Sermon, McCracken "Slow to Criticize, Quick to Sympathize"

[silence] Shall bless thee. They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom and tell of thy power to make known to the sons of men thy might deeds and the glorious splendor of thy kingdom thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and thy dominion endures through all generations the lord is faithful in all his words and gracious in all his deeds the lord upholds all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down the eyes of all look to thee and thou givest them their food in due season thou openest thy hand thou satisfies the desires of every living thing the lord is just in all his way and kind in all his doings the lord is near to all who call upon him to all who call upon him in true he fulfills the desire of all who fear him

he also hears their cry and saves them the lord preserves all who love him but all the wicked he will destroyed my mouth shall speak the praise of the lord and let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever my god add his blessing to this the reading from his holy words [organ plays] [choir starts singing] [cont singing] [singing] [singing]

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[singing stops, long organ cords slowly fade away to silence] the text is taken from the first letter of Paul to the Corinthians the 11th chapter the second verse now I praise you brethren that was a warmly human note

for the apostle to strike to come on it in his letters as we frequently do attracts us to him like many another great man he was probably at any rate in his early life difficult to live with demanding much on himself he expected much from others and when it was not forthcoming he was prone to give in to indignation and exasperation john mark knew that to his cost so did demas and Demetrius and peter

whom paul on the race issue withstood to his face an oyster and perhaps hard man it is all the more refreshing to find him writing now I praised you brethren we ought to pay more attention to the little courtesies by which the machine of life is oiled and kept running smoothly why should we not be swift to praise where praise is merited if we were all slow to criticize and quick to sympathize

life would be easier and happier for most people are fighting a hard battle with the world the flesh and the devil not only so most people are endeavoring to live decently and with dignity crimes like crises hit the headlines yet there are millions of citizens who are hard working honest god fearing nor is there one of them who would not feel better and feel it in them to try better because of some word of commendation spoken by a friend so if your wife is a good homemaker

and a good mother tell her so often if your husband you know him well now his highs his lows his strengths his weaknesses he's fundamentally a real person tell him so often if your child though not as brilliant as you hoped he might be is tackling his work at school or at college seriously never let him be in any doubt of your appreciation write to him if he's away many many times letters inspiring confidence and if you have an acquaintance who is facing up to a difficult situation with gallantry don't think twice of

going to him and speaking to him words of encouragement the remark of a sculptor in Hueal Paul's novel the inquisitor voices are thought often in the minds of people the more you say nice things to me the better it is for me flattery never did anyone any harm in spite of what people see everyone needs encouragement and of all types in the world in the worst is the sort that goes about telling you truths for your own good life will do that without anyone assisting it the bible as you must've noticed is sever in its strictures

on this thing called flattery i share with you an illustration of flattery which i owe to Bennett Surf the speech at a dinner of the honorable RM Keely addressed to members of the Mississippi state bar now what of the ladies when god made the southern woman he summoned his angel messengers and he commanded them to go through all the star strewn vicissitudes of space and gather all there was of beauty and brightness and sweetness and enchantment and glamour and when they returned and laid the

golden harvest at his feet he began in their presence the work of fashioning the southern girl he wrought with the gold gleaming of the stars with the changing colors of the rainbows hues and the pallid silver of the moon he wrought with the crimson that swooned in the roses ruby heart and the snow that glistens on the lilies petel then glancing deep down into his own bosom he took of the love that sparkled there like pearls beneath the sun kissed waves of a summer sea and thrilling this love into the form he had fashioned all heaven veiled his face for

lo he had wrought the southern girl now I cannot persuade myself particularly with mr Tennessee Williams in mind Blanche DuBois baby doll that there is anything very harmful in that just as when on burns night with my fellow compatriots to think that this afternoon i'm to be addressing the sons of the american revolution when on burns night i sing the last obaloch mile it never occurs to me that the poets peon of praise should be condemned as sinful

exaggeration never the less Walpool's sculptor was mistaken in thinking that flattery never does anybody any harm the person who praises in order to curry favor or who praises where there is absolutely no justification for praise but rather for condemnation the person who's praises insincere lacking in discrimination in fact adulation he can do a very great deal of harm the sculptor was on much firmer ground when he said that of all types in the one the worst is the sort that goes about telling you truths for your own good isn't isn't fault finding when you stop to think of it a curious propensity in some natures it

becomes chronic and I have to say that the habit is one to which good people creatures among them often give way in our lords parable the pharisee and he stands for the clergy ran down people even in his prayers ministered to his own vanity by belittling others i thank thee that i am not as the rest of men unjust extortioners adulterers nor even as this internal revenue official i give tides of all the types i possessed I fast twice a week and then there is the type of person you know him you may be him who when someone is being praised breaks in with yes but

