Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1902-08-11
TALMAGE
SERMON
By Rev.
FRANK DE WITT TALMAGE, DID,,
Pastor OF Jefferson Park Presby-
terrain Church, Chicago

chicago, Aug. 1O.-A plea for for
bearance and the magnanimous treat
ment Of offenders is made by Rev.
Frank De Witt Talmage in this SER
mon on the text Matthew vii, /,
Judge not, that We be not judged"
After Massillon, the great court
preacher Of France, had finished one
OF his sermons, Louis XIV. summoned
him to his side and said: "Massillon,
how Is 1t you impress me as you do?
have heard many great orators
preach. They nearly always please
me. But when you preach, instead of
being pleased with you 1 am always
discontinued with myself. 1 always
feel that I want to be a better man
rs well as a better king" Well"
answered the great preacher, 'the
only way I can account for it, your
preaching against myself. When l
am about to make up q sermon, say
TO myself, 'Massillon, what is the sin
which you have hardest work to battle
todayY And when l preach against
my own sins generally find that there
I am also preaching against" If there
IL any truth in the words which Mas
sillon spoke to Louis XIV, this sermon
will carry a message to every pew.
OF all sins there Is none more easy
for speaker as we'll as hearer to fall
into than the sin of hypercriticism.
The sin Of censoriOus criticism is al
most universal because one Is apt to
commit 1t at first unconsciOusly and
without generalization or forethought.
II a party Of young people are togeth-
er, It is not hard to find fault with the
minister, and the doctor, and the dress
maker. and the neighbours wife and
child and house and all that he has.
1t Is not difficult to lay the reputation
OF an absent member upon the dissect
ing table of traducement and cut and
hack 1t into pieces with cruel, sharp,
merciless tongues. 1t is not always a
disagreeable opportunity to repeat the
ISLANDERS and the vilifications and the
defamations and the wholesale con-
formations which have been circulated
about the neighborhood in reference to
other peoples characters.
Now. my text is divine protest
against the hasty and the unjust judg
ments with which we condemn our fell
low men. 1t Is a divine protest to
bring men and women to the realiza-
ton of the awful damage they are do
ing themselves, as well as others, by
the pernicious habit of censoriOus crit
icism. 1t Is a protest to prove that,
though we can honor men and love
men and praise men and help men, yet
we must not hate men or deride men
or condemn men. Condemnation Is a
divine prerogative. Condemnation is
a thunderbolt which will shatter every
human hand that tries to grasp 1t and
TO hurl 1t. Condemnation is poison
Gus fang which will destroy our own
lives as well as lacerate and instill the
fatal poison into their flesh.
Sin of Hypocrisy.
Personally we should not condemn
men. because, having imperfections in
ourselves, we have no right to expect
and demand perfection in others. If we
were holy. perhaps we might have a
right to expect other people to be holy.
II we were pure minded, we might
have a right to expect other people to
be pure minded. If we loved the Lord
our God with all our heart and soul
and mind and strength; If we were
perfect husbands and perfect wives,
perfect parents and perfect children,
perfect In our love for our fellow men,
we might expect others to be perfect
But what right has the kettle to com
plain about the pot being uncleani
What right has the raven to croak be.
cause her young have wings as black
as the nightf What right has the
Pharisee to stand up and condemn the
poor publican, who stood afar off anC
beat his breast. moaning, God be mer
ciful to me, q sinner" when the Phari
see himself was so sinful that he was
like q whited sepulcher. (which indeed
appeared beautiful outward, but wal
within full OF dead mems bones and al
uncleanT' And what right have you
o hearer. to say your neighbor is |
bad man or bad woman and SHOULD
be condemned when you yourself hav
an evil eye and have not yet by TIL
grace Of God, plucked it out? Whel
you yourself have an evil hand or foo
and have not yet amputated it? Whe
you yourself have an evil tongue t
speak or an evil ear to listen agains
the deeds Of your neighbors?
What would you think of dissolut
Judge condemning a prisoner at tn
bar for the same sins of which he hin
self was fiagrantly guilty? Why. sue
a hypocritical and unjust judge woul
be submerged under tidal wave c
popular scorn. Such dishonest judg
would be treated as mercilessly as wa
that judge who in the darkest days {
Rome's infamies undertook to sentenC
some conspira:o rs to death while
himself was one of the conspirator
He would be dragged from the jud
cial bench. And yet this sin Of col
a n.lx.ae n,