The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1901-07-17
DIR. TALMAGES SERMON
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.
Subject: Control Your Temporarily One
May Have Wholesome Indignation
Sins That We Should Be Angry With
PITY the Sinner.
tCopyright 1901. |

Pity the Sinner.
Copyright lsOLl
WASHINGTON, D. CA delicate and
difficult duty is by DR.. TaSnage in this
discourse urged upon all and especially
upon those given to quick temper; text,
Ephesians iv, 26, '"Be We angry and sin
not"
Equipoise of temper. kindness, patience,
forbearance, are. extoled by most of the
radiant pens of inspiration, but my text
contains that which at first sight is start
ling. A certain kind of anger is approved;
aye, we are commanded to indulge. in it.
The most of us have no need to cultivate
high temper, and how often we. say
things and do things under afronted i'm
pulse which we are sorry for when per-
haps it is too late to make effective apol.
ogy! Why, then, should the apostle Paul
dip his pen in the ink horn and trace
BE ye angry and sin not?"
My text commends wholesome ,indig-
nation. 1t discriminates between the Of
fence and the offender, the sin and the
sinner, the crime and the criminal.
To ILLUSTRATE, alcoholism has ruined
more fortunes, blasted more homes, de-
stroyed more souls than any evil that !
thin Of i Rours river nSo ct R9,1on bapa a1a
died because Of it, and millions are dying
..ow, and others will die. Intemperance is
an old sin. The great Cyrus, writing to
the Lacedcmonians of himself, boasted of
many of his qualities, amcng others that
he could drink and bear more vine than
his distinguished brother. Louis K. and
Alexander the Great died drunk. The
Parliament of Edinburgh in 1861 Is called
in history "the drunken Parliament"
Hugh Miller, first stonemason and after
ol
cf the drinking habits of his day, saying:
"NVhen the foundation was laid, they
drank. When the walls were leveled for
layiag. they drank. When the building
was finished, they drank. When an ap-
prentice Joined, they drank" In the
eighteenth century the giver Of an enter
tainment boasted that none of the guests
went home sober. Noah, the. frs; ship
captain, was wrecked not in the ark, tor
that was safely landed, but he was wrecked
with strong drink. Every. man or woman
nation at the national and international
and hemisphere and planetary curse. 1t
is good to be aroused against it. You
come out of that condition better man
or better woman. Be ye angry at that
abomination, and the more anger the more
exaltation to character. But that aroused
feeling becomes sinful when it extends to
the victim of this great evil Drunken
mesa you are to hate with vivid hatred,
but the drunkard you are to pity, to heip
to extricate.
just take into consideration that there
are men and women who once were as
upright as yourself who have been pros.
trated by alcoholism. Perhaps it came OF
a physicians prescription for the rellet OF
pain, a recurrence of the pain calling for
continuance of the remedy: Perhaps
the grandfather was an inebriate, and the
semptation to inebriety, leaping over
generation, has swooped on this untortu,,
nate. Perhaps it was q very gradual
which was thought to. be servant, when
one day it announced itself master. BE
humble now, and admit that there is a
strong probability that under .the same
circumstances you yourself might have
been captured. The two appropriate emo
tions for you to allow are indignation at
the intoxicant which enthralled and sym
pathy for the victim. Try to get the suf-
ferer out of his present environment.
know of, and, above all, lmplore the dl-
vine rescue for the struggle in which 80
many of the noblest and grandest have
been worsted. Do not give yourself up to
too many philippics about what the man
ought to have been and ought to have
done. While your cheek fushes. with
wrath at the foe that has brought the
ruin, let your eye be mositened with tears
of pity for the sufferer. In that way you
will have fulfilled the INDUCTION of the text,
"Be We angry and sin not"
There is another evil the abhorrence OF
which you are all called to, and it is on
the increase-the gambling practice. Re-
cent developments show that much of this
| devastation is being wrought in ladies'
parlors. It is an evil which sometimes IS
as polite and gracious as it is harmful.
| Indeed there never were 80 many people
| irving to get money without earning it.
| But it is haggard transgression that
comes down to US from the past, blighting
| all its way.
I have seen in the archives of the nation
in this national capital a large book IN
| which one of the early Presidents of the
United States kept an account in his own
handwriting of gains and losses at play
| ing cards, on one page the gains and on
| the other the losses, and there are many
| pages. In other days many of national
reputation went from the halls of Con.
| gress and the Senate chamber to spend
the night in notorious gambling saloons.
In Spain don lost in twenty-four hours
what equals Sl2,OO00O0. Twenty years
ago it was estimated that the average
|
| Christendom exceeded Sl23, 100000. 900 a
year, but statistics twenty years ago would
be tame compared with the present statis-
tics if we could find any one able enough
| at figures to tabulate them. 1t is all the
| same spirit of gambling whether the in
struments are cards or the clicking chips
| or the turning wheel or the bids OF the
| Stock Exchange, where people sell what
| they never owned and fail because they
| banker tells me that he thinks 10000 peo.
pie were financially prostrated by the re;
cent insanities in Wall street. Here and
there case is reported, but the vast ma
| jority suffer in silence. The children are
| brought home from school; the wardrobe
| will be denied replenishment; the table
will have scant supply; wild generosity
| will be turned into grim want. Forty
years from now will be felt the disaster
of last months black Thursday.
But, while you are hotly indignant
against the crime, how do you feel about
| those who were feeced and slain? They
| did not know that their small boat was 30
near the maelstrom. Some Of them were
| born with tendency to recklessness and
experiment and hazard. They inherited
| a disposition to tempt chance. Do not
heap on them additional discouragements.
| Do not deride their losses. Help them to
| start again. Show them that there are
more fortunes to be gained than have yet
been gathered, and that with God for
their friend they will be provided for
here, and through the. Saviour's, mercy
they may reign forever in the land where
| While you may redden in the face at the
fact that gambling is the disgraceful moth.
er of multitudious crimes, OF envies, .jeal-
ousies, revenges, quarrels, cruelties, false
spair, be careful what you say to the vic.
tim of the vice and what you do. He
needs more sympathy than the man who
came up from inebriety and debauch and
assassination, for many such repent and