The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1909-04-07
/ The RUZWk
A SERMON AS,,G @s
81 TAE REV. AXga
fMWfENDEgoNWe
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Subject: Hypocrisy.

Irving Square Presbyterian ChuIcn,
Hamburg avenue and Wlerheid
street, on the above theme, the Rev,
Ira Wemmell Henderson, pastor,
said: .
The subject reflects a feature OF
life that is as real and general as 1t
is unfortunate and re~prehensible.
For hypocTisy-that is to say, the
assumption of that which we are not,
or the uncandor of inconsistency-ls
a prevelant and pernicious factor in
life. 1t is present everywhere. But
nowhere is it more pernicious than
In our own midst.
America is beset with the vice OF
hypocrisy. And it is especially unfor-
tunate that it is so. For the position
of this country in the front rank OF
the nations and of progress makes IL
i%nsistently necessary that we shall
! have candor as we consider ourselves
and that we shall not arrogate to
ourselves any characteristics or vir-
tues that are not Of the bone and
| sinew of our national life. For in
| sincerity is as fatal to a nation as to
an individual. He lives best who is
genuine. Not otherwise is it With a
nation.
Generally when we speak of hypoc-
| risy we conceive the portraits of the
| men who lead dual lives, of false
| faced friends, of the i%nsincere habit
ues of an %insincere society. They
are truly to be condemned. Their eX-
| ample is a warning. .
But they are not the offenders of
whom most I would speak to you to-
day. For the hypocrisies of individ-
uals are co-terminous with death so
| far as this world is concerned. The
| hypocrisies of nations however, by
\ virtue of the constitution of society,
have a tendency to perpetuate them
| selves and to become in a larger
sense most lasting and pernicious.
1t is because of the tendency OF
national hypocrisies to be, in a way,
self-perpetuating that I would, this
morning, have you attend to the hy-
pocrisy of America. Because our
national hypocrisies are to some de-
gree unconscious they are the less to
be excused and they are more to be
feared.
The subject is not pleasant. 1t is
not over nice to admit that as a ma
hon we are hypocritical. We may
wish the truth were otherwise. But
the truth has a very peculiar fashion
Of remaining fixed and constant re-
CARELESS of our desires or our
dreams.
America is hypocritical. And we
are hypocritical socially, government
ally, intellectually, morally and spir-
ltually. The counts are many but we
shall have to admit their validity.
And they are true despite the I'M
questioned supremacy of our people
in many fields of national endeayor
and success that constitute the great
ness Of a people.
America is hypocritical in her So
cial relationships. Jack London in a
recent story tells a weird and grue-
some tale of how he witnessed as a
tramp the 1ogging in most merciless
fashion of two unruly gypsy boys by
The leader of a gypsy camp. The story
Is horrifying in that it reveals the ex-
istence Of such cruel inhumanity In
the midst of a civilized society even
In a gypsy camp. Our eyes fill with
tears and our blood runs hot with in
| dignation as we read of such unphil-
osophical and u~nscientifc manage
ment of children. We can understand
such conditions as they exist among
among the chill SHOWS and under the
benighted civilization of Russia. But
here they appeal, eve though they
are i%nfrequent. But while our pulses
beat faster owe the sins of a gypsy
camp we are strangely unresponsive
to the piercing walls of the multi
tudes of our own children-no, not
our own-to the walls of the multi
tudes of our neighbors' children, who,
day by day, in a land of freedom and
Christian enlightenment, are crushed
in the mechanism of our modern
commercial system. We have ears
and hearts and ready hands to help
the misery of the Chinaman who
cries out against the greed of most
| Christian England" as she forces the
| the curse of opium upon an unwilling
nation. But we seem hardly to hear
the call Of the throngs whose lives
in America are wrecked because of
the unholy traffic in alcoholic bever-
ages that to-day is permitted to exist
by and with the consent and suffrage
of the adult membership of the
Church of Jesus Christ. And just
so long as we mourn over gypsies and
wax indignant over the wickedness of
| the English people, the while we wax
our ears against the call of our chill
dren in the homeland for help and
q chance to live as God meant they
should we are, to say the least, So
cially hypocritical. And no man may
deny the count.
America is hypocritical N her atti-
tude toward government. 1t is the
fashion to declaim about the vices of
Babylon, the rottennesS Of ancient
Rome, the sins of Philip the second,
the crimes of modern Russia, the ra-
pacity of European nations. We are
astounded that the civil corruption
of any nation could be so totally in
decent as to consign sailors to be sent
to death inside of ill-eQuipped and
still more lily handled men Of war.
We thank God that we do not live
under an autocracy that is as con-
s~cienceless and as villainous as that
which holds the reins Of Russian gov
eminent. And yet, w~ide-awake as we
are to the criminalities OF the bureau
cratic government of the Russian
Car. we are but half-awake to the
realities of the existing corruption all
around us. For the fact is that in the
face of u history, our inheritance.
u opportunities, Il Christian in
%fuences, We are a sorry spectacle to
the nations. We glory that we have
! no an~tncracY Of birth Rnt by Our