Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1898-02-09
ERMONS OF THE DAY

The Ele zenith of the New York Herald.
Competitive Sermons is "The Sin
of Despising Others"-Dr. TaImage
breaches on Craps For the Unwary."
'He that despiseth his neighbor sinneth.'
Prov. xiv, 81.
There is great deal of sin in the world
/ which the ordinary conscience neither
recognizes nor condemns. With most OF
/ US the standard of right and wrong is
purely conventional. Ii we do not break
the letter of the Ten Commandments; il
we keep clear of acts which public opinion
forbids; if We maintain a character upon
I which society sets no brand, then we feel
at peace within ourselves and make sure
! that We are Gods elect.
I We do not see what subtle and far-reach-
I ing things good and evil are how they in
I terweave themselves into all our acts. our
words ana motives, ana secret thoughts
even; and how they depend not upon the
fashion OF the hour or the place, but upon
eternal and interchangeable principles. An
enlightened and sensitive conscience would
see sin in II thousand things which pass
with the majority as Indifferent, if not
actually praiseworthy. 1t is not in nice
points OF religious Observance that places
/ our moral character above suspicion half
/ so much as in those weightier matters of
Justice and mercy and truth which are in
volyed in all the business and intercourse
/ of daily life. Thousands who would trem-
bic to participate in any of the so-called
amusements of society, and who are
as strict and ostentatious as the
Pharisees in regard to PRAYER
and other duties, are yet living in such an
| atmosphere of uncharitableness and wrong
that they are actually further from the
kingdom of heaven than the very pubIi-
cans and harlots. In a terse, direct and
emphatic way form of guilt is pointed
out by Solomon which we seldom think Of
yet which we are all very prone to fall into
and which is one of the peculiarly beset-
tings sins of that large class of men who
are disposed to be religious without being
godly. The chief characteristic of these
people is to trust in themselves that they
are righteous, and to treat others in IA way
which Enthusiastically declares "Stand alOof.
for we are holier than you" and they are
SO far from thinking such spiritual haught-
mess sinful that they regard it as an actual
proof of their divine sOnship. Such con-
duct never fails to insure moral resentment
and to elicit the rebuke, He that desDisl
eth his neiGhbor sinneth."
The parable of the Good Samaritan SUP,
plies most beautiful explanation of tho
word ''neighbor." 1t teaches that every
man with whom we come in contact or re-
lation is to be regarded and treated as our
"nelghbOr." The fact that L know of a
man 5 existence, and that l can in any wav
teach and influence him, is enough to bring
me under responsibility in regard to him
The broad Atlantic may roll between us:
whole continents and burning deserts and
deadly swamps may separate us: but if
there is any channel of communication be-
tween us-any electric current so to speak
by which sympathy may be created and
love may act-that man is truly my
neighbor as if we met in the same market
or lived in the same street
Notice what ii is to despiSe our neighbor. I
To entertain mean and contemptuous
thoughts of our neighbor is obviously to !
lin No she, nl,
that there is vastly more in common than
there is OF difference between the highest (
and more cultured and the lowest and most I
ignorant Frequently, however, we forget /
TINS, and from mere diversity of outward /
circumstances we look upon each other /
with feelings of naughty superiority and /
contempt. AS a consequeE th" Itch and (
.lN st sometimes under, -. " 6
I the low,, .. ,aIue and insl
great, and ascribe all their Importance
solely to their wealth and rank. Surely in
both cases, this is despising their neighbor
forgetting their common humanity, their
common dignity and their common origin.
To treat your neighbor with indifference,
as If there were no ties binding you to-
gether, and no sympathy due from one to
the other is to despise him. The affini-
I ties of human nature are such that it is
treason to place ourselves in proud isola-
ton from the race to which we naturally
belong and gaze upon the sufferings and
| helplessness of our kind with stOical in
difference. such conduct is not only rep
rehensible, it is actually sinful. 1t is sin
full because it is a great wrong done to
, | humanity. 1t rouses within man bitter
bad resentful feelings, which sets class
against class. Its tendency is to destroy
self-respert and let a man once lose thai
and there is no telling what he may be
come.
Again. to despise ones neighbor is al
| offence against social unity. The socia
, organism can only be- held together by
true aud proper recognition of the useful
ness and necessity OF each individual t
1 the whole. Society i one body. Its mem
. bers are manifold. but they are all knit to
7 gether in the closest bonds.
There is no such thing as real independ
ence. And hence for any man to despis
his neighbor is just wrong and foolisI
, as it would be for the head to say to tn
' feet. Il have no need of you" for his in
nuence as far as it goes, operates to tn
= disorganization of society-to the break
q ing up of that unity aud sympathy upo
). which the general happiness and well bein
depend. Despising your neighbor is t
sin against your own soul. By such con
duct the great forces ever operating 70
the formation of your own character an
- the shaping of your own destiny are III
dervalued. We depend upon each othe
3 This offence is also a sin against GOt
n Humanity is His child-the outcast an
II the sinful as well as the poor. If you de:
pise his child, He says: "lnasmuch as y
q have done it unto one of the least of thes
q We have done it unto Me-"
!, w. II. KERsHAw,
., Pastor First Congregational Church, Pal
:, Ridge, n. j.