Brown and White Vol. 7 no. 19

              and first as to the causes we shall find them to be not only moral but intellectual glaring inconsistency of conduct like that of the unmerciful servant is traceable not merely to perversity of will but to lack of insight as well lin a word insensibility to ideas — blindness to principles is a veritable and potent cause of that whole class of phenomena which we have under consider ation the conscience of the savage would convict him of murder if he killed one of his own tribe but it permits him to go off and slay a member of a neighboring tribe with out compunction which fact goes to show that it is not the murder or slaughter of a fellow being as such which is repugnant to him but only the murder or slaughter of certain particular individuals related to himself in like manner there are whites who esteem it a crime to take the lives of other whites but who see no sin whatever in killing niggers po too christians who would scorn cheating fellow christians have been known to take a particular de light in swindling jews they see no wrong in it they say lin all the routine acts and habitual relations of life they have been what is called honest but they have been honest from custom or social pressure or fear of the police insight into the principle of honesty on the other hand has been either u'ckiug in them altogether or very weak and because of this lack of iosight they are ignorantly capable of evil because of false judgment they undo false deeds y s not only do them but justify them afterwards it begins to be clear therefore that false judgment i as veritable a cause of wrong as an evil heart certain it is that the un merciful servant whs quite as a uch a fool as a knave dear old montaigne goes even farther and says we are not so full of evil as of voyduess and inanitie and one very prominent exhibition of this voydoess and inanitie is seen in all those false judg ments which are based upon anything and everything but an insight into principles in consequence of this self same lack of insight into principle many of those who applaud the noble acts of their own coun trymen see no particular nobility in the highminded deeds of enemies or foreigners for some americans hbroism has to be american in order to be recognized and praised while for many christians virtue is not virtue at all if done in heathen or unchristian lands now unimportant as many of these blind and ignorant judgments seem to be they are as a matter of fact responsible for some of the most frightful crimes against justice mercy and freedom the sorrows of dreyfus appealed to the pity of the whole civilized world and the injustice of his sentence was universally recognized outside of franc and yet the french priests as a body and indeed the whole clerical party with rare exceptions fought hard against his rehabilitation the pro the following is a part of a sermon delivered by professor stewardson in the chapel on sunday morning november 26 but the same servant went out and found one of his fellow-servants which owed him an hundred pence and he laid hands on him and took him by the throat saying pay me that thou owest " he who had plead for mercy and obtained it showed himself incapable of exercising mercy he who was glad to accept forgive ness was unwilling to accord it to others such is the particular fact of human exper ience which i wish to study with you this morning at the first glance perhaps it looks as if the conduct of the unmercifnl servant were something exceptional or at the most something likely to be found only among the more degenerate of men or races but let us see suppose we examine the course of what is called historic chris tianity what do we find in the first place that the christians who had endured persecution so manfully in the day of their political weakness became even more cruel persecutors than nero or dominitian in the day of their political power priests and bishops who believed that the good lord had forgiven them all their sins could not forgive the heathen their idolatries nor fellow churchmen their heresies out from the court of the king of kings the*y came pardoned and shriven and lo they straight way organized expeditions to decroy pagan shrines and temples and to massacre the albigenses having received the freedom of everlasting salvation from the bands of tbeir god they forthwith proceeded to build tbe dungeons of the inquisition for their fellowmei in time as we all know came the refor mation calvinists anglicans puritans arose men who advocated tne right of private judgement ; men who claimed the liberty of worshipping god according to their own consciences and these men wheu in the providence of god they had their wish how did they carry themselves towards their fallow reformers having obtained the right of private judgment for themselves were they ready to grant it to others having won toleration for their own beliefs and practices were they pre pared to t:>lera*e i?uch rituals and doctrines as differed from tueir own no by no means cranmer burned joan bocher and gilvin burned servetus while the puritans who fled to massachusetts bay because of their love of religious liberty turned right round as sdon as they hid gained this lib erty and hauged the quakers such are a few familiar ex^mpl^s of the unmer ciful and intolerant serv nts provided for us by historic christianity they are not the ignorant and degenerate but the foremost men of tbeir times — augustine innocent cranmer calvin cotton the same servant who had attained at tbe hands of his master forgive ness and freedom went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him one hundred pence and what did he do did he forgive him the debt no he took him by tbe throat saying pay me that thou owest " but the unmerciful servant has not only a public record he has also his private history — his journal intitne — the pages of which are to be found in every man's ex erience which one of us indeed as he looks into his own heart or scans his own acts can fail to recognize within himself the counterpart of the disreputable hero of our parable the recipients of kind and gener ous treatment at the hands of our creditors part of sermon south bethlehem pa tuesday decembeb 5 1899 lehigh university virginia 10 lehigh 0 vol vii calendar the brown and white the last game proved to be the most enjoyable one delivered by prof stewardson