The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-09-10
CHRISTSPITY FOR ALL MEN.
AN EMPHASIZING SERMON BY THE
 REV. DR. T. T. MUNGER.

Different Ways in which We Regard Our Fellow Men-christ Looked on All with Pity-rho Reasons for This-The Element
 of Chance in the Formation of Mems Lives and Characters.
 Rev Dr. F. T. Munger. pastor Of the
 United church, preached most
 thoughtful and interesting sermon be-
 fore large congregation yesterday
 morning His theme was "Christ's Pity
 for Men," and he spoke from the text
 Matthew. 9:36.
 His discourse was in the main as follows:
 "There are several ways in which We
 are prone to look at out fellow men. Some regard them with utter indiffer-
 ence; others with complaisance and good nature; some with good will and
 solicitude for their welfare, and still others with contempt-each according to the bent of his own nature. Taken as a whole, men are so ignorant, so re- pulsive that 1t Is often times hard to re-
 press this feeling of contempt. With Christ, however, 1t was not so. In Him
 we have the example of one who looked
 at men with deep, steadfast and abid-
 ing pity. He felt in but few ways, but they are great and noble ways. He had a broad nature that looked forth on all beside Him with love and pity. He saw not world to be regarded indifferent ly. condemned or dispised, but people of great need for pity.
 "The Hebrew nation was fraught in corruption and confusion of thought at 1 the time Christ was on the earth. Under the oppressive yoke of Rome their na- | tional life had been hopelessly runied.
 In the temple was hard-grinding selfish
 ness, immortality and the hypocracy of
 the high priests. Everything rung hol-
 low to the touch. It was upon such state of things that Christ opened His
 eyes. His people were heavily taxed and
 mocked at. The world into which He | came was not good one.
 But there was one habit that Christ | always avoided. He would not judge | others. The reason for this was that
 looking on the large side He saw that it would be unjust and cruel. He looked at 1 causes. And this is always the mark of l the thinker. Let the appearance wait. | He saw. that the reason for the de- | graded life of the people was because | they had no leaders. Christ also saw
 what wonderful part that which is
 commonly called chance plays in all n rho
 chance temptation, chance word may
 change the whole course of ones life. l Man is the weakest and most plastic | of all creation. He receives the inn pressions- of all nature. What is it
 makes man what he Is? You cannot | tell. He Is the product of all that has gone before him, and all that is going
 on in him. But not wholly so. The great l element of personality enters in-the
 will that says I can, the conscience
 that says ought. There has been too much treatment
 of men as beings who can merely do
 right or wrong, and it is to be regis
 tered accordingly. Theology has treat ed him principally as a sinner. A sin
 ner he is surely, but a good deal besides. | The new doctrine, however, is one of
 environment. The circumstances which have exerted formative influences on the lives of men are being taken into | account. It is perceived that it is by. these that men are often corrupted. There are signs of great humanitar- ian movement which will draw into it | the whole Christian church. True, it l has always been humanitarian, but
 what now is needed is more of Christ's
 pity. It has in it great power. It takes | the large view of things, which holds
 us back from nasty Judgment or con- tempt. The ,Christ-pity is active and
 inexorable. It never gives over. Christ
 lived and died in the full exercise of
 this pity. It was because of it that l His heart beat as one with Gods. It
 was deep and powerful and redemptive.
 1t is right and just to condemn evil But it is higher and nobler to suspend | judgment and to pity. What am I, or | what are you, that we should judge our brethren? The opinion of a sound na- | ture on the evil doings of another may
 be taken for granted. But they do not reveal very high nature nor do they help to cure the evils they despise. Love created the world, and Love only
 can reveal it. The mass of humanity
 is driven back and forth in an ever struggling tide of woe and misery-poor, ignorant suffering, subject to a thou
 sand temptations. If we look at men
 in that way, can we but pity?
 Tt is even so in the present indus
 trial contest. Labor is denouncing cap
 ital and capital is denouncing labor.
 the one with the torch in its hand and
 the other with the lash. Neither side
 perceives that they are all only part
 of great movement by which society is being borne forward. Neither is
 wholly right or wholly wrong"
 WdTTTN<r