Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1900-02-08
Or. TALMAGES SERMON.
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.

Subject: The Affairs OF Others-The busy
body Has u Mission to Perform When
His Motive is GoOd-Scarch Out the
Miserable and Offer Them Consolation.
[copyrght, Louis Klopsch, 1901
| WASHINGTON. d. C.-In this discourse DR..
| Talmage shows how we should interest
| ourselves in the affairs Of others for their
benefit, but never for their damage; text,
Peter, iv., Is, "a busybody in other mems
| matters
Human nature is the same in al ages.
| In the second century OF the worlds ex-
| istence people had the same charn cteristics
| rs people in the nineteenth century, the
only difference being that they had the
| characteristics for n longer time. 1t was
500 years Of goodness or 800 years OF mean
ness instead OF goodness or meanness for
| forty or fifty years. Well, Simon Peter,
who was u keen observer of what was going
on around him. one day caught sight OF u
man whose characteristics were severe
inspection and blatant criticism OF the af-
fairs belonging to people for whom he had
no responsibility, and with the hand once
Drowned and hardened by fishing tackle
drew this portrait for nll subsequent ages,
ga busybody In other mems Matters
That kind OF person has been Il trouble
| maker in every country since the world
stood. Appointing himself to the work OF
exploration and detection, he goes forth
mischief making. He generally begins by
reporting the nfelcity discovered. He Is
the advertising agent OF inflrnities and
domestic nharmony AMI occurrences that
but for him would never have come to the
public eye or ear. He feels that the secret
| ought to be hauled out into light and her
| aided. IL he can get one line OF 1t into
the newspapers, that he feels to be a noble
achievement to start with. But he must
not let it stop. He whispers it to his
neighkors, aud they in turn whisper it to
their neighbors, until the whole town is
| abuzz and agog. You can no more catch
1t or put 1t down than you can n malaria.
1t is IL. the uir and on the wing and afloat.
Taken by itself, it seems OF little impor-
tance, but after n hundred people have han
died it and each has given 1t an additional
| twist 1t becomes story in size and shape
marvellous. If it can be kept going, after
awhile it will be largo enough to call the
attention of the courts or the presbyteries
| or conferences or associations. The most
| Of the scandals abroad are the work of the
one whom Peter in the text styles "a busy
body in other mems matters"
First, notice that such Il mission Is most
undesirable, because we all require all the
| time we can get to take care of our own
affairs. To carry ourselves through the
treacherous straits of this life demands
that we all the time keep our hand on the
wheel of our own craft. While, us l shall
showyou before Iget through, we all have
| mission of kindness to others, we have
no time to waste in doing that which is
damaging to others.
There is our worldly calling, which must
be looked after or it will become n failure
Who succeeds in anything without concen-
trating all his energies upon that one
thing? All those who try to do many things
| go to pieces either as to their health or
their fortune. They go on until they pay
ten cents on the dollar or pay their body
into the grave. We cannot manage the
affairs of others and keep our own affairs
prosperous. While we are inquiring
| how precarious is the business of an
| other merchant and finding out how many
notes he has unpaid and how soon he will
probably be wound up or make an assign
ment or hear the sherilfs hammer smite
his counter our own affairs are getting
| mixed up and endangered. While we are
| criticlsing our neghbor for his poor crops
we are neglecting the fertilization Of our
owns fields or allowing the weeds to choke
| our own corn. While we are trying to ex-
tract the mote from our neighbor's eye we
| fall under the weight of the beam in our
own eye. Those men disturbed by the faults
of others are themselves the depot at which
whole trains of faults arrive and from which
whole trains of faults start. The men who
| have succeeded in secular things or relig-
ious things will tell you that they have no
| time for hunting out the deficits of others.
On the way to their counting room they
may have heard that u firm in the same
line Of business was in trouble, and they
said, 'Sorry, very sorry" But they went
in and sat down at their table and opened
tho book containing full statement OF
| their affairs to see ii they were In peril of
being caught in IL similar cyclone.
Gadders about town, with hands in
! pockets and hats set fnr back on the head,
waiting to hear baeful news, are failures
now or will be failures. Christian men
and women who go round with mouth
! and looks full OF Interrogation points to
| find how some other church member Is
| given to eXaggeration or drinks too much
or neglects his home for greater outside
attractions have themselves so little grace
| in their hearts that no one suspects they
| have any. In proportion as people are
consecrated and holy and useful they are
lenient with others and disposed to say:
| "Wait until we hear the other side of that
| matter. cannot believe that charge made
| against that man or woman until We have
some better testimony than that given
by these scandal mongers. guess it is a
lie."
Furthermore, we arc ncapacitated for
| tie supervsal of others because we cannot
see all sides of the affair reprehended.
People are generally not so much to blame
as we suppose. 1t is never right to do
wrong, but there may be alleviations.
There may have arisen conjunction of
circumstances which would have flung any
one OF us. The world gives only one side
of the transaction, and that is always the
worst side. That defaulter at the bank
| who loaned money he ought not to have
loaned did it for the advantage of another.
not for his own. That young man who
purloined from his employer did so be-
cause his mother was dying for the lack OF
medicine. That young woman who went
wrong did not get enough wages to keep
her from starving to death. Most people
who make moral shipwreck would do right
in some eXigency, but they have not the
| courage 60 say NO"
Furthermore, we make ourselves dis
gusting spectacle when we become busy
bodies. What diabolcal enterprise those
undertake who are ever looking for the
moral lapse or downfall of others! AS the
human race is a most imperfect race, all
such hunters find plenty OF game. There
have been sewing societies in churches
which tore to pieces more regulations than
they made garments for the poor. With
their sarcasms and sly hints and depreca-
tion of motives they punctured more good
names than they had needles. With their
scissors they cut character bias and back
stitched every evil report they got hold of.
| Meetings OF boards of directors have some-