The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-03-28
EACH BY HIS OWN YARD STICK.
TALMAGE TELLS HOW WEN SHALL
BE MEASURED. q


ing of others.
washington, March Eft the spirit of
this sermon of DR.. Talmage were carried
out the world would he a better place to
live in and the fallen would find it easier
TO recover themselves. Text. Matt. II:
with what measure you mete, it shall be
measured 10 you again"
In the greatest sermon ever preached
sermon about fifteen minutes long accord
ing to the ordinary rate Of speech-a SER
mon 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
Measure others by a harsh rule, and you
will be measured by a harsh rule. Meas
ure others by a charitable rule and you
will be measured by charitable rule
Give no mercy to others, and no mercy
will be given to you with what measure
we mete it 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 uttered
the words of the text, and my sermon win
be a re-echo of the divine sentiment. In
estimating the misbehavior of others, we
must take into consideration the pressure
of circumstances. 1t is never right to do
wrong but there are degrees of culpability.
When men misbehave or commit some
atrocious wickedness we are disposed in
discriminatory TO tumble them all over the
bank of condemnation. Suffer they ought
and suffer they must, but in difference
of degree.
In the first place, in estimating the mis-
doing of others. we must take into calcu-
lation of the hereditary tendency. There is
such a thing as good blood, and there is
such thing as bad blood. There are fam
lies that have had a 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 maraudings and scoundrelisms and
moral deficits all the way back, whether
you call it kleptomania or pyromania or
dipsomania, or whether it be in a milder
form. and amount to no mania at all. The
strong probability is that the present GRIM
inal started life with nerve, muscle and
bone contaminated. AS some start life with
a natural tendency TO nobility and gener-
osity and kindness and truthfulness, there
are others who start life with just the OPP
posite tendency and they are born liars, or
born malcontents, or born outlaws or born
swindlers.
There is in England a school that is call
ed the Princess Mary school. All the chill
dren in that school are the children of
convicts. The school is under high patron
age. l had the pleasure of being present at
one of their anniversaries, presided over
by the Earl of Kintore. BY wise law in
England after parents have committed
certain 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 gra-
cious and kindly influences shall be
brought upon them. OF course the expert
ment is young, and it has got to be demon
strated how large a percentage of the chill
dren 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 chill
dren of good parentage.
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 i'm that sentence which
implies that we are all born equal You
may as well say that flowers are born
equal, or trees are born equal or nj
mails are born equal. Why does one horse
cost 500 and another horse cost s., 900?
Why does one sheep cost $40 and another
sheep cost $500? Difference i'm 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 differ
ence in the human blood. Now, demand
by the law of eternal fairness 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
centuries has been gnarled and worm-eat-
en-.
DIR. Harris, a reformer, gave some mar
Vicious statistics in his story of a woman
he called Margaret, the Mother of Grim
inals." Ninety years ago she lived in a
village in Upper New York state. She
was not only poor, but she was vicious.
She was not well provided for. There
were no almshouses there. The public,
however somewhat looked after her, but
chiefly scoffed at her, and derided her,
and pushed her farther down in her crime.
That was ninety years ago. There have
been six hundred and twenty-three persons
in that ancestral line, two hundred of
family there were twenty. and nine of
them have been in state prison, and nearly
all of the others have turned out badly.
1t is estimated that that family cost the
county and state 100000 10 say nothing
of the property they destroyed. Are sou
not willing, as sensible, fair people, to ac-
knowledge that it is a fearful disaster TO
be born in such an ancestral line? Does
Il not make a great difference whether one
descends from Margaret, the mother Of
criminals or from some mother in Israel?
whether you are the son of Ahab or the
son of Joshua?
1t is a 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 summer recrea-
tion. If a man find himself in an ances-
trail current where there is good blood
flowing smoothly from generation 10 gen
GRAFTON, il is not a very great credit "a
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, i'm an hereditary line, where the in
Euences have been bad, and there has
been coming down over moral declivity
IL the man surrender 10 the influences he