The weekly sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1886-1887, 1886-07-29
TALMAGE AT ASHEVILLE
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE IN NORTH
CAROLINA.

His Sermon Delivered Last sunday-He
ing How People Are Measured by Their
Specially Reported for The Sentinel.
AsHEvILLE n. c., July "a: The Rev.
T. Dewitt Ta!maHe. DID,, is here at
this great summer watering place spend
in. few days. Vast throngs from all
the SURF ounding reg oEs came in to at
tend the religious service to-.ay. After
singing and prayer and Scripture exhor-
tatien. DR.. Talmage preached sermon
on the subject, Measured.by Your Own
Yard-stick" The text was from Matthew
vii, 2: With what measure ye mete,
it shall be measured to you again" DIR.
TalmagA said:
In tn. greatest sermon ever preached
"A sermon ,hout fifteen minutes long
accor.. ing TO thu ordinary rate o. speech
ii sermon on t." Mount OF OF yes, the
Preacher. sit.i : whi,e He spok~. ac-
cortii. & to thu anci..:t node of or. tory,
tho people wer. given to understand
that the same var .-etick hat they en-
plo, ed np.n others would he employed
u:.on themselves. Measure others by a
hnrra rule. and you viii be measured by
a harsh rule. Measure others 10y a
atita BILE rule, and you will b. meas
ured by a charitable rule. Civ no
given to you. " With what measure We
mete, it shall be measured to you
again.
There is a great deal of unfairness In
the criticism of human conduct. It was
to snIt.- that un:aiIness that Christ ut
tered the ~ord- of the text. anG my
sermon will be Il re-echo of the divine
Sc, ,iment. In estimating the misbe-
havior OF others we must take into con-
sid r. tioD the pressure of circumstances.
1t is n.ver ght 20 do wrong. but there
are degrees of cuipability. When men
miaGehave or commit some atfociouS
wic,.-dn-s- we are disposed indiscrimin-
ately 10 tumble them all over the b nix
OF condemnation. Suffer they ought
and suffer they must, but in difference of
degree.
liz the first place, in estimating the
Ri.,;oug of others we must take into
calculation 'he hereditary tendency.
Th.r- il .uch a thing as good lood and
tE.-r- is such a HIT as bad blood. There
are families that have had a moral twist
i'll Item !ur ii hu dre,i years back. They
have not been careful TO kee;, the family
record in That regard. There have be. n
eScal .ad"s and mar atldingS and scoun-
drci :sl..s and moral deficits all the way
bac., whether you call it kleptomania
=
&c IN IL n3ilder form and amount to no
mania III all. The str ng probability is,
that th. present criminal started life
witt. nerve muscle, and bone contamin-
ated. As some start life with natural
tendency to nobility and generosity,
and kindness and truthfulness, there are
| others who start life with just the OPP
polite tendency.
There is in England a school that is
called the Princess Mary School. All
the children in that school are the
children of conricts. The school is
supported by high patronage. 1 had
the pleasure OF being present at one OF
over by the Earl of kintore. By q wise
law in England, after parents have COM
| mitted a certain number of crimes and
thereby shown themselves incompetent
rightly to bring up their children, the
little ones are taken from under PERM
cious influc noes and put in reformatory
| schools, where all gracious and kindly
| influences shall be brought upon them.
| OF course the experiment Is young and
| it has got TO be demon. trated how large
| a percentage Of the children of convicts
| may be brought up to responsibility and
usefulness. But we all know that it is
more difficult for children of bad par
entage to do right than for children oil
| good parentage.
In this country we are taught by the
Declaration of American Independence
! that all people are orn equal. There
never was greater misrepresentation
| put in one sentence than in that sentence
which implies that we are all born equal
| Why does one horse cost 500 and another
horse cost 50 600? Why does one sheer
cost ten and another sheep cost $500
Difference of blood. We are wise enough
to recognize the diffet ence of blood in
horses, in cattle, in sheep, but we are
not wise nough to make allowances fol
the difference in the human blood. Nov
I demand by the law Of eternal fairness
that you be more lenient in your criti
cism of those who are born wrong, il
whose ancestral line there was hang
mans knot, or who came rom tre
the fruit of which for centuries has BEEF
gnaried and worm eaten. DIR. Harris,
reformer. gave some marvellous Stats
tics i'll his story Of what he called Mar
garet, the Mother of Criminals" Ninet,
years ago she lived in village in uppe
New York State. She was not only poo
but she was vicious. She was not wei
provided for. There were no almshouSe
there. The pul lie, however, somewha
looked after her, but chiefly scoffed a
her and derided her, and pushed he
farther down in her crimes. That wa
ninety years ago. There have been 60
persons in that ancestral line, two hun
bred of then criminals. In one branc
of that family there were twenty an
nine of them have l-ecn in State priSo
and nearly all of the others have urne
out badly. 1t is estima: ed that tina
family cost the county and State 500
600. to say nothing of the property the
destroyed. Are you not Willing, as ser
sible people, to acknowledge that it is
fearful disaster to be born in such a
ancestral line? Does it not make a grea
difference whether one descends froI
Margaret, the mother of criminals, Q
) from some mother in Israel? whethe
you are theson of Ahab, or the son c
Joshua? 1t is very different thing t
swim with the current, from what it
/ to swim against the current, as some {
you have no doubt found in your sun
mer recreation. If man find hinse
i'll an ancestral current where there
good blood flowing smoothly from geI