Charlotte messenger. [volume] (Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) 1882-18??, 1886-08-21
DR.. TALMAGES SERMON
MEASURED BY YOUR OWN YARD
STICKS.

In the greatest sermon ever preached
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 woIld be EN-
ployed upon themselves. Measure others by
q harsh rule, and you will be measured by
harsh rule Measure others by charitable
rule, and you will be measured by charita-
BILE rule. Give no mercy to others, and no
mercy will be given to you. with what
measure We mete, it shall be measured to you
again"
There is great deal of unfairness in the
criticism Of human conduct. 1t wa to smite
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 AXE into con-
sideration the pressure of circumstances. 1t
is never right to do wrong, but there are de-
grees of culpability When men misbehave
or commit some atrocious wickedness we are
disposed indiscriminately 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-
doing of Others we must take into calculation
the hereditary tendency. There is such a
thing as good blood and there is such thing
as bad blood. There a. e 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 maraudings and
scoundrelisrns and moral deficits all the way
back 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
emit criminal started life with nerve, mlscle
and bone contain mated. AS some start life
with natural tendency to nobility and gem
crosby, and kindness and truthfulness, there
are others who start life with just the oppo-
site tendency, and they are born liars, or
born indictments, or born outlaws, 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 is supported by high patronage.
had the pleasure of being present at one of
their anniversaries in 1879, presiie1 over by
the Earl of Kintore. By wise law in Eng
land, after parents have committed a certain
number of crimes and thereby shown them
selves incompetent rightly to bring up their
children, the little ones are taken from under
pernicious influences and put in reformatory
schools, where all gracious and kindly indu-
ences shall be brought upon them OF course
The experiment is young and it has got to be
demonstrated how large peryentage of the
children of convicts may lie brought up to
responsibility and usefulness. But we all
know that it is more difficult for CHI ldren of
bad parentage to do right than for children
of good parentage
In this country we are taught by the De-
claration of American independence that all
people are born equal There never was a
greater Misrepresentation put in one SEN
tence than in that sentence which implies
that we are all born equal You may as well
say tnat flowers are born equal, or trees are
born equal, or animals are born equal Why
does one horse cost 800 and another horse
cost S5O,OOO! Why does one 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 Tor the difference in the human blood
Now demand, by the law Of eternal fair
ness, that you be more lenient in your criti-
clsm OF those who were born wrong, in
whose ancestral line there was hangman's
Knot or who came from tree the fruit of
which Tor centuries has been gnarled and
worm-eaten. DIR. Harris, a 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 well provlded for. There were no aims
houses there The public, however, some
what looked after her, but chiefly scoifel at
and dertded her, pushed her further down
IN her crimes. That was ninety years ago,
There have been 623 persons in that an.
cestral line. 300 of them criminals In one
branch OF that family there we're twenty,
nnd nine OF them have been in
State Prison, and nearly all of thu
others have turned out badly It Is esti-
mated that that family cost the County and
State SlO0,O3O, to say nothing of the prop
erty they destroyed. Are you not wiling.
as sensible people, to acknowledge that it is a
Iearlul disaster to b. born in slch an ances-
tral line! Does it not make a great differ
ence whether one descends from Margaret.
the mother of criminals, or from some
mother IN Israeli VIII ,ther you are the son
OF Ahab or the son of 10 ihla; 1t is a very
9lnerent 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 O man find him
self In an ancestral current where
there is good blood flowing smoothly
from generation to generation it is
not very great credit to him if
he. turns out good and honest aud pure and
noble. He could hardly help it. But sup
pose he is born in an ancestral line--i a
nerecitary line-where the influences have
been bad and there has been a coming down
over a moral declivity, it the man surrender
% the influences he will go down under
the overmastering gravitatiOn unless some
supernatural aid be afforded him Now.
such person deserves not your excoriation,
ouO jun piOJ. 10 HOJSlb WIFI the lid cllrl0d
in seorn, ami with an Assumed air Of an rslic
innocen e, looking down upon such moral
precipitation. You had better get down ON
your knees and first pray Almighty God for
their rescue, aud next thank the Lord TINT
you have not been thrown under the wheels
of that Juggernaut.
In Great Britain aud in the United States.
In every generation, there are tens of thou
sands of persons who are fully develooed
criminals and incarcerated. say, 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 Of thousands of persons who. NOT
positively becoming criminals, nevertheless
have criminal tendency. ANY ono of all
those thousands by the grace Of God NAV
become Christian, and resist the ancestral in
fuence and open a 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 10 recognize the fat that there are these
Atlantic and Pacific surges of hereditary evil
rolling ON through the centuries
! say, Of course. a man can resist this ten
dency, just as in the ancestral line mentioned
IN the first chapter of Matthew. You see
IN the same line in which there was wicsed
Rehob-am and desperate Manassas. there
afterward came pious Joseph and glori-
Gus Christ But, my friends, you NUT recog-
nize the fact that these influences 60 on from