Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1872-02-14
VOICE OF THE PULPIT.
prom the New York Herald. Jan. 2al

NOlCE W InE EOLENIs
From the New York Herald. Jan.2al
Arrogant SeIashnsss Worse than the Sins that
Zen Punish-sernOH By Rev. Henry Ward
Beeeher. f f
Mr.. Beecher preached yesterday
morning from Galatians vi. p" Bear
We one another's burdens and so
/ fulfil the law Of Christi To bear one
another's burdens, said he, does not
mean to take the burden off from our
neighbor's shoulders, but TO help
bear it. This does not exclude the
bearing of burdens of q physical
character; but it is not confined to
these. Whatever is a burden to man
we are to help bear, and there is no
place where q man needs help as
/ inside. Our passions are the chariot
horses of the sun, and we are the
characters, taking the reins with
untried hands. We are to bear these
burdens for each other, and SO fulfil
the law of Christ. No one can adapt
himself to those he would help except
by love, It is the most complex, the
| finest. the most artistic work. If q
man fall. help him; If he fail, restore
him, remembering that you are liable
to the same fall and do this in the
spirit of love. Christ-like piety may
then be known, not only by its purity.
but by its helpfulness to all. Ths
temper of Divine love is to be
nourishing and healing. There is a
duty sometimes of emphasizing the
guilt of sin. There must be moral
shocks over against wrongdoing. Pain
is often the best way TO produce moral
repugnance to evil. But society mis-
measures and laws are coarse. Crimi-
nails are sentenced without any con-
ception of deserts as measured by
motive. In the household we have
the only adequate conception of pun
ishing through love Of the sinner.
The older grow the more certain am
I of the sinfulness of men, and the
more charitable am l; for believe
that men are almost universally weak.
Il don't expect men to carry heavy
burdens. All men ARE temptable in
some directions. One man may not
be tempted by his lower passions, and
be tempted by some gentle, yielding
nature. All metals may be fused,
but each metal at different degree
of heat. The grace OF God can save
man; but, considered as man, there |
is a penetrable place somewhere in
every man. Sympathy is essentially !
curative. In-Our great conflict. when !
the rebel in the hospital was gently !
nursed by the Northern woman, he |
was better cured of disloyalty than by |
the sword. The naughty boy is pun
ished to more purpose blythe mothers
sorrow than by the fathers rod. Both |
hardness and gentleness are operative |
in their turn. Punishment is some
times benevolent, and love is some
times the hardest punishment. This
curative quality, so plain in the
household, Is hard, nay, impossible,
to reduce to terms in theology Can |
you describe q heroic love that beats |
in a mans blood and reduces his /
whole nature TO sweetness and har-
mony and purity? No man has a (
right to use piety to make himself /
exquisltely selfish. We are emigrants
going over the plains together. We
have no right to separate ourselves.
We can't do without the poor. All !
kinds must live together. The top of
the tree would soon wither without
the root. It is the duty of the strong
to take care of the weak it is the
duty of the purity to take care of the
impurity; it is the duty of the honest
to take care Of dishonesty. We must
plunge into the battle and help men,
and not surround ourselves with our
virtues as we would by singing birds,
and sit and enjoy ourselves. We
must not rejoice in iniquity. If
man hunts for the criminal columns
in the newspapers he likes iniquity in
this sense. would as sOon set up
my house in the central sewer OF New
York as to let these impure streams
flow from the newspapers into my
life. In the household the parents
are bound to bear up the child in its
parts. Nineteen out oftwenty
children are taught to lie by their
parents. A lie is often the shield
which fear involuntarily raises. Let
parents be careful that they do not
make their children lie by harshness. l.
Men with power Of any kind should
help the weak and helpless. Here is
q woman that is orderly; every
drawer is foreordained to certain
articles. To this person comes
child with not q particle of order.
ne SlauuluB queSliOu Iot NhcIC
did that child get these traits 2" and
The standing answer is, /" Not from ,
me, my dear" and " Not from me, ,
my dear" A man that is dry is i'm
shocked at the man that is
uicy. A man that is courageous is '
put of patience with the coward. A d
nan is hard and you are gentle. You :
avoid him; you should run over to
him and cover his bluntness with ,
your vines. There are many men I
to-day in open wickedness
whom the Lord Jesus Christ does not ,
plame as much as He does you in I
sour unsullied purity. There are
women in New York whom you would ,
not walk square with to save them,
whom Christ would speak of as ,
He once spoke. Our blessings shall |
not make us Pharisees. By the grace !
IF God ye are what ye are. You are j
not TO take the goodness that God has ]
lurtured in you to play the tyrant j
With. There is one thought that i
helps me-What has Christ done for
ne? Is there a man with so great a [
between him and me as /
me and Christ. 1t is cross
1earing in love that makes you the
disciples of Christ, not the form OF {
'our belief Ir D