The Farmville herald. [volume] (Farmville, Va.) 1890-1934, 1899-10-06
STRAINING AT GNATS.
Dr.. Talmage breaches on Human
Inconsistency.
Makes Use Of an Ancient Epigram 60
illustrate the Folly Of Mankind
Prone to Magnify Small Things,
Needless OF the Great.
Copyright. Louis Kiopsch. ico)

p a
things while neglectful of vast con
Germs. The text in Matthew 23.24. "Y,
blind guides, which strain at gnat
and swallow camel"
A proverb is compact wisdom. knowl
edge in chunks, library i'm sentence
the electricity of many clouds dis
charged i'm one bolt. river put through
mill race. When Christ quotes the
proverb of the text, lie means to set
forth the ludicrous behavior of those
who make a great buster about small
sins and have no appreciation of great
ones. In my text a small insect and a
large quadruped are brought into com
parison-a gnat and a camel You
have i'm museum or on the desert seen
the latter. great awkward sprawl
/ ing creature. with back two stories
high and stomach having a collection
+ of reservoirs for desert travel. an ami
NAL forbidden 10 the Jews as food. and
I i'm many literatures entitled "the ship
of the desert" The gnat spoken of in
the text is in the grub form. II is born
in pool or pond. after a few weeks be-
I comes a chrysalis, and then after few
days becomes the gnat as we recognize
it, But the insect spoken of in the text
is in its very smallest shape and il yet
inhabits the water for my text is a mis-
print. and ought to read strain out a
gnat."
My text shows you the prince Of in
consistencies. A man. after long oh
servation, who has formed the suspi-
cion that in a cupful of water he is
about TO drink, there is a grub or the
grandparent of a gnat. lie goes and
gets a sieve or a strainer. lie takes the
water and pours it through the sieve in
the broad light. lie says: Il would
rather do anything almost than drink
pated." This water is brought under
'nquisition. The experiment is sue
ccssful The water ruShes through the
sieve and leaves against the side of the
sieve the grub or gnat. Then The man
carefully removes the insect and drinks
the water in placidity. But going out
one day, and hungry, he devours a
ship of the desert" the camel, which
the Jews were forbidden 10 eat. The
gastronomer has no compunctions Of
conscience. lie suffers from no indi-
gestion. lie puts the lower jaw under
the camers forefoot, and his upper jaw
over the hump of the camel's back, and
gives one swallow and the dromedary
disappears forever. He strained out a
gnat. he swallowed a camel.
While Christ's audience was yet
smiling at the appositeness and wit OF
his illustration-for smile they did. un-
less they were too stupid TO understand
the hyperbole-Christ practically said
to them: THAT is you" Punctilious
about small things; reckless about af-
fairs of great magnitude. No subject
ever WINGED under a surgeons knife
more bitterly than did the Pharisees
under Christ's scalpel of truth. As an
anatomist will take a human body TO
pieces and put the pieces under a mi
crosc0pe for examination, so Christ
finds Ills way to the heart Of the dead
Pharisec and cuts it out and puts 1t
under tn, glass of inspection for all
generations to examine. Those Phari-
sees thought that Christ would fatter
them and compliment them, and how
they must have writhed under the red
hot words as He said: "Ne fools, ye
whited sepulchers, We blind guides,
which strain out a gnat and swallow
camel"
There are in our day a great many
gnats strained out and a great many
camels swallowed, and it is the object
Of this sermon to sketch a few persons
who are extensively engaged in that
business.
First, ] remark that all those minis
ters Of the Gospel who are very scrupu-
lous 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-
ligious convocation, but there are IL
msdations. and there are hyperboles
ike t..at of Christ in the text that will
irradia.e with smiles any intelligent
audience. There are men like those
blind guides of the text who advocate
only those things in religious service
which draw the corners of the mouth
down and denounce all those things
which have tendency to draw the cor
ners of the mouth up. and these men
will 90 to installations, and 10 pres
bvteries. and TO conferences. and 70 as
sociations. their pockets full of fine
sieves to strain out the gnats. while in
their own churches at home every sun
day there are so people sound asleep.
They make their churches a great
dormitory, and their somniferous ser
mons are a cradle and the drawled out
hymns a lullaby, while some wakeful
soul I'm ,ew, with her fan, keeps the
flies OFF unconscious persons approx
mate. Now. 7 say IL is worse to sleepin
church than TO smile in church, for the
latter implies at least attention. while
the former implies the indifference OF
the hearers and the stupidity Of the
speaker.
In old age. OF from physical intrm-
itv. or from long watching with the
sick. drowsincss will sometimes over
rf,yer one Int when "A minister of the