Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-09-22
A FATAL IGNORANCE.
Why the Despised Publican Was Pre-
ferred to the Pharisee.
SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESs A FOLLY.
The Sin Of Social, Intellectual and Re-
ligious Contempt,
SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS A T
COURTESY COMMON TO ALL GLASSES


| and religious citizen OF Jerusalem who
went up into the temple in company with q
publican, to pray, and only succeeded in
making bad matter worse? The Pharisee
in that significant parable was apparently a
model of all the virtues. He was an honor
able and square-dealing merchant, he was
an exemplary citizen, and neighbor, snd
husband, and father; he was not as other
men were in those evil days, "extortioners,
unjust, adulterers.n More than that, he
was deacon in the Jerusalem Church, or q
class leader, or vestryman, or an elder, or
whatever corresponded to these honorable
offices; he sat in the front seat in the syna-
gogue; he was the strictest of the strict in
observance of the requirements of religion,
fasting twice a week. And he was
religiously generous. A tenth part Of his
income he distributed among the poor.
And yet as he prayed in the temple. and
beside him stood publican praying also,
and not far away beholding was Christ the
Master, the Man who knew God and men,
somehow the impartial Master, who cared
little for the common judgment and was not
swayed by the popular likes and dislikes-
somehow he preferred the publican. And
this Pharisee, He said, who was accounted
both by his neighbors and by himself to be
abiding in the full light of the approving
benedIction of God, was not approved by
God at all. God liked that foreign hireling
and traitor, that mean, mercenary, grasping
tax collector, better. This fellow from the
lowest class of Jerusalem society, whom
everybody hated and for whom everybody
had haH otno oh Aonf
higher in the esteem of God than this prom
inent citizen and churchman, this popular
and courtly gentleman, whom everybody
liked and about whom nobody could say
anything quite good enough.
AN INTERESTING STUDY.
That is condition of things so peculiar
that it attracts one to study it out. And, as
the case is one which presents possible
analogies in the lives of all good, reputable
people to-day, we study it with so much the
more interest and care. Any of US may
stand in the position of the Pharisee What,
then, we ask with some anxiety, was the
matter with the Pharisee? Why did he
fail?
He failed, our Lord tells us, for q reason
or combination of reasons which He puts
into single sentence: Because he trusted
in himself that he was righteous, and de-
spised others"
There were two kinds Of people of whom
Christ seems to have especially disapproved.
They were those whs trusted in themselves
that they were righteous, and those who de-
spised others. The two disastrous character
Istics very often go together. They did in
the case of this Pharisee. If you want two
words which convey the essential meaning
of these two causes OF the Pharisee's failure,
ba.ra hop mt md mi
estimable citizen and church member made
the failure of failures because Of his content
with himself, and his contempt for other
people.
Because content means fatal kind of
ignorance. Whoever trusts in himself that
he is righteous is almost sure to De ignorant;
to be ignorant, for one thing, of himself.
Either he does not know what sin is, or does
not recognize sin when he sees it. And 30 he
is like the man in the old story which people
used to tell each other in the Middle Ages,
who came one day to his eonfessor, and,
having rehearsed quite number of trifling
peccadilloes, said at last that there was one
sin so grievous that he hardly dared utter it.
He was very sure that God would never for
give him. But the priest persuaded him,
and at last he confessed, with hesitation and
tears, that one Friday his wife was making
cheese, and she asked him to taste it that
she might know whether it was salt or fresh,
and, as he did so. by some fatal misadven-
ture some of it went down his throat. So he
had eaten cheese on Friday.
NEIGHBoRLY ACTION.
Then the priest said: "See here, my son,
learn that there have lately been a good
many robberies in the neighborhood of your
house; merchants passing through the forest
have been wayIald, and, in several instances,
killed. Do you know nothing of these
things?" "Oh, yes" the penitent answered.
81 had something to do with those happenings
of which you speak. believe that I even
killed one man." "But why, then didn't |
you confess that?'' "Why, that was only |
neighborly kindness. My neighbors were |
out on robbing expedition and they wanted |
me to go with them, and went. Was there |
wrong about that?" Some men, I |
am afraid, don't know sin when they see il. |
They have conscience OF so singularly |
combined strictness and looseness, so un- |
yielding and yet elastic, that it will strain |
at gnat and yet make but one bite OF a |
camel.
Or else, content means ignorance not so |
much of sin as of sell. The heart is like |
darkened room. The dust may be an inch /
deep and everything between the four cor
ners may be turned up-side-down, but in the
shutters. Whoever trusts in himself that he
is righteous is most likely making large
mistake. He has no light. He can't see.
This testimony is borne by all the annals of
sanctity that in proportion as men get into
the light of the love and knowledge of God |
they find more in their own lives to be sorry
about.
And content means, also, another kind of
ignorance. 1t means Ignorance not only of
self but of opportunity. Whoever trusts in
himself that he is righteous is pretty surely
overlooking the positive side of duty. In
the DAYS of the Albigensian crusade a man
who was falsely accused of heresy cleared |
himself by an appeal to his manner of life.
It was we'll known what strict lives the
heretics lived II am no heretic," pleaded |
the man, 81 eat and drink whatever I please
and as much as please. and lie and steal
and swear and am good Christianp' That /
would hardly pass to-day as an accurate
description Of good Christian. But there
is no lack of people who say: 81 do not lie.
nor steal, nor swear, nor do this nor that |
and therefore am good Christianl' Wait |
a little my friend.
WHAT GOOD DO YOU DO?
What truth do you speak which men need
to know? What help do you give of which
men stand in need? What are you doing
with your time and your means and your
strength?
How are you employing opportunity? I |
don't believe that God at the last will ask
so very much about the bad things we have
done. 1t will be upon the good things left
undone that the emphasis will be put in
that day of judgment. We will be meas
ured by our misspent opportunities. And !
I have never yet found anybody SO good as I