St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1898-04-30
A CHARITABLE RULE.
A Divine Precept Discoursed Upon
by Rev. Dr.. Talmage.

A Divine Precept Discoursed Upo
by Rev. Dr.. Talmage.
UnfaiFness In the Criticism of Huma
Conduct Deprecated We Should
Weigh Circumstances Before
Passing tn Judgment.
In the following discourse Rev. I
Dewitt Talmage inveighs against tn
prevailing prOneness to measure tn
misconduct Of others by the harsh rul
of our own shortsightedness. The tex
| is:
:. With what measure ye mete, it shall b
| measured to you again.-Matthew vii, 2
In the greatest sermon ever preached
"a sermon about Is minutes long. &C
cording to the ordinary rate of speecl
"a sermon on the Mount of Olives, tn,
Preacher, sitting while He spoke, &C
cording to the ancient mode of oratory
the people were given to understand
that the same yardstick that they em
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 ,
charitable rule. and you will be meas
ured by a charitable rule. Give M
mercy to others, and no mercy will b,
given to you. "With what measure.
We mete, it shall be measured to yot
again."
There is a great deal of unfairnes.
in criticism in human conduct. 1t 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
indiscriminately to tumble them all
over the bank of condemnation. Suf-
fer they ought and suffer they must,
but in difference of degree.
In the first place, in estimating the
misdoings of others, we must take into
calculation the hereditary tendency.
There is such q thing as good blood,
and there is such thing as bad blood.
There are families that have q moral
twist in them for q 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
some start life with natural tendency
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 convicts. 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 Kintore. By a 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 infiu-
cnces and put in reformatory schools,
where all gracious and kindly influ-
ences shall be brought upon them. OF
course, the experiment is young, and
1t has got ito 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 parentage.
In this country we are taught by the
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 we'll say that
flowers are born equal, or trees are
born equal, or animals are born equal.
Why does one horse cost $lOO and an
other horse cost 1000? 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
nnonuh fr, vr l-n N o1Inxvoroo f<,, <I,a I:f
ference in the human blood. Now
demand by. the law of eternal fairness
that you be more lenient in your criti-
:ism of those who were born wrong,
in whose ancestral line there was q
knot, or who came from q
tree the fruit of which for centuries
has been gnarled and worm-eaten.
DIR. Harris, a. reformer, gave some
statistics in his story of a
he called Margaret, the Mother
If Criminals" Ninety years ago she
ived ina village in upper New York !
state. She was not only poor, but she
vas vicious. She was not well pro-
7ided for. There were no almshouses
here. The public, however, some
what looked after her, but chiefly |
'coffed at her and derided her, and
pushed her farther down in her crime.
That was 90 years ago. There
lave been 623 persons in that
ancestral line, 200 Of them
criminals. In one branch of that FAM
" there were 20, and nine of them
lave been in state prison, and nearly
Ill of the others have turned out bad
y. It is estimated that that family
;ost the county and state $780, 600, to
ay nothing of the property they de-
troyed. Are you not willing, as sensi-
lie, fair people, to acknowledge that it
s fearful disaster to be born in such
N ancestral line? Does it not make .
,reat difference whether one descends
rom Margaret, the mother of crimi-
lals, or from some mother in Israel?
whether you are the son of Ahab or the
on OF Joshua?
1t is q very different thing to swim
With the current, from what it is to
win against the current, as some of
'ou have, no doubt, found in your sum-
ner recreation. II man finds himself