Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1904-05-19
EVILS OF SARCASM
OUR REGULAR SUNDAY SERMON
A Discourse Showing How Human
Faith Is Frequently BIighted By the
Worlds Sneers. s..

WORLDS SneefS. ~.
GLENs FALLS, N. Y.-The Rev. DIR.
John r. MacKay, pastor Of the First Pres
morning on ::'The Significance of Jonah's
Sea Experience The text was from
Jonah i:l2 DIR. MacKay said:
One OF the surest ways to ruin any cause
is to be able successfully to heap ridicule
upon it. Make it ridiculous and you have
ruined it. As soon as it becomes the butt
OF common talk and the standing joke for
the funny column of the newspaper its
power is gone, its influence sealed. And
SO soon as an individual becomes the centre
OF communlty's jokes and sneers his in
tiuence is gone. Human effort and inlu-
ence wlther more quickly under sarcasm
and ridicule than in any other way In
this way many good cause and many
good person has suffered at the hands of
persons who have never seriously tried to
understand the cause or the person. In
this way many great human heart has
been placed upon it's Calvary and made to
bleed and suffer the keenest agony. In this
way many a noble, sincere, sensitive soul
is going through it's Gethsemane or is be-
ing nailed to it's cross on this very Sabbath
day.
This is how / believe the work and life
of Jonah have suffered. Unthinkingly, un-
feelingly, sarcastically, people have asso-
ciated Jonah with whale, and joke be-
ing the easiest and cheapest way Of show
ing wisdom they have exhausted ali their
wisdom there.
We cannot keep too often reminding
ourselves that we shall continue to miss
the true meaning of the Bible and most of
Its great teaching unless we remember that
every incident mentioned in the Old Tes-
lament gives not only the story OF some
person, with all the local coloring sur
q ma an md 1du1a1
but also and more important, that there is
| great world truth to be revealed and
| this individual, with his local coloring, has
been chosen as the medium through which
| to reveal and teach that truth. And,
therefore, the great Bible difficulties, with
| so many, have arisen because they have
been satisfied to centre all their thought
and interest on the individual and his To-
cal details, and in this way have missed
the great truth intended to be taught-a
truth so great that were it grasped it
would then become key by which to
| open up and understand the incident it.
self
This is how Jonah has suffered at our
hands. And our task is now in few
| words to take another look at Jonah-to
| try and see him in the light of the great
truth intended to be taught and see if
| thereby we can the better understand the
| story itself
| D>tHihh yourselves DacK into the carrier
! stages and gradual growth OF the human
race. To them as to us there came prob
| lens to be solved We have the benefit of
| their efforts and can profit by them in our
! problems. But the further back we go the
less and less did they have to help them
solve their problems. Yet they felt the full
force Of each one and mad to make an ef-
| fort of some sort to solve it. The problem
was not always the same. Sometimes it
was social, sometimes it was physical.
| sometimes it was national, sometimes it
was intellectual, sometimes it was moral.
Il it took religious phase it was either
national or moral or intellectual. Men felt
| They have forced themselves to formulate
| certain conceptions about Him. Then they
found that certain of their experiences did
| not agree with these conceptions of God.
And there their difficulties arose. This is
the meaning of the book of Jonah. Who
ever wrote the book felt the difficulty Of a
great intellectual and national problem.
] This led him to take the story of the Pro
phet Jonah, that. having thrown it into a
! paraboiic form, he might the better
through it explain to the people what he
thought was Gods own solution Of this
particular problem.
/ What, then, was that difficulty, that
problem? The people of Israel believed
| that the love and sympathy of God were
confined to themselves. His care, His fa-
vor, His blessings were fo, them and them
alone. God was their God and all the rest
of the world was outside. There was but
one human family that had divine rela-
tionship, and that was Jewish. Quite true,
there were other nations, and they had to
live, but they had to live without God. He
did not belong to them, they had no claim
upon Him. That was the real traditional
Jewish feeling.
But a few people were growing up who
had a newer and truer conception of God,
and broader outlook upon man. One of
them felt he would like to relieve this mar
row, limited, wrong conception of God.
This led him to write the book, and in
| doing so he took Jonah asA the representa-
tive of the old narrow Jewish idea, and
showed how Jonan's ideas became broad
ened and thus taught the broad, full love
clemency of God, but also that He loves all
men. There, then, is the national prob
lem, to teach that God is God Of all men
and loves them; and the intellectual prob
lem, to teach the Jewish people and all
other people that God is everywhere Let
us see, then, how this double sided prob.
lem was solved and satisfactorily illus
trated in Jonah's experiences-that God is
everywhere and that God loves all men.
Jonah did not believe this. God was not
everywhere as Jehovah. This Jonah had
been taught and this he believed. This was
| the very atmosphere III WHICH alS uFSU duu
moved and had his being. This was his
babyhood's lisping, his boyhood's teaching
and his manhood's patriotism. But one
day there broke into his mind a new
) thought: sWhy should not God care fol
{ the people in that other city just as wei
as He. does for the people in this city
!. Why should Jerusalem be any more ia
vored than Nineveh? The people are moi
| Jews, but why should God not care fol
: them just as well as if they We're Jews
Why should there not be a brotherhood o.
mankind stronger than all the limits o
, national and family prejudice? Why not p
That thought came to Jonah l.,li like voice
why don't you go and tell them about
God? Why don't you go and tell then
i | they may have Gods favor as well as Other
| peoplew This thought so burned itsel
into Jonah's mind and heart that he fell
it must be Gods will also to bless Other
! people beside Jews. But Jonah being
| dyedIin-the-wool Jew could not tolerate
that He therefore said, "Now. if gel
{ out of the country for while this though,
!, Twill leave me, for God is not everywher.
! to press it upon me as He is in Israel. ,