The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1898-04-02

WAN III
zH\ MRTE% Ethey had employed
E&M ~ fS% upon others would
f:&k#A AEAAM NHbe employed upon
&kHh@A MM1 themselves. Meas
REV. TALMAGE. ure others by a
harsh rule and you will be measured
by a harsh rule. Measure others by a
charitable rule and You will be meas
ured by u charitable rule. Give no
mercy to others and no mercy Will be
given to you. "Nith what measure We
mete. il shall be measured to you
again.
There is a great deal of unfairness in
criticism in human conduct. 1t was to
smite that unfairness that Christ ut
tered the words of the text, and my
sermon will be n 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
indiscriminately to tumble them all
over the bank of condemnation. Suffer
they ought and suffer they must, but
in q difference of degree.
In Tic lESl P4hSts III $50
misdoing of others, we must take into
calculation the hereditary tendency.
There is such n thing as good blood,
and there is such a thing as bad blood.
There are families that have had a
moral twist in them for a hundred
years back. They nave not been care
full to keep the family record In that
regard. There have been escapades,
and maraudings, and scoundrelism, and
moral deficits all the way back,
whether Won call it kleptomapia, or
pyromAnia. or dipsomania, or whether
il be in a milder form, and amount to
no mania at all. The strong proba-
billty is that the present criminal
started life with nerve, muscle and
bone contaminated. AS some start
life with q natural tendency to nobil-
ity and generosity and kindness and
truthfulness, there are others who
start life with just the opposite ten
dency, and they are born liars, or born
malcontentS. or born outlaws. or born
Awindisrs.
There is in England a school that is
called the Princess Mary school. All
the children in that school are the
children of convicts. The school is
under high patronage. | had the
pleasure of being present at n of
their anniversaries. presided over by
the earl OF Kintore. By n wise law in
England. after parents have commit
ted a certain number of crimes. and
thereby shown themselves incompe-
tent rightly TO bring up their chill
dren, the little ones are taken from
under pernicious influences and put in
rsformatory schools, where all gracious
and kindly influences shall be brought
upon them. OF course, the experiment
is young, and it has got to be demon
strated how large a percentage OF the
children of ~convicts may be brought
mp TO respectability and usefulness
But we all know that it is more diff
quilt for children of Nad ~parentage to
do right than for chl--fen of good par.
entsge.
In this country we are taught by
the Declaration of American Independ-
ence that all people are born equal.
There never was a greater misrepre~
s~entation put in M sentence than in
that sentence which implies that we
are all born equal. You may as well
Jaw that flowers are porn equal, or
trees are born equal, or animals nre
born equal. Why does n horse cost
500 and another horse cost IS, 900?
WHY does one sheep cost $40 and an
other sheep cost $500? Difference in
blood. We are wise enough to recog-
nize II in horses, IN cattle, in sheep,
but we are not wise enough to MAKE
allowance for the difference in the
human blood. Now l demand by the
law of eternal fairness that you be
more lenient in your criticism of those
who we're born wrong, in whose ances-
trail 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.
1t is q very different thing to swim
with the current, from what IL is to
swim against the current, as some of
you have, no doubt. found in your
summer recreation. If q man find him
self in an ancestral current, where
there is good blood flowing smoothly
from generation to generation, It Is
not q very great credit to him If he
turn out good, and honest, and pure,
and noble. He could hardly help it.
But suppos he is born in an ancestral
line, In an hereditary line, where the
influences have been bad, and there has
been q coming down over n moral de-
cliVity, If the man surrender 10 the In
huences he will go down under the
yer mastering gravitation unless
some supernatural aid be afforded him.
Now, such q person deserves not your
excoriation, but your pity. Do not sit
with the lip curled in scorn, and with
IN assumed air of angelic innocence
looking down upon such moral precipi-
tation. You had better get down on
your knees and frst pray Almighty
God for their rescue, and next thank
the Lord that you have not been
thrown under the wheels of that Jug
gernaut.
In Great Britain and in the United
States in every generation there are
lens OF thousands of persons who are
fully developed criminals. and incar-
cerated. I say in every generation.
Then l suppose there are tens of thou
sands of persons not found out ia their
criminality. In addition to these there
are tens of thousands of persons who,
not positively becoming criminals,
nevertheless have a criminal tendency.
Any one of all those thousands, by the
grace of God may become Christian.
hDu TcblSb Tue dlCcSbTdl lnuuCuCts anu
open a new chapter of behavior; but
the vast majority of them will not,
and IL becomes all men, professional,
unprofessional, ministers of religion,
judges of courts, philanthropists, and
Christian workers, to recognize the
fact that there are these Atlantic and
Pacific surges Of hereditary evil rolling
on through the centuries. ! say, oi
course, u man can resist this tendency,
just as In the ancestral line men
toned Ia the first chapter Of Matthew.
You see In the same line in which
there was u wicked Eehoboam and O
desperate Manassas, there afterWard
came Il pious Josiah and a glorious
Christ But. my friends, you must
recognize the fact that these influences
90 on from generation to generation.
/ am glad to know, however, thGt 9
river which has produced nothing bu,
LuIiasma for 100 miles, may after d
while, turn the wheels Of factories and