The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1910-07-08
Saturday Digit
@aIkc By Rev. r. E. DAWSON
/uthS Rutland, VI
Sto+o+o+o+o+o+o4ot =
THE KING AND THE ouIesLER.
International Bible Lesson for July 10,
'1o-(John 6: 63).

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the answer, but because they like to
see the speaker founder, or dodge,
When they go to church they bristle
| all over with question marks, and
come away criticising every statement
of the preacher. They never smell
the flowers, they pull them to pieces.
They never hear music,-they only
watch for discords. They never taste
food,-they criticise the cooking. They
never enjoy conversational can
not agree with any one. At the ordi-
nary statement they cavil, and the
putting forth of an opinion about any
thing is the signal for an intellectual
battle. They will argue, just as long,
and just as earnestly over comma as
over a creed. over molehill as over
a mountain, over a flaw as over a
fundamental.
An Ecclesiastical Quibbler.
One of these smart Alecks under
took to floor Jesus Christ one day, A
lot of people had been trying to en-
tangle and confuse Him, and had got
hurt in the operation. This ecclesias-
tical pettifogger was standing by. and
after all the others had been silenced.
he tipped them a knowing wink, as if
to say, Watch me discount this Cali
lean rabbi" never doubling but that
he would win their applause as a
sharp cross-Questioner. So this little
manikin lawyer, hunting for cheap no.
toriety, brought out his great gun and
bombarded Christ with his question:
"What is the great commandment OF
the law" If Christ had replied the
first, or the fourth, or the seventh, OF
any one of the ten, this little mustard
seed lawyer had a poser right on his
tongues end as an argument to com
plete his victory. But he had found
his match at last, and Christ sim .lly
swung round where he could fire a
whole broadside at once, and said
The first and the last, the greatest and
the smallest. the inside and the out
side, the meat and the kernel com
mandment is love to God and love to
man. All the law and the prophets
hang on one word-LO-V-E. And the
little popgun quibbler sunk out of
sight as though hit with bombshell
Microscopic Quibblers.
What a good thing it would be for
the world If these little microscope
carriers who are everlastingly hunting
for flaws In something could be as ef-
fectually silenced. Every now and
then somebody rushes into print to
challenge the world in regard to some
question of the Bible, or the church,
or the ministry or the creed, or the
denominations, egotistically PROFOUND
ing an ecclesiastical conundrum, and
strutting about with a chip on the
shoulder waiting for some half-scared
disciple to attempt to knock it off 1t
is amusing to see these little bantam
hair-splitters run to cover as if they
expected to be hit with a cannon ball,
WI IN everybody knows that bird shot
is plenty big enough for that kind of
game. - q
Love, the Whole Law.
Love is the whole law. 1t is not a
question of sects. 1t is not a question
of understanding the book of Reyela-
ton. 1t has nothing to do with the
theory of where Cain got his wife, nor
the size of the Ark, nor Jonah's sub
marine voyage to Nineveh, nor who
wrote the book of Hebrews, nor wheth-
er the second advent of Christ will
| be pre- or post-millennial. What has
love got to do with any of these
| things? Love never discusses the diff
| ference between tweedle-dee end
| tweedle-dum. Love never bubbles over
/ non-essentials. Loves serves with
| Jacob IA years and counts it only a
! few days. Love denies itself of every
comfort and Indignantly repudiates
the charge that sacrifices are hard. 1t
is all boiled down and compressed into
one word of love. Is, that all? That
is all! A person might as well say
of the mighty ocean. 'is that all?"
Fastidious QulbbIers.
If the fastidious hair-splitters could
have their way, there would never be
another Thanksgiving or Christmas
dinner, the Red Cross would never
again minister to the wounded on the
battlefield, every hospital and asylum
would crumble, every pulpit would be
vacant, every creed would be burr ed
up, every church would be disbanded
every government would be over
thrown, every machine would stop
every evil would have full swing, every
aggressive, Satanic, demoralizinl
food of iniquity would overflow socie
ty and debauch mankind. The quib
bier is the ecclesiastical nihilist hay
ing no object in life but to CRITICS,
and destroy.
Understand, there is no objection
to reasonable inquiry. To ask ques
tions is the right and privilege, CnC
should be the aim of every man. Onl!
30, can we obtain light on life's path
way for our guidance through tni
world. There is all the differenc,
imaginable between the man who sin
cerely wants instruction, and the maj
whose popgun mind is only looking 70
material with which to shoot in tn
back the soldiers of truth, or shar .Jel
stilletto with which to assassinat
the worlds deliverers. From sucl