Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1898-02-24
SERMONS OF THE DAY,
RELIGIOUS TOPICS DISCUSSED BY
PROMINENT AMERICAN MINISTER'S.

PROMINENT AMERICAN MINISTER'S.
The Eleventh of the New York Heraid's
Competitive Sermons is on 'The Sin
of Despising Others"-Dr. Taimage
breaches on "Traps For the Unwary."
Gle 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; If
we keep clear of acts which public opinion
forbids; II we maintain a character upon
which society sets no brand, then we feel
at peace within ourselves and make sure
that we are Gods elect.
We do not see what subtle and far-reach-
ing things good and evil are how they in
terweave themselves into all our acts. our
words and motives, ana secret tnougnts
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 a 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
somuch as in those weightier matters Of
justice and mercy and truth which are in
Volved in all the business and intercourse
of daily life. Thousands who would trem-
BILE 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 publi-
cans and harlots. In 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-
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 a 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 despis-
eth his neighbor sinneth.'
The parable Of the Good Samaritan sup
plies most beautiful explanation of the
word 'neighbor." 1t teaches that every
man with whom we come in contact or re-
lation is to be regarded and treated as our
''neighbor." The fact that 1 know of
man > existence, ana tnaC can III any way
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 IL
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 as truly my
neighbor as Ii we met in the same market
or lived in the same street.
Notice what it is to despise our neighbor.
To entertain mean and contemptuous
thoughts of our neighbor is obviously to
despise him. We should always remember
that there is vastly more in common than
there is OF difference between the highest
and more cultured and the lowest and most
ignorant. Frequently, however, we forget
his, and from mere diversity OF outward
circumstances we look upon each other
with feelings of naughty superiority and
contempt. AS consequence the rich and
the great sometimes undervalue and insult
the poor and the lowly; and the poor and
the lowly in return hate the rich and the
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 II there were no ties binding you to-
gether. and no sympathy due from one to
the other, is to despise him. The af1ini-
ties of human nature are such that it is
treason to place ourselves in proud isola-
tion from the race to which we naturally
belong, ard 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 great wrong done to
humanity. 1t rouses within man bitter
bad, resentful feelings, which sets class
against class. Its tendency is to destroy
cole l,A -
and there is no telling what he may be-
come.
Again, to despise ones neighbor is an
offence against social unity. The social
organism can only be held together by a
true and proper recognition of the useful
ness and necessity of each individual to
the whole. Society is one body. It's men,
bers are manifold, but they are all knit to-
gether in the closest bonds.
There is no such thing as real independ-
ence. And hence for any man to despise
his neighbor is just as wrong and foolish
as it would be for the head to say to the
feet, 81 have no need of you;'' for his in
fiuence, as far as 1t goes, operates to the
disorganization OF society-to the break
ing up of that unity aud sympathy upon
which the general happiness and well being
depend. Despising your neighbor is to
sin against your own soul. By such con-
duct the great forces ever operating for
the formation of your own character and
the shaping of your own destiny are un-
aervalued We depend upon each other
This offence is also sin against God.
Humanity is His child-the outcast and
the sinful as we'll as the poor. If you des-
pise his child, He says: "Inasmuch as ye
have done it unto one of the least of these,
ye have done it unto Me-
w. II. KERsHAw
Pastor First Congregational Church, Park
Ridge, NJ
TRAPS FOR THE UNWARY