A TIMELY SERMON.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LV, Issue 14134, 14 February 1910, Page 3

A TIMELY SERMON.

The Rov. J. G. Chapman, of Whiteley Memorial Church, preaching last night on the words, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God,” gave some hard knocks to those people who are always looking for evil in others. “Can one see God?” he said. No man can see God and live. God is spirit. Can wo see spirit? No. But look at it this way. God is good personified. Good is a synonym for God. God, or good, you can se'o everywhere if you look for it. And the heart is the' organ of vision that sees the good. Christ’s purity of heart enabled Him to see good in the extortionate little pawnbroker Zacchacus; the latent good in Matthew the publican; the germs of a better life in Mary the sinner. For lack of this purity of heart we make serious blunders in our estimate of others. Very often the crookedness which wo think we see in others is in reality in ourselves. An impure heart will ediscover defects in others which 1 ' do not exist.' If jealousy dwells in the heart it will pervert the judgment, and as wo look through the , green spectacles of jealousy wo shq.ll see offences everywhere. The 'fault is in ourselves. Then what a wicked spirit is the spirit of suspicion. If suspicion reigns in the heart, it communicates a malicious significance to everything the' suspected one does. If hatred rules in the heart, then the person you dislike can do nothing right in-your judgment. His very courtesy is ofefnsivo, and his goodness is looked upon as evil. I once looked through a window which had in it a PANE OF BOTTLED GLASS, and as I looked I could not see a straight_ line in the whole landscape. Everything was crooked. First see that you have not the bottled glass before your eyes when you look at your brother, or it will make his excellencies appear as defects, his virtues as vices'. Then the pure in heart not only see the good, but speak only of others. I, have , heard people say that . New Plymouth is the worst "place for scandal they have over been in. It is a pity the Borough Council cannot make a by-law to hang up every scandal-monger by the tongue. I am afraid wo should soon have a diminished population. Some people seem to think that when they hoar something unsavoury about another, it is their duty to go immediately and tell their neighbours. Do they, never think of the pain and suffering they cause to others by their tattling? Stropg characters are able to treat false reports with the contempt they deserve, but all are not strong, and the heart is cruelly wounded and pained. Wo have many societies in New Plymouth inaugurated for the well-being of the community, but if some lady of social standing would start a society for the suppression of wicked scandal in the town sho wpuld immortalise her name as a PUBLIC BENEFACTRESS. I know of no more wicked and cruel thing than to flefamo the fair character of another. Some people are fond of this thing, they revel in it, and they become like human cesspools into which all the garbage of a community may be cast.’ No language can be too strong for these vampires that feed upon the characters of others. Since I have lived in this town I have been pained to hear from time to time scandalous reports about people. They have turned out to be false. Fair white characters have been smirched by some whoso tastes are so depraved that nothing will satisfy their unwholesome appetites but the most scandalous food. And what if the offence has been committed arid the report is true ? AVho has commissioned us to ho the purveyor of these scandalous morsels to the community? Where is our Christian charity? Why trample on the man or woman who is down ? Why make the burden heavier for them ? Have we never sinned, never offended, never done things that have filled us with shame? Ho who is without sin, let him cast the first stone.