sinceriousness becomes second nature so that the person can hardly helped himself almost without knowing what he is doing discredits disparages vilifies and back of the habit time and time again there is misunderstanding failure to apprehend and the motives prompting the actions of others to great a readiness to jump to false conclusions one night i was going up the hill in Glasgow that lead to my home and I so coming down am sorry to say one of my members under the influence of liquor a great big man and I'm of medium height and i had an idea he was making for the beer parlor as it wasn't yet the closing hour so I linked arms with him turned him around and up we went the hill

well i staggered because of his weight and lo and behold approaching me a woman who attended the church and who had an acid tongue how to explain that situation doing my pastoral duty jumping to false conclusions sometimes a pitiful pitiless lack of sympathy with the struggles and striving of frail fallible mortals Robert Burns oh I suppose subconsciously he's coming in because of the address to the sons of the american revolution never wrote more discerningly than his then in his poem addressed to church folk the church folk he knew he was a frail fallible mortal but he has a notion the church people weren't

helping him so he addressed a poem to the uncandid the self righteous the rigidly righteous then gently scan your brother man still gentler sister woman though they may gang a kennin wrang, to step aside is human one point must still be greatly dark the moving why they do it and just as lamely can ye mark how far perhaps they rue it i have an idea that the worse sins are not committed by bad people some of the sins we commonly

regarded as of little consequence in terms of the havoc they work with human happiness are greed one such sin it aroused the white heat indignation of the master is hard heartedness hard heartedness is a compound of thoughtlessness plus want of imagination plus censoriousness among church people over severity In judging some kinds of delinquents prostitutes pole girls as we nowadays describe them gamblers drug ad- drug addicts whose sins perhaps we have been able to avoid without difficulty is a very common offense sins of the disposition like fault finding

probably do more to poison the stream of the worlds life than most of the crimes in the calendar for one wife who gets a black eye from her husband in his cups but otherwise good natured there are a hundred who live a life of martyrdom under the shadow of a churchmans morose carping caviling in temper a moment or two ago I spoke about over severity in judgement in reminding you that we should be slow to criticize and quick to sympathize i'm not forgetting that we are bound to form opinions

and estimates of one another that it is our duty to sized up the significance of men and of movements I am emphasize that we have to be on our guard against one of the commonest and i would say one of the worst sins or religious people the hypercritical fault finding disposition the hallmark of a christian is not an indulgent undiscriminating good nature willing to be imposed upon by anybody this is not what i'm talking about the hallmark of a christian is a royal generosity sure he has to make critical appraisals but he should keep a vigilant eye on the character and on his spirit

lords knows in the british house of commons rebuke by a long winded orator for being asleep with a twinkle in his eye retorted i wish to god i were humor can be a saving grace and the cant in this wearisome world be too much of it but contempt contempt this is unchristian a man one day met chesterfield head on on the street and said to him I never give way to a scoundrel chesterfield replied i always do stepping with a bow into the road now everybody is laughing and what i would call the natural man

relishes that rejoinder we feel that chesterfield's revenge was sweeter than if he had flung the fellow into the mud the christian however is not to return evil for evil is not to pay people back in their own coin is not to seek retaliation or revenge he is to use good to overcome evil and one of his distinguishing characteristics is the determination if he has one to control to put a bridle on a sharp biting sarcastic tongue and not wound others by unkind uncharitable sensor i'm afraid this is becoming a digression what i'm concerned most of all in this sermon to stress is is that people need

to be appreciated and and encouraged do you know that you can buy a praise record which tells you how wonderful you are with laughter for your jokes and applause when you enter the room this is significant in what it reveals there's a craving in every heart for recognition and approval the source of all the basic anxieties is the want of acceptance is the feeling of not being needed why just to be considered to be thought about to have love and affection lavished on us this is more

than half the battle this puts new soul into us this opens up a new world of of moral possibility this ripens half hopeless yearning into a settled purpose of amendment of those who know all about us believe in us we can begin to believe in ourselves now i'm thinking chiefly of parents and teachers in their attitude to children slow to criticize quick to sympathize this is a sound maxim never run them down never be sparing with your praise be generous be lavish in encouragement and commendation it is a terrible thing to

undermine a young person's confidence in himself to create as a parent can do the impression that he never will amount to anything to set up in his mind an inferiority complex so that he feels defeated before he has put on his armor and gone out to the battle of life a man who achieved distinction in the business world told of the difference between to of the teachers of his boyhood one had always harangued him as a good for nothing told him that he was a dullard that he would never be a success while the other had said to him one of these days you're going to excel don't give up try my boy

try for all of us but especially for teachers and for parents the words of Gokturk might well be a golden rule give me your beliefs I have doubts enough of my own because it's a natural law in the spiritual world that faith elicits faith few things more contagious and infectious anybody can work well enough in an atmosphere of encouragement can work hard as well as well whereas to do even a singles straight forward task under the eyes of those who are captious and critical is a trial. people who disparage us who run us down who make us feel cheap or useless or

