The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1886-08-11
DR. TALhAGE'S SERMON.
MEASURED BY YOUR OWN YARD
STICKS.
preached at Asheyills, N. C.l

Preached at AsheVille, N. C.l
Text: "With what measure ye mete, 1t
shall be measured to you again" Matthew
vii, 2.
In the greatest sermon ever preached-a
sermon about fifteen minutes long, according
to the ordinary 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 woald be en-
harsh rule and you will be measured by a
harsh rule Measure others by charitable
rule, and YOU will Ee measured by charita-
bic rule Give no mercy to others, and no
mercy will be given to you. with what
measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you
again"
There is a great deal Of unfairness in the
criticism of human conduct. 1twar to snite
that unfairness that Christ uttered the words
Of the text, and my sermon will be re-echo
of the Divine sentiment. In estimating the
miSbehavior Of others we must take into con-
sideration the pressure of circumstances. 1t
is never right to do wrong, but there are de-
grees of culpa6ility. When men misbehave
or commit some atrocious wickedness we are
disposed indiscriminately to tumble them all
over the bank Of conde .nnation. Suffer they
ought and suffer they must; but in difference
of degree.
In the first place, in estimating the mis-
doing of others we must take into calculation
the hereditary tendency. There is such
thing as good blood and there is such thing
as bad blood. There a families that have
had moral twist in them for hundred
years back. They have not BEEN careful to
keep the family record in that regard. There
have been escapades and maraudngs and
scoupdrelisms and moral deficits all the way
lack, whether you call it kleptomania or
pyromania or dipsomania or whether it be
in milder form and amount to no mania at
all The strong probability is, that the pres
ent criminal started life with nerve, muscle
and bone contain mattel. As some start life
with natural tendency to nobility AMI gen.
erosity, and kindness and truthfulness, there
are others who start life with just the oppo-
site tendency, and they are born liars, or
born malcontents, or born outlaws, or born
swindlers.
There is in England school that is called
the Princess Mary School. All tho children
in that school are the children of convicts
The school is supported by high patronage.
had the pleasure Of being present at one Of
their anniversaries in 1879, presi Led over by
the Earl of Kintore By wise law in Eng
land after parents have committed certain
number Of crimes and thereby shown them
selves incompetent rightly to bring up their
ILo iltOie dIe UlAeu iIO-ll
pernicious influences and put in reformatory
schools, where all gracious and kindly influ-
en- es shall be brought upon them. OF course
the experiment is young and it has got to be
demon strated how large a percentage of the
children Of convictS may be brought up to
respectability and usefulness. But we all
know that it is more difficult for ch ldren Of
bad parentage to do right than for children
of good parentage.
T,,t fo,,o h,r{ {ha nn-
claration Of American independence that all
people are born equal. There never was a
greater m representation put in one sem
tence 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 800 and another horse
cost so, ,000? Why docs on, sheep cost $40
and another sheep $500! Difference in blood.
We are wise enough to recognize the differ
ence of blood in horses. in cattle, in sheep,
but we are not wise enough to make allow
ance for the difference in the human blood.
Now demand, by thu law Of eternal fair
ness, that you be more len:ent in your criti-
ciSm of those who were born wrong, III
whose ancestral line there was a hangman's
knot, or who came from tree the fruit Of
which for centuries has been gnarled and
worm-eaten. Dr.. Harris, reformer, gave
some marvellous statistics in his story of
what he called Margaret, the mother Of
criminals Ninety years ago she lived in
village in Upper New York State She was
not only poor. but she was vicious. She was
not we'll provided for. There were no aims.
houses there. The public, however, some
what looked after her, but chiefly scoffed at
and derided her, pushed her further down
III her crimes. That was ninety years ago,
There have been 623 persons in that an
cestral line. 200 Of them criminals In one
branch Of that family there were twenty,
and nine Of them have been in
State Prison, and nearly all of thu
others have turned out badly. 1t is esti-
mated that that family cost the County and
State SlC0,OO to. say nothing Of the prop
as sensible people, to acknowledge that it is a
fearful disaster to b. born in such an aucss-
tral line? Does it not make great differ
ence whether one descends from Margaret,
the moth,r Of criminals, or from some
mother in Israeli Whistler you are the soa
Of Ahab or the son Of joshua! 1t is very
different thing to swim with the current
from what it is to swim against the current,
as some of you have no doubt found in yolr
self in an ancestral current where
there is good blood flowing smoothly
from generation to generation it is
not q very great credit to him il
he turns out good and honest and pure and
noble. He could hardly help it But SUD-
pose he is born in an ancestral Gne--in a
hereditary lne--where the influences have
been Dad and there has been coming down
over moral decivity, if the man surrender
to the influences he will 60 down uuder
the overmastering gravitation unless some
supernatural aid be afforded him. Now,
such q person deserves not your excoriation,
but your pity. Do not sit with the lip curled
in s:orn, an with an assumed air of an ,elic
innocence, looking down upon such moral
precipitation. You had better get down on
your knees and first pray Almighty God for
their rescue and next thank the Lord that
you have not been thrown under the wheels
, Of that Juggernaut.
In Great Britain and in the United States,
in every generation, thore ore tens of thou
sands of persons who are fully developed
| criminals and lncarcerated. lsay, 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 CT thousands Of persons who, not
| positively becoming criminals, nevertheless
have criminal tendency. Any one Of all
those thousands by the grace Of God may
become Christian, and resist the ancestral in
! huence and open new chapter of behavior;
but the vast majority Of them will not, and
it becomes all men, professional, unpro-
fessional, ministers Of religion, Judges Of
courts, philanthropists and Christian work
ers to recognize the fat that there are these
Atlantic and Pacific surges Of hereditary evil
rolling on through the centuries.
| say, Ct course, man Can resist this ten
dency, just as in the ancestral line mentioned
in thu first chapter of Matthew. You see
in the same line in which there was wicked
Rehob am and desperate Manassas, there
afterward came pious Joseph and glori-
| r.. i
nize the fact that these influences go on from
reneration to generation. I am glad TO