frauds upon good men. They say,
"Oh what n host Of frauds you have In the
Church OF God in this dav!" Aud when an
elder Of a church, or a deacon, or a minis
ter Of the gospel, or a su crintendent OF q
Snbbath-school turns ont a defaulter, what
display heads there arc in many of the
newspapers. Great primer type. Five
limo plea. "Another Saint A~bsconded,"
Clerical ScOundrelism," "Religion at a
Discount" 'Slame on the Churches"
while there ara a Thousand scoundrels OUT
side the church to one inside the church,
aud tho misbehavior Of those who never
see the inside Of a church is 80 great that
it is enough to tempt IL man to become q
Christian to get ont Of their company.
But in NIL circles, religious and i~rrcliXiOns,
the tendency is to excuse sin in proportion
asst is mammoth, Lyen John Milton in his
''Paradise Lost" while he condemns satan,
gives such a grand description OF him you
have hatd work to withhold your admira-
lion. Oh. this straining ont OF small sins
like cnats and THIS 2ulpinS down great ini-
1~uities like camels.
The subject does not give the picture OF
one or two persons, but is Il gallery in
which thousands Of people may see their
lienesses. For instance, all those people
who, while they would not rob their neigh
Dor, OF a farthing. appropriate the money
and the treasure OF the public. A man hns
Il house to sell. and he tells his customer it
is worth $50 900. Next day the assessor
comes around. and the owner says it is
worth SIS 900. The Government Of th3
United States took of the tax from per.
Sonal income, among other reasons because
% few people would tell tho truth. and
many a man with an income of hundreds
OF dollars n day made statements which
seemed to imply he was about to be handed
over to the Overseer Of the poor. Careful
to paw their passage from Liverpool 10
New York. yet smuggling in thei- Saratoga
trunk ten silk dresses from Paris and a
half dozen watches from Geneva. telling
1 tina an IN hO1co - "a ,n,. M 4ha vrLn
'Thrre is nothing In that trunk but wear
ing apparel" and putting a s. gold piece
In his haul TO punctuato the statement.
Snrh persons are also described in the
text Who are very much alarmed about the
small faults Of others and have no alarm
about their own great transgresSionS.
There are in every community and in
very churah w~atch-doSS who feel called
'ipon to keep thor ewes on others and
c-owl. T4,-v ara full Of suspicious. They
"oadar t. fins MAI is not dishonest, X that
Nan is not mclean, II there is not sonle-
tAtug wrong about the other man. They
ara ALWAYS the first to hear OF anything
wtong. MIXTURES are always the first to
smell carbon. They are ~self-appointed
detectives. l lay this Town as a rule with
mt any eNreytion that those people who
have The most faults themselves are most
merciles- In their watching OF others.
fron scalp OF heal to sole OF foot they are
iull Of jealousies and hypercriticisms.
Bat lest too many might think they es-
cape the scrutiny OF the text I have to tell
YOU that We all cone under the divine sat
ir when we make tho Questions Of time
more prominent than the questions If
et"rntt,. Come. now. let US all 90 into the
confessional. Are not MI tempted to make
the question, Where shalt / live now?
:reattr than the question. Where shall |
live forever? How shall get more dollars
here greater than the question. How Shali
las up treasures in heaven? the question,
How shall | pay nv debts to man? greater
than the question. How shall l meet obfiSa-
: tionsto God? the question, How shall gain
? tho world? greater than the question,
What II | lose my soul? the question. Whv
! did God let sin come into the world:
/ greater than the question. How shall | gel
: It exttrpated from my nature? the ques
+. tion, What shall | do With the twenty o,
/ forty or seventy years of nv suhiuuar ex.
l~tences greater than the question, What
I snail | do With tn" millions Of cycles OF n
L post terrestrial existence Time. how IN al
h 1t Is, Eternlty. how vast it is? The former
more Insignificant 10 comparison with tn,
latter than "a gnat is insignificant wheI
. compared with a camel. We lodged TIL