Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-09-22

because be was satisfied. He was csntsutss
with that statue. And be knew thss thas
content was q sign Of the end. It meant
that he had gone as far in his art as he could
90. 1t meant the end Of Thorvaldsen. Be-
cause content carries with it the ceasing cf
endeavor, and when endeavor Stops growth
stops and the end Of growth is the end Of
life
Even to rs, with our imperfect and mis-
taken vision, the publican was the more
nopeful man Of the two. There was some
cnance OF Improvement In him. He had at
least made that beginning which is just a.
mucn needed for progress In spiritual a. in
natural knowledge = the confession Of
Ignorance and need The Pharisee knew il
all. Nobody could teach him. That IL Q
type OF man which we all recognize and de-
test. To be receptive, to be desirous Of
knowing and growing, is essential ii one
would increase in the favor OF God. That
spirit was wholly lacking in the Phsrisee.
CONTEMPT FOR OTHERS.
The second cause of the Pharisee's failure
was his contempt for others. He thanked
God that it had mercifully pleased Him 70
divide men into two classes. and TO put him
all by himself into class one, and TO rels-
gate all "other men" in one common crowd
to class two. "God, thank Thee that /
am not as other men are" That Is as un-
Christian as anything can be. Christ came
TO drive contempt out of this world and to
BRING brotheriy love in If you will recall
his sayings, you will remember how en-
pnatlcally he reprobates just this spirit Of
unbrctherly despising, and how earnestly
he exhorts to mutual charity and reVer-
ence. We may not call our brother fool,
and think to please Christ.
AND, besides that, contempt is 80 absurdly
unreasonable in most cases. It has so little
TO stand upon. Indeed. it is present for the
most part IN the temper of the very people
VINO have the least reason to trust in them
selves that they are anything. The great
people who know something worth knowing,
and are what is worth being, have not this
spirit. Men who have any real wisdom are
wise enough to see the foolishness Of con-
tempt.
Take Intellectual contempt, the spirit
which says 81 am wiser than thouP' Why,
the most learned Of scholars has no mo-
nopoly of knowledge. A good many other
humber folk know things of which he Is
quite ignorant A man wrote great book
once in Latin and entitled it "De Omnibus
Rebus," Concerning All Things" and
=
Rebus,, "And Few Other Things." But
even that book did not contain quite all the
desirable and movable information In the
world. Every man you see knows more than
you do about something. I suppose it
might be possible to discover among the
readers Of this paper perhaps 10000 who
know even less than do about the pecuIi-
arities Of the heresy Of the Bogomilians
But every one of the 40, 900 knows vastly
more than I do about 20 subjects better
worth knowing.
Take also the case of social contempt,
the spirit which says 81 am politer than
thou" this spirit represents the unChris-
tian element in our society. It puts barriers
between "classes." 1t carries with it the
HEATHEE NOTION OF CASTE.
Now, am sufficiently far from believing
that everybody can be perfectly congenial
with everybody else. Even in Our Fathers
house are t'many mansions, and that seems
to mean that even in heaven we will not be
on exactly the same familiar and loving
terms with everybody. Human nature
separates Us into little circles united BY the
bond of mutual admiration. We are made
that way. Even Christ liked some of the II
Apostles better than others The fact Of
His selecting II friends to be closer to Him
4 III
there is Christian courtesy
and kindness which, fully recognizing diff
ferences. knows no contempt at all. Why,
the essence OF good manners-if we are to
be made to divide society there's simply
and thoughtfulness for others.
And have yet to learn that any "elass" in
society has any monopoly of consideration
and courtesy. Whoever fails in thought
fulness and consideration for the feelings Of
a bootblack or of the humblest household
servant, betrays vulgarity. That is social
pharisaisni-
Then there is religious contempt The
spirit which says 81 am better than thou.
Ah, but are you2 That was what the
Pharisee thought.
The beginning Of all religion is the con-
viction Of sin. Behind the Pharisee's con-
tent and contempt lay this lack which ex-
plains both, he was unconvinced of sin.
Whoever ;s convinced of sin knows no
false content. He keeps on striving and
growing. Whoever is convinced OF sin
knows no unChristian contempt. It il the
people who have big splinters in their own
eyes who are forever discoving small specks
of dust in other peoples eyes. The Begin
ming OF self-knowledge is the beginning of
charity always. Whoever is convinced Of
sin loves Christ. Without that it is i'm
possible fully to love Him. He knows
Christ, not only as the ideal of the best
being, but as the Savior from sin. The
cross Of Christ means something to him.
And so nobody who is unaware of sin really
knows very much about the Christian re-
igion. To be convinced of sin is to begin
% gain the benediction with which the Mas
er ended the parable of the Pharisee and
he Publican: s'He that humbleth himself
hall be exalted" GEORGE HODGES.