The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1886-08-09
TALN,AGES SERMON.
How Men Are Measured by Their
Own Yard-Stick.
1ssd thoughts Concerning Others Rein g
Their Own Retribution-The Question
of Hereditary Tendency-Deal
Kindly With Others Faults.

Of Hereditary Tendency-Deal
Kindly With Others Faults.
Rev. 7. De Witt Talmage, while visiting
ne summer watering place, Asheville,
n. c., preached the following sermon to a
large congregation, hundreds going from
She surrounding region to hear him. He
sOok for his text:
With what measure ye meet. It shall be
measured to you again.-Matthew vii. 2.
DR.. Talmage said: In the greatest ser.
non ever preached-a sermon about If
teen minutes long according to the ordi.
nary rate of speech-a sermon on the
Mount of Olives, the preacher sitting
while he spoke, according to the ancient
mode of oratory, the people were given to
understand that the same yard. stick that
they employed upon others would be en-
ployed upon themselves. Measure others
by harsh rule, and you will be measured
by harsh rule. Measure others by a
charitable rule, and you will be measured
by a charitable rule. Give no mercy to
others, and no mercy will be given to you.
With what measure ye mete, 1t shall be
measured to you again.
There is great deal Of unfairness in
She criticism of human conduct. 1t was
10 smite that unfairness that Christ ut.
tered the words of the text, and my ser.
mon will be re- echo of the divine senti.
ment. In estimating the misbehavior Of
others we must take into consideration the
Of orc 10
right to do wrong, but there are degrees
Of culpability. When men misbehave or
commit some atrocious wickedness we are
disposed Unfortunately to tumble them
oil over the bank of condemnation. Suffer
they ought and suffer they must, but in
difference of degree.
In the first place, in estimating the mis-.
aongs of others, we must take into calcu.
iation the hereditary tendency. Th re is
such thing as good blood, and there is
such thing as bad blood. There are
families that have had moral twist In
Them for hundred years back. They have
not been careful to keep the family ecord
In that regard. There have been esca.
pades and maraudings, and scoundrelsns
and moral deficits all the way back,
whether you call it kleptomania. or pyro'
mania, or dipsomania, or whether it be in
Amilder form and amount to no mania at
MI The strong probability is that the
present criminal started life with nerve,
muscle and bone contaminated. As some
start life with natural tendency to no.
bility and generosity, and kindness and
iruthfulness, there are others who start
life with just the opposite tendency, and
they are born liars, or born malcontents,
Or born outlaws, or born swindlers.
There is In England q school that is
rallied the Princess Mary School All the
children in that school are the children Of
ronvicts. The school IL supported
by high patronage. I had the pleas.
IRE Of being present at one of their an.
niversaries, in 1879, presided over by the
gland, after parents have committed
certain number of crimes, and thereby
shown themselves incompetent rightly to
bring up their children, the little ones are
taken from their pernicious influences and
put in reformatory schools, where all gra.
sious and kindly influences shall be
brought upon them. OF course the expert.
nent is young, and 1t has got to be demon.
strated how large percentage Of the chill
aren of convicts may be brought up to
responsibility and usefulness. But we all
know that it is more difficult for children
OF bad parentage to do right than for chill.
dren or good parentage.
In this country we are taught by the
Declaration of American Independence,
shat all people are born eqnal. There
never was greater Misrepresentation put
In one sentence than in that sentence
which implies that we are all born equal.
You may as well say that flowers are born
equal or trees are born equal, or animals
are born equal. Why does one horse cost
$500 and another horse cost 5000? Why
does one sheep cost ten dollars and an
other sheep cost $5OO' Difference In blood.
We are wise enough to recognize the diff
ference Of blood in horses, in cattle, In
sheep, but we are not wise enough to
make allowance for the difference in the
human blood. Now demand by the law
Of eternal fairness that you be more
ienient in your criticism Of those who were
born wrong, in whose ancestral line there
vas hangmanS knot, or who
came from tree the fruit Of which for
centuries has been gnarled and worm.
eaten. DR.. Harris, q reformer, gave some
marvellous statistics In his story Of what
he called Margaret, the Mother of Grim.
inals." Ninety years ago she lived in q
village in upper New York State. She was
aot only poor, but she was vicious. She
vas not well provided for. There were no
slms-houses there. The public, however,
somewhat looked after her, but chiefly
scoffed at her, and derided her, and pushed
her farther down in her crimes. That was
ainety years ago. There have been six
Hundred and twenty three persons in that
ancestral line, two hundred of them Grim.
mails. In one branch Of that family there
we're twenty, and nine Of them have been
Ia State prison, and nearly all Of the others
Aavs turned out badly. It 10 estimated
that that family cost the county and State
one hundred thousand dollars, to say moth.
ing of the property they destroyed. Are
you not willing, as sensible people, to &C.
knowledge that 1t is fearful disaster to
~ born in such an ancestral liner Does 1t
not make great difference whether one
descends from Margaret, the mother of
criminals, or from some mother in Israeli
whether you are the son Of Ahab, or the
son of Joshuas 1t is very different thing
10 swim with the current, from what it is
10 swim against the current. as some of
you have no doubt found In your summer
Decreation. f-.
II man find himself In an ancestral
surrent where there is good blood flowing
smoothly from generation to generation,