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Show I BR. VANCE'S DAILY ARTICLE o . By DR. JA.UES 1. VANCE. The Christ could put up wk'h publicans publi-cans and skeptics and thieves and prodigals and prostitutes, but he could not stand hypocrites. You will search tho records in vain for any word or .sign from Him on which hypocrisy might build. Tho arraignment Ho brings against it is the moat scathing and sweeping in the Bible. His words burn and blister. He exhausts tho powers of speech to pour out on Hypocrisy the wrath of God. What makes it co bad? . Ho Is not saying, of course, that, hypocrites may not mend their ways; and if- thoy do Uc is not denying them entrance Into heaven. But He seems to say that His hopes of any such chunge-'iKi modest, and He mist have proof. The trouble with the hypocrite is, he is a counteifelt. Hypocrisy is the sin of religion'... It Is, the dovjl wearing the livery "of he.ivtfh.' lt 15 rascality veneered with piety. It Is a scoundrel scoun-drel glossed over with sanctimoniousness. sanctimonious-ness. No wonder these nickel-plated saints arc distrusted. They betray the cause they pretend to serve. They are the deadly foes of Interests they have sworn to promote. Hypocrisy is premeditated deviltry. It Is cool, calculating villainy. It is sacrilego with malice aforethought. Christ can.be patient with sins of Impulse, Im-pulse, with transgressions of the rlesh, but for tho schoming duplicity of tho hypocrite Ho has only a laah of scorpions. Hypocrisy shows that the character Is rotten to-the core. It is more than a llo on the lips.' It is a lie incarnated and lived out In every thought and .plan nnd motive- and purpose. It means there, is -nothing there to build on. It la like-trying to lay a foundation founda-tion in a swamp. It la like trying t6 build on the shifting sand. Ono Can overlook anything but this whlted lio of thg life. He can respect a nan who is open and abovobonrd in his meanness. A man has at least a fighting chance who can look himself him-self In the eye without blushing, but at; for a h pocrlte words fall. |