in the chapel on sunday tuesday deo 5 at 7.30 p m economic society meeting in saucon hall address by professor stewart on " labor problems in the tropics at 7.15 p m mandolin club practice in christmas hall • friday dec 8 at 4.30 p m choir rehearsal in the chapel at 7.15 p m mathe matical club meeting in prof thornburg's lecture room paper by fletcher 00 sunday dec 10 at 9.30 to 10.20 a m bible study christmas hall at 6.15 p m christian as ociation meeting in christ mas hall fessional exponent of christianity iv franca saw no grievous wrong in the inhuman treatment of the prisoner of devil's island neither did they make any efforts to secure him justice or mercy and why because he was a jew subsequently when taken to task for their disgraceful indifference or hostility to right they replied in the words of the osservatore romano that they did not see why the church should be blamed for not espousing the cause of a semite and a traitor here we have it they were blind to the claims of justice when made i behalf of a jew deaf to the appeals of mercy when he who cried to heaven was a semite blind to the fact that their own master was also a semite deaf to all his many words ot forgiveness and mercy they went forth and took their fellow servant by tbe throat they coulji see no inhumanity iv it because their fellow servant was a they could see no ground for mercy beciuse he was a semite surely a false judgment devoid of all in sight into the principles of right and mercy — a false judgment culminating in a crime ********** so much for the intellectual cause of moral inconsistencies and i have dwelt upon it at length because it so seldom recoives the attention it deserves folly then or false judgment is a veritable cause of evil and yet we dare not drop the mat ter here or with these words mixed with human error there is the rot of sinfulness and underneath our blind distorted judg ments there is perversity of will the evil of this will does not always rise to the surface it is kept within bounds or even out of sight for a time by the restrictions of con science and society civilized men do not rifle one another's pockets in the street they keep faith with each other according to their code within the limits of the law they deal on the whole tquarely and honest ly mady of them indeed exceed the legal limit and in all their individual relations are far more scrupulously honorable than the law demands but are these men lovers of honesty have tbey no desire to take what is not their own if they do what is wrong is it wholly due to error of judgment is there no root of a perverse will in them as a matter of fact experience shows that the perverse will is there it comes out in many ways — in forgeries defalcations and the like but i am n-et going to speak of these common crimes they speak for themselves let us cut down deeper and dissect if we can the moral nature of some of those men whosa reputation is acknowl edged to be good . and here we observe that before those men who;e individual re lations with their creditors and debtors are continued on third page the last game of the season was played on thanksgiving day at richmond va with the univer sity of virginia and resulted in a victory for the latter as a result of the lafayette game our men were not in perfect condition and this partially accounts for the defeat the game was a clean hard-played one and our players are high in their praises of the treatment they received at the hands of the richmond people our centre men put up a magnifi cent game but the ends were found to be very easy chamberlain james gledhill and fuller dis tinguished themselves for lehigh ; mallory and shibley doing great work for virginia the game began at 2.30 virginia defending the east goal coleman kicked off to fuller who was downed on the twenty yard line chamberlain failed to gain and the ball went to virginia on downs summersgill and shibley carried the ball to the lehigh ten-yard line where it went to leiiigh fuller punted forty-five yards to coleman who was downed by ross after making ten yards shibley made a forty yard run fuller's magnificent tackle preventing a touchdown shibley then made four through left tackle and on the next play was shoved over for the first touchdown ten minutes after play began coleman failed to kick goal after the kick-off chamberlain retired in favor of gledhill his place being taken by peeples griffin was downed on the thirty yard line mallory failed to gain shibley made twenty around dornin and then made three on a double pass mallory go the ball on the same sort of play and go ing around dornin made the second touchdown after ten min utes more had elapsed coleman again failed at goal . fuller kicked off to coleman who made twenty yards failing to gain coleman punted to fuller who returned to coleman mall ry and loyd failed to gain and the ball went to lehigh on downs the backs could not gain and ful ler was again forced to punt virginia could make no headway and the ball went to lehigh gledhill made five yards through the centre then three around right end fuller followed with five eight yards were then lost on a fumble then bray made five the ball soon after going to virginia coleman kicked to james who went by mcgill for twenty-five yards gledhill made a yard ful ler failed to gain the landing finally on the thirty-five yard line where continued on second page have we not often dealt ungenerously with our friends having known the blessings of love do we not hate those faults and mistakes of ours which many good people ii'ive sweetly tolerated have we notunmer cifully punished in others having had magnanimous interpi'etations put upon our thoughtless words and indiscretions do we not judge the like indiscretions of our fellow creatures harshly enjoying freedom for the expression of our own beliefs and feelings do we not sometimes strive to curtail the liberty of those who honestly oppose us havirig been accorded the privilege of a fresh start in life or a new beginning in virtue do we not seek at times to withhold this privilege from some oppressed and erring brother are we merciful even as we have obtained mercy do we forgive even as we have been for given do introspection and retrospection reveal a likeness between the unforgiving servant and ourselves if so then we all need to discover the causes of this man's conduct and the means of changing his heart . no 19