The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1886-08-06
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
How Men Are Measured by Their
own Yerd-Sticl<.
bard Thoughts Concerning others Being
Their own Retribution-The Question
OF Hereditary Tendency-Deal
Kindly with Others Faults.


N. c., preached tho following sermon to
large congregation, hundreds going from
the surrounding region to hear him. he
took for his text.
with what measure We meet. &c shall be
measured 20 you again.-Maithew VIII 2.
DIR. Talmage said: In the greatest SER
mon ever preached-a sermon about fife
teen m nutss long according 60 the ordi-
nary rate Of speech-a sermon on the
ri 1unt Of Olives, the preacher sitting
while he sprks. according to the ancient
mode OF oratory. the people were given to
understand that the same yard stick that
tnev employed upon others wouldlbe 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 charitable rule. Give no mercy to
others, and no mercy win be given to you.
with what measure 70 mete, it shall DO
measured to you again.
There is q great deal Of unfaiIness In
the criticism of human conduct IL was
70 smite that unfairness that Christ ut
tered the words OF the text, and my SER
mon W il be re-scho of the divine seDti-
ment. In estimating the mis- behavior of
others we must take into consideration the
pressure of circums ances. It is never
right TO do W. on Z, but there are degrees
OF culpabi,ity. When men misbehave or
commit some atroc4ous wickedness we are
disposed indiscriminatelv 60 tumble them
all over the bank Of condemnation. Suffer
they ought and suffer they must, bus ia
differences Of degree.
In the first place. in estimating the mis-
doings Of otrers, we must take into calcu-
lntiOn the hereditary tendency. Tn re is
suc5 a thing good blood and there Is
l. 4
families ia have had - moral twist in
them ior H hundred years hack. Tney have
no. been ca eful TO keep the family ecord
in that regard. There have been esca-
pa es and mRrauaings, and scoundrelisnis
and moral deficits all tue way back,
whether you call it kleptomania, or pyro-
mania, or dipsoman a, or ether il be in
milder form and amount to no mania at
all The strong probability is hat the
present criminal started lite with nerve,
muscle and bone contaminated. AS some
stni life. with natural tendency to no.
biitv and generosity, and Kindness and
trutnfulnass. there are others who start
life with just the opposite tendency, an
they are torn liars, or born malcon.eDts,
OF born outla US. OF born swindlers.
There is in England a school that lie
called the Princess Mary School. All tho
children in hat school are the children of
convicts. The school is supported
b. high patronage. I hal the pleas
ure of being present at one Of their an
niversaries, in 1879 presided over by the
Earl of Kintore. By a Sc law in En-
gland, after parents have committed a
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 ali graz
cious and kindly influences shall be
brought upon them. or course the experi-
ment is young, and it has got to be demon-
strated how large a percentage Of the chill
dren Of convicts may be brought up to
respectability and usefulness. But we all
know that it is more difficult for children
OF uad parentaQe to do right than for chill
dren or good parentage.
In this country we are taught by the
Declaration OF American Independence,
that all people are born equal. There
never was greater Misrepresentation put
in one sentence than in that sentence
which implies that we are all born equal.
You NAV well say that flowers are corn
equal or trees are born equal, or an imals |
are born equal. Why does one horse cost |
$500 and another horse cost IS, 900? Why |
does one sheep cost ten dollars and an
other sheep cost S5OOe Difference in blood. |
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
leuient ia your criticism OF those who were
born wrong, in whose ancestral line there
was hanpman's knot, or who \
came from tree the fruit OF which for
centuries has been gnarled and worm- !
ea5en..a-D On. HarTis, rsformer, gave some l
marvellous statistics i'm his story Of what
h e called Margaret, the Mother of Grim
inals." Ninety years ago she lived in a
village in upper New Y ork State. She was
not only poor, but she was vicious. She
was not well provided for. There were no
alms-houses there, The public, however,
somewhat looked. after her, but chiefly
scofFed at her, aud derided her, and pushed !
her farther down in her crimes. That was |
ninety years ago. There have been six
hundred and twenty three persons in that /
ancestral line, two hundred OF them crim-
inals. In one branch Of that family there |
were twenty, aud nine Of them have been
On State prison, and nearly all OF the others |
have turned cut badly. It is estimated |
that that family cost the county and State |
one hundred thousand dollars, TO saw moth !
ing of the property they destroyed. Are |
you not willing, as sensible people, to ac-
knowledge that il IS fearful disaster to |
be born in such an ancestral line? Does 1t /
not make great difference whether one |
descends from Marga ct, the mother OF |
criminals, or from some mother in Israeli |
whether YOU are the son of Ahab, or the 1
son OF JoshuaS It is a very different thing |
e. swim with The current, from what il is /
Go swim against the current, as some OF /
you have no doubt found in your summer |
ne .reation.
fra man find himself in an ancestral /
GU, rent where there is good blood flowing |
Bn sothly from generation to generation. I
q IS not a very great credit to him IL be |
turn out good and honest, and pure and |
noble. He could hard y help it. But sup
y, Sc he is BON in an ancestral line where !
che influences have been bad, and there
has been a coming Town over a moral de-
clivity, IL the man surrend er to the infiu-
snces he will go down under the overmas-
tering gravitRtion unless. some supernat-
ura aid be afforded him. Now, such a
person deserves not your excoriation, but |
your pity. Do not sit with. the lip curled \
On scOrn, and with an assumed air Of an
Eelic innocence looking down upon such 4
moral precipitation. You had better get /
down on your knees and hrst pray Al
mighty God FOR their rescue, and next /
thank the Lord that you have not been
thrown under the wheels Of that iugger-
maui.
IN Great Britain and in the United !
ftates, in every generation, there are tens
OF thousands of persons who are fully de- |
veloped criminals and incarcerated. / |
say ~ every generation. Then, sup 1
pose, there are tens OF thousands Of /
persons not found out in their Grim
inRiity. In addition 40 these there /
sav,n ..# #bnwas,Ar ,Fv ,arv-u,.. ,--ss..