The Norfolk weekly news-journal., 1911-12-29
SATURDAY NIGHT
&XNYj1lN|SERMoNs
,WSMN@ ~
3 REvSAMUEL
MpURVISDD
THE LAUGHTER OF THE ALMIGHTY.

MOI many can btnnu rlulCuc. IL
you're loved you open up and ripen la
the sunshine, II you're hated you
brace up like n pine tree in the gale,
but IL you are laughed at you'll with
er and wilt. You dislike April !.
Some youngster may pin card on
your coat. A farmer found his lost wal
let on the street on April fools day.
Hundreds passed by. but all smiled
the air or walked around It with
They dreaded being laughed at. Sir
Walter Scott said ridiculc was the
dread OF his childhood. IL broke poor
Keats heart. There are young men
who'd risk ruin and downfall rather
than risk ridicule. Boys stop going to
Sunday school, men to church, II some
worthless corner loungcr sneers. Had
John Alexander Dowie been beaten in
the streets of New York and couple
Of his followers been burned mt the
stake he would have returned to Zion
City with thousand converts and
81 100000, but the newspapers laugh
ed at him. The result is history.
The Mockery of Sin.
Consequences are IMPLYING" said
George Eliot. A fearful sentence!
Soul death is the consequence of sin"
That is what the old book declares,
THE wages of sin Is death" Man IL
rim
years and ten. Sin cuts down his
time one-half. Sin ia n cerebro spinal
meningitis that battles earthly cure.
Sin is a boomerang. Strikes when the
danger seems over. Sin is trail OF
powder we lay from our house to the
train track where the sparks fall.
Then we forget Some day the unex-
pected happens. The spark and the
trail of powder do their work. Yes.
consequences are Implying. The aero
bat who stood on his head Mt the edge
of Glacier point, in the Yosemite, with
5000 feet of clear drop beneath him.
and the boatman who tries to see how
far he can go toward Buckhorn island.
in the Niagara river above the falls,
are fair types OF the man playing with
sin. Some day the rocks Of Yosemite
and the Maid of the Mist will laugh ae
the foolhardy. Consequences are I'M
plying. Repeat IT over and over
again as you would your A b c or
your multiplication table ''The wages
Of sin is death" Wages. 1t isn't
throwing dice; no gamblers luck. It's
wages. Indeed, some are so anxious
to give the devil his dues that they
pay In advance. "Fools mock at sim"
says the word Yes. and sin gibes at
fools too.
The Laughter Of the Almighty.
It's an awful thing to have God
hooking at you. Gods smile is pleas
ure. Gods laughter is derisive. He
often works through natural agencies.
Captain Philip OF the Texas said the
side which fires first shot In a Sunday
battle has always been defeated. Ger
vera deliberately chose the hour when
the American fleet were Mt worship
for his running fight. His battered
hulks still lie bleaching on the Antil-
lean shore. Every asylum, prison.
almshouse. is Gods laughter at men
who defied him. Men laugh at SAM
tary laws and typhoid gibes at them.
They laugh ut social laws and ostra-
cism taunts them. They laugh at
moral law and loathsome disease
plaques them. Did | say law was
gliding at them? Possibly the Lawgiver
that sitteth in the heavens was hold
ing them in derision.
God Is Not Mocked"-
1t is so easy to laugh at Gods serv-
ants and their warnings. Men laughed
at Noah. He was the jest of his day
the old dolt, building his ungainly ark.
Many n gibe he endured. Then the
heat lightning of Gods displeasure
flashed its banner across the darken-
ing sky. The low mutter Of the thun-
der turned to crashing in the heavens.
Then the fountains Of the deep were
opened. A flood? No: Gods laughter!
Lot goes through the streets of Sodom
at midnight. warning. Men laugh
the old crank. the old fanatic. Was it
ire ana birthstone cracking In the
SuIIJuurOuS atmosphere! NO. NOu y
laughter. IL that shrek in the pal
ace? No; the laughter of God. There's
shout OF horsemen and rumble or
chariot wheels. XIII men! Capture
women! Whet your swordsr' The
chariots drag; the horses stumble; the
drivers curse; the waters are return
ing. Is that hooking? Who is laugh
ing? God! he that stitch in the
heavens has them in derision. Christ
warns the Jewish rulers of the COM
ing Of Titus and Vespasian and the
destruction OF the temple and that
Jerusalem will lie in dust and ashes.
Huh! No one believes that. But the
most dreadful siege in human history
tells Of the mockery of him who is the
God of judgment All OF Gods pre-
dictions Of judgment on individual and
nation have come true to the let
ter. Men escape preaching and laugh
amusedly ut the church. But they
cannot escape God that way. Preach
ers often wish they could get all the
careless and Indifferent to the gospel
call. But there is to be a meeting that
every infdel will attend, and every
sinner, every stingy. I'M
fOrpiyinP pXcuSn making churcb MAN