Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1904-10-15
Calnage
Sermon
By Rev.
Frank De Witt Talmaee, d. d.

whether Ii he founded on ancestry. pos
sessions. social position and influence
or upon personal vanity. The text il
Proverbs xxx. 23. "a mans pride shall
bring him low"
The PaphlaConian pigeons were said
to have had two hearts. Psychologists
have good reason to doubt that state
ment. but etymoloSists know that there
are some words that seem TO have two
hearts. Uttered In one sense their
meaning is good and pure. but uttered
In another sense their meaning is evil
and corrupt. Like the chameleon. they
are able to change their outer colorings
to suit their environments. In II bad
sense these words have the craven au-
ricles of culprit or a bad intentioned
man. Their skins are as black as the
blackness of the eternal night that
they inhabit. In good sense their
hearts beat steady and true. They are
the pumps which drive only good and
pure blood through their different ar
teries as the purest of water tumbles
over the miller's wheel because that
water comes from the clearest of
mountain streams.
The word pride" In this age may
sometimes he used in good sense. In
Bible times il always had debased
meaning. Searching through con-
cordance l cannot find one place where
that word pride" was not used as the
symbol of "sin'' and condemned as the
cause of sin. God denounces il all
through the Old Testament God hurls
ut II his excavations all through the
New. Arrogance and pride compose
the quicksands which have destroyed
many an immortal soul In the past.
They are the insidious means whereby
Satan is tripping up and manacling his
helpless victims ut the present time.
Therefore this sinful pride. which is
found Nesting in many hearts as IA
tai cancer. must be cut out or some Of
US will be forever lost
Pride Of Lineage.
First, consider the silliest of all kinds
of pride. that Of aristocratic lineage.
The spoiled infant In Its canopied bed.
screaming for the attention of its
nurse, is not more of nuisance than
are these people who strut through the
world claiming the homage of their
fellows because of their having been
born in an aristocratic home. 1t cries.
'Bow low to me. not because I have
brain or have accomplished anything.
not because l am of any earthly use 20
anybody, but because my father or
grandfather or great-grandfather has
accomplished something to make his
name famous or because my great
grandmother had In her veins the
blood of the European aristocracy."
Listen to the babblings of one who
would continually shake before our
eyes a single branch of his ancestral
tree which happened to bear few
fragrant blossoms, while on that same
genealogical tree are hundreds of 9TH
er branches which have borne nothing
but worm eaten fruit, and which
branches have been gnarled and twist
ed for generations and for centuries.
Have you ever stopped to consider
how many different ancestors you have
had? My parents were two In number.
/ had one father and one mother. But.
stepping back another generation.
find / had four grandparents and eight
great-grandparents and sixteen great
great-grandparents and thirty-twO
great-great-great-gra And so
back and back they so. doubling with
each generation. A few hundred years
back l find my ancestors were not
counted by the tens. but by the thou
sands. Now. my friends, what right
has man with family pride to follow
up one branch of genealogical tree
that lands him In n kings throne room
or In an earl's palace and ignore the
hundreds of other ancestral lines, any
one Of which would land him In a
PEASANTS hut or perhaps even at the
end OF hangman's moose? For though
some of us may not have had ancestors
who We're hanged. all of US have had
plenty OF them who ought to have been
hanged II they had been treated as
they deserved. Thus. when we esti-
mate how many different ancestors we
all have had, both good and bad.
there is a great deal of broad common
sense In the answer which Theodore
Roosevelt gave to one of his boys who
had boosted in school about his family
The president said: There are only
two classes OF boys In this world. my
son. Big boys and small boys alike are
either good boys or bad boys. II does
not make very much difference from
what family you spring. II you are a
good boy the world will respect you
and II bad boy the world will punish
you and desplse you"
His Coat of Arms.
Then there Is another fact that al
ways amuses me In reference to the
false assumptions of family pride. Al
most without exception the great fam
flies OF the earth are proud of their
descent from some one man who In
his youth was u nobody. the son of n
hodcarrier, stonemason or n labor
er In the ditch. Where did the proud
Astor family come from? From pal
ace? oh. no. 1t sprang into promi-
hence from n poor German eIsigrant
who had to cross the Atlantic prac-
tically I'm the steerage Where did the
famous Vanderbilt family come from