The Princeton union., 1898-04-07
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
MEASURED BY YOUR OWN
YARD STICK" SUBJECT.
An Interesting and Instructive Discourse
Taken from Matthew VII. 2, as Fol
lows: "Witl1 What Measure You Metc
1t Shall Be Measured to You Again."

In the greatest sermon ever preached
"a sermon about fifteen minutes long
according to the ordinary rate of
speech-a sermon on the Mount of
Olives, the preacher, sitting while he
spoke, according to the ancient mode
of oratory, the people were given to
understand that the same yard-stick
that they employed upon others would
be employed upon themselves. Meas
ure others by harsh rule, and you
will be measured by a harsh rule.
Measure others by a charitable rule
and you will be measured by char
liable rule. Give no mercy to others,
and no mercy will be given to you.
with what measure ye mete, it shall
be measured to you again.
There is a great deal Of unfairness
in criticism in human conduct. It was
to smite that unfairness that Christ
uttered the words of the text, and my
sermon will be a 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
unfortunately to tumble them all
over the bank of condemnation. Suf-
Ter they ought and suffer they must,
but in difference of degree.
In the first place, in estimating the
Iaisdoing of others, we must take into
calculation the hereditary tendency.
There is such a thing as good blood,
and there is such thing as bad blood
There are families that have had a
moral twist in them for a hundred
years back. They have not been care
ful to keep the family record in that
regard. There have been escapades,
and maraudings and scoundrelisms and
moral deficits all the way back, Wheth-
er you call it kleptomania, or pyroma-
MIA or dipsomania, or whether it be in
a milder form, and amount to no mania
at all. The strong probability is that
the present criminal started life with
nerve, muscle and bone contaminated.
AS some start life with a natural ten
dency to nobility and generosity and
Kindness and truthfulness, there are
others who start life with just the op-
posite tendency and they are born liars,
or born malcontents or born outlaws,
Or born swindlers.
There is in England a school that is
called the Princess Mary school. All
the children in that school are the chill
'dren of convicts. The school is under
nigh patronage. I had the pleasure of
being present at one of their anniver-
'saries, presided over by the Earl of
-Kintore. BY a wise law in England.
after parents have committed a. GER
tain number of crimes, and thereby
shown themselves incompetent rightly
to bring up their children, the little
ones are taken from under pernicious
influences and put in reformatory
schools, where all gracious and kindly
influences shall be brought upon them.
VI course the experiment is young, and
1t has got to be demonstrated how
large a percentage of the children of
convicts may be brought up to re-
spectability and usefulness. But we
all know that it is more difficult for
children of bad parentage to do right
than for children of good parentage.
In this country We are taught by the
Declaration of American Independence
that all people are born equal. There
never was greater misrepresentation
put IN one sentence than in that SEN
:tence which implies that we are all
born equal. You may as we'll say that
flowers are born equal or trees are
born equal, or animals are born equal.
Why does one horse cost $1OO and an
other horse cost $4,000? 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 difference in the human blood. Now
1 demand by the law of eternal fair
ness that you be more lenient in your
criticism of those who were born
wrong, in whose ancestral line there
was hangman's knot, or who came
from tree the fruit of which for CEN
turies has been gnarled and worm
eaten
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. If a man find himself
in an ancestral current where there is
good blood flowing smoothly from gen.
eration to generation, it is not a very
great credit to him if he turn out good
and honest, and pure, and noble. He
could hardly help it. But suppose he is
born in an ancestral line, in an hered-
itary line, where the influences have
been bad, and there has been a coming
down over moral declivity. if the
man surrender to the influences he will
go down under the overmastering
gravitation unless some supernatural
aid be afforded him. Now, such a. per-
son deserves not your excoriation. but
your pity. Do not sit with the lip curl
ed in scorn, and with an assumed air
of angelic innocence looking down IN
on such moral precipitation. You had
better get down on your knees and