The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-08-01
REV. DIR. TALMAGE'S SERMONS
Discourse on the Duty Of Judging Fairly
in Criticising Human Conduct.
All Of Us Would Have Been in He'll Long Ago
Had God Treated Us as Society Treats Some
Families that Have Moral Twist.

| Asheville, N. c., on the subject: Measured by
Your Own Yark-stick" The text was from
Matthew, vii, 2: with what measure ye mete.
| 1t shall be measured to you again DR.. Tai
mage said:
In the greatest sermon ever preached-a SER
mon 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
| yardstick that they employed upon others would
be employed upon themselves. Measure others
by a harsh rule, and You will be measured by a
harsh rule. Measure others by charitable rule
and you will be measured by charitable rule.
Give mercy to others, and mercy will be
given to you. with what measure We mete it
shall be measured to you again"
There is q great deal OF unfa;rness in the criti-
cism of human conduct 1t was &c smite that
unfairness that Christ uttered the words of the
| text and my sermon will be a reecho of the al.
vine sentiment In estimating the behavior OF
others we must take into consideration the pres
| sure Of circumstances. 1t is never right to do
wrong, but there are degrees OF culpaolilty
( " iien men misbehave or commit some atrocious
wickedness we are disposed inGiscriminately 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 misdoing
1 of Others we must take into calculation the he
| reditary tendency. There is such thing as good
1 There families that have had moral twist
4 in them for hundred years back. They have
not been careful to keep the family record In
| that regard. There have been escapades and
maraudings and scoundrelisms and moral def
icits all the way back, whether you call it KEEP
| tomania or pyromania or dipsomania, or whether
4 it be in a milder form. and amount to no mania
at all The strong probability is that tho pres
emit criminal started life with nerve, muscle and
| bone contaminated. AS some start life with
natural tendency to nobility and generosity, and
kindness, and truthfulness there are others who
start life with just the opposite tendency, and
| they are born liars or born malcontents, or
| born outlaws, or born swindlers
| In Great Britain and in the United States In
| every generation, there tens of thousands of
| persons who are fully-developed criminals and
| incarcerated. / say In every generation. Then,
| suppose there are tens of thousands of persons
not found out in their crminaity. In addition
| TO these there are tens of thousands Of persons
| who, not positively becoming criminals never
! theless have criminal tendency. Any one of
| all those thousands, by the grace of God, may
| become Christians and resist the ancestral in
| fiuence, and open up new chapter of behavior;
but the vast majority of them will not, and it be-
comes all men, professional, unprOfessional,
ministers of religion, judges of courts, philan-
thropists and Christian workers, to recognize the
| fact that there are these Atlantic and Pacific
surges of hereditary evil rolling on through the
centuries
Isay. of course, a man can resist this tendency,
| first chapter of Matthew. You see in the same
| line in which there was wicked Rehoboam and
| desperate Manassas. there afterward came a
| pious Joseph and glorious Christ But my
friends, you must recognize the fact that these
| influences go on from generation to generation
/ am glad to know, however. that river which
has produced nothing but miasma for hundred
miles, may after awhile turn the wheels of
| factories and help support industrious and
virtuous populations; and there are family lines
which were poisoned that are benediction now
| At the last day 1t will be found out that there
| are men who have gone clear over into the forms
| of iniquity and plunged into other abandonment,
who before they yielded to the first temptation
| resisted more evil than many man who has
| been moral and upright all his life
But sopposing now, that in this age when
| there are many good people, l come down
| into this audience and select the very best man
| in it. / do not mean the man who would style
himself the BEST for probably he is hypocrite;
| but mean the man who before God is really the
| best will take you out from all your Chris
| tian surroundings. will take you back to boy
hood will put You in depraved home. /
will put you in cradle of iniquity. Who is that
| bending over that cradle? An intoxicated
the ne'ln next roomg Your father The ' neigh
bors come in to talk. and their jokes are
| unclean. There is not in the house Bible or
| moral treatise. but only few scraps of an old
| pictorial. After awhile you are old enough to
get out of the cradle, and you are struck across
the head for naughtiness, but never in any kindly
way reprimanded. After awhile you are old
enough to go abroad, and you are sent out with
| basket to steal If you come home without
| any spoil you are whipped until the blood comes
| At fifteen years of age you go out to fight your
| own battles in this world, which seems
| TO care no more for you than the dog that
| has died of fit under the fence. You are
| kicked about and cuffed and buffeted. Some
| day, rallying your courage, you resent some
| wrong. A man says: "Who are you? know
| who you Your father had free lodgings at
| Sing Sing Your mother she was up for drunk
| enness IN the Criminal Court Get out of my
way, you low-lived wretch!p My brother, sup
| pose that had been tho history of your advent
| and the history of your earlier surroundings
| would you have been the Christian man you are
| to-day, seated in this Christian assemblage? I
| tell you nay. You would have been vagabond
an outlaw, a murderer on the scaffold atoning
| for your crime. All these considerations ought
| to make us merciful in our dealings with the
wandering and the lost.
Again, / have to remark that in our estimate
| of the misdoing of people who have fallen from
| high responsibility and usefulness, we must
| take into consideration the conjunction Of cir
| cumstances. In nine cases out of ten a man who
| goes astray does not intend any positive wrong
| He has trust funds He risks part of these funds
| ia investment. He says Now, if | should
| lose that investment have Of my own property
| five times rs much. and if this investment
| should go wrong l could easily make IL
| up l could five times make it up.'
| With that wrong reasoning he goes
/ on and makes the investment, and it does not
| turn out quite well as he expected. and he
makes another investment, and. strange to saw
| at the same time all his other affairs get en-
tangled, and all his other resources fall and his
hands are tied Now he wants to extricate
| himself. He goes a little further on in the
wrong investment. He takes plunge further
ahead, for he wants to save his wife and chill
| dren, he wants his NAME he wants to save his
membership in the church. He takes one more
plunge and all is lost Some morning at 10 o'clock
| the bank door is not opened, and there is a card
/ on the door signed by an officer of the bank, in
dicatng there is trouble. and the name of the de-
/ faulter or the defrauder, heads the newspaper
| column, and hundreds of men say Good for
him." hundreds of other men say, I'm glad he's
found out at last" hundreds of other mon say,
/ Just as told you;p hundreds of other men say
| owe couldn't possibly have been temnted To do