The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1901-11-07
HYPOCRISY.

HYPOCRISY.
There is no f%oolishness in the world
so great as to be a hypocrite. He is
hated by the world for seeming to be a
christian; he is hated by God for not
being one. He hates himself and is even
despised by Satan for serving him and
not acknowledging it. They are really
the best followers and the greatest
dupes Satan has; they serve him better
than any other, but receive no wages.
What is most wonderful, they submit..to
greater notifications to go to Hades
than the most sincere Christian to go to
Heaven. They desire more to yeem
good than to be 80, while the true Chris
tan desires more to be 80 than seem so.
They study more to enter into religion
than that religion should enter into
them. They are saints by pretention,
but Satan's in intention. They are
leaders at Sunday Schools and prayer.
meetings but they worship only to an
swer their wicked purposes. They stand
as angels before their sins so as to hide
them. A scorpion thinks when its head
is under a leaf it cannot be seen. So
with a hypocrite. The false saints think
when they have hoisted up ont or two
good works that all their sins are cover
ed and hid.
There are many good.seeming men,
some even in Alton, who, if all their
thoughts and feelings were toll be sud-
denly developed into acts, visible to the
eye. would run from themselves, as men
in earthquakes run from the fiery gap.
pings of the ground and sulphurous
cracks that open the way to the uncool-
ed center Of perdition.
Pretension! profession! how haughtily
they stride into the kingdom of the
low!y Redeemer and usurp the highest
seats and put on the robes of sanctity,
and. sing the hymns of praise, and utter
aloud to he heard of men, the prayers
which the spirit ought to breathe in
silent and chiIdlike confidence into the
ear of the listening and loving Father.
Their hooking prayers mingle with the
cry of beggary, the curse of blasphemy,
and the lewd laugh of s%ensuality!
"My kingdom is not of this world
said its founder. 1t is a world of its
own. 1t is built on substance. But a
few men are seeking to make it a world
of show, to carry the deception and
Pharisaism of this world up into the
Redeemer's world and palm them of
there for the golden reality that shall
be admitted to heaven. But poorly
will hypocrisy pass at the bar of God,
No coin but the true n passes there.
No gliding will ever hide the hollowness
Of a false soul. No bank account OF
tawdy displays will avail with that eye
whose glance, like a sword, pierces te
the heart.
These hypocrites can pray and tall
long and loud to be seen and heard O
men, or probably it would apply IL
more instances if We would say sol
women but the time will come when
their false robes will be taken off and
we shall see them in their true light.
How ridiculous they will appear when
the scriptures are fulfilled and the 18th
chapter of St. Luke and End and Bird
verses as we'll as the 23rd chapter and
18th verse of st. Matthew, will have
disrobed them of their hypocrisy.
The smallest dew drop on the meadow
at night has a star sleeping in it's bosom
and the most Insignificant passage n
scripture has in it a shining truth
There are the beacon lights which guide
the Christian. There are %hypocrits out o.
the church as we'll as in but those who
make no religious %pretensions are angel'
compared with those who cover theil
sins with a church robe. We would no
cast a reflection upon the church. TAX
away the churches and we would sool
drift back to heatherism but the church
has no greater stumbling block to pre-
Vout LIS duVduCculcuL Iudu Iue UldCt
sheep who crawls into the fold. LIE
those who enter the church carry Will
them a holy heart and they will radiat'
around them life and power and leav'
behind a holy and beriticent influence
When all the, purple and gold, tn
glitter and tinsel of our earthly life i
endel, and the unknown and mysteriou
eternity is spread out to our immorta
vision. will it be a source of greater 10,
to us to have wiped a tear from tn
eye of the sorrowing, to have soothed
weary pilgrim crossing the river q
death, to have plumed n wing for it
eternal flight than to have been a hypo
critic even if by SO being we, might hav
in this world = possessed a bank an,
1 wor fame's brightest laurels?- Alto
Star Enterprise.
III l..hN-E .-Age#4L ..Er