It was a little matter to charge that Jesus had “an unclean spirit,” but those who did it sinned against the Holy Spirit, and are in danger of “eternal damnation.”
It was a little matter for Ananias and Sapphira to lie about the price of their possessions, but it was soon followed by a judgment from the Lord.
It was a little matter for the Corinthians to get up a feast when they met to worship, but on account of it many were sickly, weakly, and some had died.
Some of the little matters now among us will be found sufficient to stop the ark of God, and cause more than three thousand to be defeated. If Moses were to address some of our men, he would say to them, as he did to Aaron, “What hath this people done to thee that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them?” or as Joshua said to Achan: “Why hast thou troubled us? The Lord shall trouble thee this day.” Let us hear and live.
[ONE IDEA ISM.]
WE are asked to define what we mean by one-idea ism, and explain to us how the universe is made up of atoms. With this request we will cheerfully comply. It is to be carried away with one idea. The idea may be a good one, or it may not; but one-ideaism, is giving an idea undue importance. A man addicted to one-ideaism, can no more cover it than a leopard can change his spots. If he attempts to pray, he will commence with something else as a stepping stone, regularly paving the way and unmistakably making his way to his favorite idea. When it is put forth and he is delivered of it he is relieved for the time being, especially, if he finds that it annoys some one. If you call on him for an exhortation, a sermon, or if he writes, he may wind round and round, trace back and forward, but it will, in spite of himself, in all his efforts to conceal it, be manifest to all, that he takes no interest in all he is saying, only as it subserves his purpose, in paving the way to the one idea, the center around which the whole man revolves, and to which his entire existence is subservient. If that one idea is not dragged in, the man is not relieved, his burden is still upon his soul, and he is in travail waiting to be relieved.
You will see this class of men at meetings, and conventions, both political and religious, without the most distant idea of promoting the objects of the meeting, convention, etc., as the case may be, but with no higher aim than introducing their idea to notice, making the meeting an engine, and men, met under other obligations, and with the ostensible object of the meeting before them, instruments to carry the pet idea on the high road to fame. Sometimes this class of men, because other men have other objects in view, are actually engaged in some good and great work, have not time, will not be annoyed nor turned aside to hear them nor dispute with them; or, if they do, give them but a passing notice—think all the world afraid of them. But they need have no fears on this score. An idea that has not force enough to burst its way forth in the world in defiance of all fogies and conservatives, would die a natural death, if the parent of it could get some one to bring it forth.