The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1886-08-26
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
How Men Are Measured by Their
Own Yard-Stick.

- w - !. 49, - ~S~~@es
uard Thoughts Concerning Others Being
Their Own Retribution-Ths Question
Of Hereditary Tendency-Dsal
Kindly with Others Fspltsai
Rev. T. De witt Talmage, while visiting
Che summer watering place, Asheville,
N. c., preached the following sermon to q
large congregation, hundreds going from
the surrounding region to hear him. He
took for his text:
With what measure ye meet. it shall be
measured to you again.-Matthew viii. q
DR.. Talmage said: In the greatest ser.
mon ever preached-a sermon about fif-
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 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 a great deal of unfairness in
the criticism Of human conduct. 1t was
to smite that unfairness that Christ ut
tered the words of the text, and my SER
mon will be a echo of the divine senti-
ment. In estimating the misbehavior of
otherswe must take into consideration the
pressure of circumstances. 1t is never
right to do wrong, but there are degrees
of culpability. When men misbehave or
commit some atrocious welcomes we are
disposed Unfortunately to tumble them
all 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-.
doings of others, we must take into calcu-
lation the hereditary tendency. Th" re is
such thing as good blood, and there is
such a 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 record
in that regard. There have been esca-
pades and maraudings, and scoundrelisms
and moral deficits all the way back,
whether you call it kleptomania, or pyro-
mania, or dipsoman a, or whether it be liz
. milder form and amount to no mania at
all 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
truthfulness, there are others who start
life with just the opposite tendency, and
they are born liars, or born indictments,
or born outla VS., or born swindlers.
There is In England school that is
called the Princess Mary School. All the
children in that school are the children of
convicts. The school 10 supported
by high patronage. / had the pleas.
ure Of being present at one of their an
niversaries, in 1879. presided over by the
Earl Of Kintore. By wise law in En-
gland, after parents have committed q
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-
cious and kindly Influences shall be
brought upon them. OF course the experi-
ment 10 young, and it has got to be demon-
strateds how large q percentage Of the chill
dren Of convicts may be brought up to
responsibility and usefulness. But we all
know that it is more difficult for children
ofbad parentaKe to do right than for chill
dren Or good parentage.
Inthis country we are taught by the
Declaration Of American Independence,
that all people are born equal. There
never was greater Misrepresentation put
an one sentence than in that sentence
which implies that we are all born equal.
You may as we'll say that fiowers are born
equal or trees are born equal, or animals
are born equal. Why does one horse cost
5000 and another horse cost S. 900? Why
does one sheep cost ten dollars and an
other sheep cost $500? 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
eenient in your criticism of those who W ere
born wrong, in whose ancestral line there
was hangman's knot, or who
came from tree the fruit of which for
centuries has been gnarled and worm
eaten. pr. Harris, a reformer, gave some
marvellous statistics in his story of what
he called Margaret, the Mother of Grim
Snals." Ninety years ago she lived in a
village in upper New York State She as
not only poor, but she was vicious. She
was not well provided for. There were no
aims-honses 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
ninety years ago. There have been six
hundred and twenty three persons in that
ancestral line, two hundred Of them GRIM
inals. In one branch Of that family, there
were twenty, and nine of them have been
In State prison, and nearly all of the others
have turned out badly. It il 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 ac-