The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1898-04-08
SPIRIT OF FAIRNESS.
Rev. DR.. Talmage Discourses on
Criticism of Human Conduct.
Circumstances We Should lake Into Con-
sideratiOn in Estimating the Short
comings of Others-Meas-
ure for Measure.

| lowing sermon, talks upon the prevail
| ing disposition to measure others by
ones own yardstick. The text is:
With what measure ye mete, it shall be
measured to you again.-Matthew vii, 2.
In the greatest sermon ever preached
| "a sermon about 15 minutes long, ac-
| cording to the ordinary rate of speech
"a sermon on the Mount of Olives, the
| Preacher, sitting while He spoke, ac-
| cording to the ancient mode of OratOry,
the people were given to understand
| that the same yardstick that they en-
| ployed upon others would be employed
upon themselves. Measure others by
a harsh rule, and you will be measured
| by harsh rule. Measure others by a
charitable rule, and you will be meas
ured by a charitable rule. Give no
mercy to others, and no mercy will be
| given to you. ''With what measures
| We mete, it shall be measured to you
| again"
There is a great deal of unfairncss
| in criticism in human conduct. 1t was
| 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 misbe-
| havior of others, we must take into
consideration the pressure of circum-
stances. 1t is never right to do wrong,
but there are degrees of culpability.
| When men misbehave or commit some
atrocious wickedness we are disposed
| indiscriminatelv to tumble them all
over the bank of condemnation. Suf-
fer they ought and suffer they must,
but in a difference of degree.
In the first place, in estimating the
misdoings of others, we must take into
| calculation the hereditary tendency.
There is such thing as good blood,
| and there is such thing as bad blood.
| There are families that have moral
twist in them for a hundred years
back. They have not been careful to
keep the family record in that regard.
There have been escapadeS, and ma
raudings, and scoundrelism, and moral
deficits all the way back, whether you
call it kleptomania, or pyromania, or
dipsomania, or whether it be in mild
er form, and amount to no mania at all.
The strong probability is that the pres
ent criminal started life with nerve,
muscle and bone contaminated. As
to nobility and generosity and kind
ness and truthfulness, there are others
who start life with just the opposite
tendency, and they are born liars, or
BON malcontents, 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 convict5. The school is un-
der high patronage. / had the pleas
ure of being present at one of their an
| niversaries, presided over by the earl
of klntOre. BY wise law in England,
after parents have committed a certain
number of crimes, and thereby shown
themselves incompetent rightly to
bring up their children, the little ones
are taken from under pernicious influ-
ences and put in reformatory schools,
where all gracious and kindly infiu-
ences shall be brought upon them. OF
course, the experiment is young, and
| it has got to be demonstrated how
| large percentage of the children of
convicts may be brought up to respect
ability and usefulness. But we all
know that it is more difficult for chill
dren of bad parentage to do right than
for children of good parentagc.
In this country we are taught by the
Declaration of American independence
that all people are born equal. There
never was a greater Misrepresentation
put in one sentence than in that SEN
tence which implies that we are all
born equal. You may as well say that
a. I,
born equal, or animals are born equal.
| Why does one horse cost $1OO and an
other horse cost 5000? Why does one
sheep cost $40 and another sheep cost
$500? Difference in blood. We are
wise enough to recognize it in horses,
in cattle, in sheep, but we are not wise
enough to make allowance for the diff
| ference in the human blood. Now l
| demand by the law of eternal fairness
that you be more lenient in your criti-
| cism of those who were born wrong
| in whose ancestral line there was a
| hangman's knot, or who came from a
| tree the fruit of which for centuries
has been gnarled and worm-eaten.
DIR. Harris, reformer, gave some
marvellous statistics in his story of a
woman 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 we'll pro-
vided for. There were no almshouses
| there. The public, however, some
what looked after her, but chiefly
scoffed at her and derided her, and
| pushed her farther down in her crime.
That was 80 years ago. There
have been 623 persons in that
ancestral line, 200 of them
criminals. In one branch of that fam
| lily there were 20, and nine of them
have been in state prison, and nearly
| all of the others have turned out bad
| ly. 1t is estimated that that family
cost the county and state 500, 900, to
say nothing of the property they de-
stroyed. Are you not willing, as sensi-
BILE, fair people, to acknowledge that it
| is fearful disaster to be born in such
an ancestral line? Does it not make a
great difference whether one descends
from Margaret, the mother of crimi-
nails, or from some mother in Israel?
whether you are the son of Ahab or the
son of Joshua?
1t is very different 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 sum-
| mer recreation. Ii man finds himself
! in an ancestral current, where there is