Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1886-08-05
TEMPERED JUSTICE.
The Rev. DR.. Talmage Speaks
Words Full Of Advice.
Bad Ancestors Responsible for Many ,
Mans Misdeeds No Human Being
Beyond All Danger Of q
Downfall.
Special to tie Kansas Cty Times

pDct"W tVt@ hHHsIS tWy lWeM
AsHEvrLLE, N. C., July e5 The Rev.
Dewitt Talmage, D. D., is here at this grei
summer watering place spending few day
Vast throngs from all The surrounding regior
came in to attend the religious service to-da
After singing and prayer aud scripture exho
tation, Dr. Talmage preached a sermon o
the subject Measured by Your Own Yart
stick" The text was from Matthew, VIII,
with what measure We mcte, II shall be meat
ured to you again" pr. Talmage said
In the greatest sermon ever preached
sermon about fifteen minutes long accordin
to the ordinary rate Of speech-a sermon o
the Mount of Olives, the preacher sittin
while He spoke, according to the ancien
mode of oratory, the people were given to IN
derstand that the same yard stick that the
employed Upon others would be employees
upon themselves. Measure others by hars
rule, and you will be measured by hars
rule. Measure others by charitable rule
and you will be measured by a charitabl
rule. Give no mercy to Others and no mere
will be given to you. with what mcasur
ye mete, 1t shall be measured to you again"
UNFAiRSEss in HUMAN CRITICISM.
There is great deal of unfairness in tn,
criticism Of human conduct. 1t was to smit,
that unfalrness that Christ uttered the word
Of the text, and my sermon will be reecht
OF the divine sentiment. In estimating tn,
misbehaylor Of others We must take into con
sideration the pressure of circumstances, i
is never right to do wrong, but there are de
grccs of culpability. When men misbehavt
or commit some atrocous wlckedRess we aro
disposed Unfortunately to tumble them ali
over the bank of condemnation. Suffer they
ought and suffer they must, but in difference
of degree.
In the first place, In estimating the msdo
ing of others we must take into consideration
the hereditary tendency. There is such a
thing as good blood and there is such thing
as bad blood. There are families that have q
moral twist in them for hundred years back.
They have not been careful to keep the family
record in that regard. There have been es-
capades, and maraudings, and scoundrelisms
and moral deficits all the way back, whether
you call 1t kleptomania, or pyromana, or dip.
somania, or whether it be In a milder form
and amount to no mania at all. The strong
probability is, that the present criminal
started life with nerve, muscle, and bone con-
taminated. 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.
CARING FOR CoNvICTs' CHILDREN
There is in England a school that is called
the Princess Mary school. All the 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, presided over by the
earl of Kintore. By a wise law in England
after parents have committed certain mum
nf md CHI al,
incompetent rightly to bring up their children
the little ones are taken from under PERM
cious influences and put in reformatory
schools, where all gracious and kindly influ-
cnces shall be brought upon them. or course
the experiment Is young and it has got to be
demonstrated how large a percentage of the
children OF convicts may be brought I'D to
and usefulness. But we all
know that it is more difficult for children of
bad parentage to do right than for children of
good parentage.
In this country we are taught by the Declar-
alton Of American independence that all peo-
pie are born equal. There never was greater
put in one sentence 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 ami
mails are born equal. Why does one horse cost
500 and another horse cost $50, 900! Why
does one sheep cost SO and another sheep cost
$500! Differences in blood. We are wise
enough to recognize the difference of blood in
horses In cattle, in sheep, but we are not wise
enough TO make allowance for the difference
in human blood Now | demand by the law of
eternal fairness, that you be more lenient in
your criticism of those who were born wrong,
in whose ancestral line there was a hangman's
knot, or who came from a tree the fruit of
which for centuries has been gnarled and
MOTHER MANY CRIMINALS
DR.. Harris, a reformcr, gave some marvellous
statistics IN his story of what he called MAR
garet, 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 well provided for.
There were no almshOuses there. The public,
however, somewhat looked after her, but
chiefly scoffed at her and derided her and
pushed her further down in her crimes. That
was ninety years ago There have been 623
persons in that ancestral line, 200 of them
In one branch Of that family there
were twenty and nine of them that have been
in state prison, and nearly all of the others
have turned out badly. II is estimated that
that family cost the county and state 500, 900,
TO say nothing of the property they DESTROYED.
Are you not willing, as sensible people, to ac-
knowledge that it Is a fearful disaster to be
born in such an ancestral line! Docs it not
make great difference whether one descends
some mother in lsrael-whcther you are the
son Of Abab or the son Of Joshua!
IL 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 your summer recreation. If man find
himself in an ancestral current where there is
good blood flowing smoothly from generation
to generation, it is not a very great credit to
him If he turn out good and honest, and pure,
and noble. He could hardly help it. But sup.
pose he Is born in an ancestral line in a he
reditary line where the influences have been
bad and there has been coming down over
moral declivity, If the man surrender to the
influences he will go down under the overmas-
tcrng gravtation unless some supernatural
aid be afforded him. Now, such a person de-
serves not your eXcOriatiOn, but your pity. Do
not sit with the lip curled in scorn, and with
M assumed air of angelic innocence looking
down upon such moral precipitation. You
bad 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
HEREDITARY EVIL IN THIS WORLD.
In Great Britain and in the United States,
in every generation, there are tens of thou
sands of persons who are fully developed
criminals and ncarcerated. / say in every
Then, / suppose, there are tens
~ thousands Of persons not found out in their
In addition to these there are
.cHs of thousands Of persons who, not posi-
lively becoming criminals, nevertheless have
: criminal tendency. Any one of all those
thousands by the grace of God may become
hristian and resist the ancestral influence,
and open a new chapter Of behavior; but the
7ast majority Of them will not and it becomes
all men, professional, unprofessional, minis
ers~of religion, judges Of courts, phianthro-
lists and Christian workers, to recognize the
act that there are these Atlantic and Pacific
surges of hereditary evil rolling on through
the centuries.
dency just as in the ancestral line mentioned
the same line in which there was wicked
Rchoboam and desperate Manassas, there
afterward came pious Joseph and glorious
Christ But, my friends, you must recognize
the fact that these influences go on from gen.
Grafton to generation. / am glad to know,
however, that a river which has produced
nothing but miasma for a hundred miles may
after awhile turn the wheels Of factories and
help support industrious and virtuous popula-
tions, apd there are family lines which were
poisoned that are bened ction now. At the
last day it will be found out that there are
men who have gone clear over into all 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.
BAD INFLUENCES OF SURROUNDINGS.
But, supposing now that in this age when
there are so many good people, that come
down into this audience and select the very
best man in II. i do not mean the man who