Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-07-26
SUICIDE By -
JOHN II. FORD, L AOHL Ilh-H'
ENDS 1T ~ xorp OWN
Found UooonsoiorICK" HIS TEXT.

49, ID to You Again'-Ihe Dec
: ar,.t So, that An People are Born
declared FaIse-Possibilities of
an emfffereut Breeds OF Men.
'uu" "dEvILLE, y. c., July 25.--The Rev.
III Dewitt Talmage, -. D., is here at
- ds;great summer watering place spend
g few days. Vast throngs from all
: e surrounding regions came in to attend
e religious service to-day. After sing
r 6 and prayer and Scripture eXhortatlon'
D r. I almage preached sermon on the
5, ib5ect, Measured by Your own Yard
s. icb :" The text was from Matthew viii,
,: 'lWith what measure We mete, 1T shall
be y ensured to you again." DR.. Talmage
sa idk
In Athe greatest sermon ever preached-a
sel mn ~ about fifteen minutes long, according
10 tbt Mprdinary rate OF speech-a sermon on the
Motn NOT Olives, the Preacher, sitting while
y e'-W Uke, according to the ancient mode OF
ofaI M, the people were given to understand
thatpIVe same yard-stick that they employed
uuOn Id tthers would be employed upon them
sci ives. 1Measure others by harsh rule, ana
you W Hbe measured by a harsh rule. Meas
urse 9th 4fs BY a charitable rule, and you VIII
be\measH by charitable rule. Give no
mesrcy tMAothers, ant no mercy will be given
to- you EWith what measure ye mete 1t shall
1besm assy1fed To you again"
Their W. great dead of unfarness in the
cr1tIoistntnf human conduct 1t was to smite
that;upi rness that Christ uttered the words
of tine te ~ and my sermon will he a re-echo
of the Gne sentiment. In estimating the
misbehayHr of others we must take into con
eiderati0tV the pressure of circumstances 1t
is never Night TO do wrong, bat there are de
grees of Ilpablity. When men misbchave
or commiNsome atrocious WiCkedness we are
disposed Unfortunately to tumble them all
over the baok Of condemnation. suffer they
ought and suffer they must. but in difference
of degree
- the first place, in estimating the mlsdoing
Fothers we must take into Calculation the
ofredltary tendency. There is such thing
- good blood and there ls such thing as bad
Eblood. There are families that have had n
moral twist in them for hundred years back.
They have not been careful TO keep the family
record in that regard. There have been es-
napades and maraudings and scoundrelsms
and moral deficits all the way back, whether
you cal IL kleptomania or pyromanla or dlp-
somanla,s or whether 1t be in II milder form,
and amount to no mania at all. The strong
probability Is, that the present criminal start
ed life with nerve, muscle and bone contami-
mated. a. some start life with II natural ten
denoy to nobility and generosity, and kind
ness and truthfulness, there are Others who
start life with just the opposite tendency, ami
they are born liars. or born malcontents, or
born outlaws, or born swindlers.a
There Is in England a school that is called
the Princess Mary school. All the children
in that school are the children of convicts.
The school is supported by high patronage.
had tbe pleasure of being present at one of
the Earl OF Kintore. BY wise law in Eng
land, after parents have committed a certain
number of crimes and thereby shown them
selves incompetent rightly TO bring up their
children, che little ones are taken from under
observation-disclosures and put IN reformatory
schools, where all gracious and kindly intlu-
enoes shall be brought upon them. OF course
the experiment Is young and II has got TO be
demonstrated how large a percentage OF the
children of convicts may be brought up To
respectabllity and usefulness. But we all
[ \ al
bad parentage to do right than for children OF
good parentage.
In this country we are taught by the decla-
ration of American independence that all
people are born euual. There never was a
greater misrepresentation put in one SEN
tence than in that sentence which implies
that we are all born equal. You may as well
say that flowers are born equal, or That trees
are born equal, or animals are born equal.
Why does one horse cost 500 and anoCner
horse cost $5c, OOO2 Why does one sheep cost
SO and another sheep cost $500? Difference in
blood. We are wise enough TO recognize the
difference of blood IN horses, in cattle, In
sheep, but we are not wise enough 20 make
allowance for, the difference in
the human blood Now de-
mand by the law of eternal fairness,
that you be more lenient in your criticism
of those who were born wrong, in whose an
eestral line there was hangman's knot, or
VINO came from a tree the iruit of which for
centuries has been gnarled and worm eaten.
DIR. Harris, a reformer, gave some marvellous
garrett the Mother of Criminals" Ninety
years ago she lived in "a village in upper New
York state. she was not only poor. but she
was vicious. She was not well provided for.
There were no almsh0uses there. The public,
however, somewhat looked after her,
but chiefly scohed at her, and
Their down in her crimes. That was
ninety years ago. There have been 623 per-
sons in that ancestral line, two hundred of
them criminals. In one branch of that family
there them
been in State prison, and nearly all of the
others have turned out badly. 1t is estimated
that that family cost the county and State
100000, to say nothing of the property they
destroyed. Are you not willing, as sensible
people, to acknowledge that it is fearful
disaster to be born in such an ancestral line?
Does it not make Il great difference whether
one descends from Margaret, the mother of
criminals, or from some mother in Israel?
whether you are the son of Ahab, or the son
OF Joshuaf II is very different thing TO
swim with the current, from what 1t Is TO
swim against the current as some of You have
no doubt found in your summer recreation.
IL a man find himself an ancestral
current where there is good blood
flowing smoothly from generation To genera
alton, IL Is not a very great credit to him II
he turn out good, and honest, and pure, and
noble. He could hardly helpit. But suppose
he is born in an ancestral line in a heredita-
ry line, where the influences have been bad
and there has been coming down over a
moral declivity, If the man surrender to the
influences he will go down under the over
mastering gravitatlou unless some super
natural AID be afforded him. Now such a
person deserves not your eXcOri alton, but
your pity. Do not sit with the lin curled in
scorn, and with an assumed air Of angelic IN
nocence looking down upon such moral pre-
rpitation. You hau better get down on your
knees and first pray Almighty God for their
rescue, and next thank the Lord that Won
have not been thrown under the wheels Of
that Juggernaut.
In Great Britain and in the United States.
In every generation, there are tens of thou
sands OF persons who are fully developed
criminals and incarcerated. 1 say IN every
generation. Then, / suppose, there are tens
Of thousands of persons not found out in their
criminality. In addition TO these there are
tens of thousands of persons who, not posi-
lively becoming criminals, nevertheless have
criminal tendency. Any one of all those
thousands by the grace OF God may become
Christian and resist the ancestral influence
and open new chapter OF behavior: but the
vast majority OF them will not, and it become,
ali men. professional, unprolesslonal, minis
ters OF religion. Judges OF courts, philanthro-
plsts and Christian workers. to recognize the
fact that there are these Atlanuc and Pacific
surges OF hereditary evil rolling on through
the centuries.
say, or course, a man can resist this ten
dency, just as IN the ancestral line mentioned
IN the first chapter Of Matthew. You see in
the same line in which there was wicked
RehobOam and desperate Manassas, there
aiterward came "a piOus Joseph aud glori-
Ous (,nriRt. Kut. frtpuda va