worthless don't render us a services if only they knew it they'd just confirm us in our own discouraged estimate of ourselves but anybody who is interested in us who takes us seriously who values us who believes in us can get almost anything out of us lord shaftesbury in his philanthropic work was repeatedly brought up against the sorted seady me site of human nature often in fact when pitiful spencim- specimens of humanity though he never lost faith in human nature he never ceased to expect great things from people and his confidence again and again was abundantly rewarded

at a meeting in the east end of London Edward Maynard have this to say it was lord shaftesbury who made a new man of me and it wasn't by a sermon or a lecture or anything like that it was when I came out of prison for the 19th time I sort of took it for granted that i'd have to go to the bad again and that I should soon be back for me 20th term but lord shaftesbury walked up to me and shook hands with me and say ahh Maynard we'll make a man of you yet we'll make a man of you yet I felt that he really expected me to turn out well and i

pulled myself together that very day that was 43 years ago come Michael mass I've seen the inside of a prison cell since friends what I'm talking about to you this morning is not something out on the periphery of christian truth this is at the heart of the gospel this is of the essence of the mind spirit method of the master he often had to judge and he had a right to judge and sometimes the judgments was scathing and searing but how he believed in people how generous he was in praising them how he roused the aspirations of his followers like any great leader by telling them what he expected of them and was confident that they could produce he'd hardly met them

before he was saying come after me I will make you fishers of men and a little later you are the salt of the earth you are the light of the world your like a city perched on a hill and it cannot be hidden the thing that altered the whole current of their affections making of them new man and new women was that he accepted them he appreciated he needed them he thought they were worth dying for so slow to criticize quick to sympathize don't you feel that you've got to put people in their place he that judges judges them is the lord

be generous to a fault in offering encouragement and commendation the praise that comes from love is never flattery and it never does any harm it doesn't make people swollen headed it has the opposite effect it makes them humble it makes them resolve to try again and I've got to add this other word that can't be said too often if we have flowers to give to our friends why should we wait until they are dead those of us who are ministers so often officiating at funeral services seeing chancels banked with flowers often disposed to say to what purpose is this waste now is the time

to let them know the esteem and the affection with which we regard them you now in the heat and burden of the day when the most optimistic can be downcast and the strongest can be heart weary i would think this sermon worthwhile if somebody here went home and wrote a long due letter of praise and commendation or voiced it or made a point in a business association where there is inner respect of expressing it outwardly tis easy to be gentle when death silence shames our clamor and easy to discern the best through memories mystic glamour but wise it where for me and thee ere

love is passed forgiving to take this tender lesson home be gentle with the living in James Lane Allen's book the choir invisible he wrote you remember the woman who broke the alabaster box over the feet of the savior that most beautiful of all the appreciations for she did it while he was living and you know what we do let our fellows carry their crosses to their cavalries and after each had suffered his agony and entered into his piece we go out to him and break our alabaster

boxes over his stiff cold feet chancels banked with flowers says Allen i have always hoped that my religion might enable me to break my casket for the living who alone can need it and who always do need it let us pray oh master grant us the love that is patient kind free from envy that is never boastful nor conceited nor rude that is never selfish nor quick to take

offense that keeps no score of wrongs does not gloat over the sins of others but delights in the truth convince us anew that love never feels and that there is no limit to it's faith it's hope and it's endurance amen [crowd noises] [organ starts] [organ cont][choir starts singing] [singing cont]

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by the grace of our lord jesus christ the love of god the fellowship of the holy spirit be with us all now and forevermore [singing amen] [singing cont] [singing cont] [singing cont] [singing cont] [singing cont] [singing cont]

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you have been listening to the Sunday service of worship at the riverside church in the city of New York Robert J McCracken minister Dr McCracken's sermon was titled slow to criticize quick to sympathize paticipating in today's service were practically were Frank W Harriet interim minister of christian education the riverside church Gordon Gilckee executive minister and Jesse Lions paschal minister the riverside church choir was directed by Richard Wagely the postlude was Carion Luie Vien and today's organist was Virgil Fox the sunday worship service is broadcast live each Sunday morning at 10:45am and rebroadcast by tape recording at 8 o'clock in the evening this is riverside radio WRVR 106.7 fm in New York city welcome to

another in the WRVR program series art of the organ featuring Fredrick Swan organist of the riverside church in the city of New York we are to hear first a short dramatic work Benjamin Britten's only composition for organ the prelude on a theme of Victoria [Organ starts playing] [Organ cont] [Organ cont] [Organ cont] [Organ cont] [Organ cont]

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brings us next a selection by one of the most popular organists and composers of north Germany in the years just preceding JS Bach the coral prelude What God Ordains is Good by johann peter kellner [Organ starts] [Organ cont] [Organ cont] [Organ cont] [Organ cont]

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[Organ cont] [Organ cont] [Organ cont] Frederick Swan is to play for us now

a triple fugue symbolic of the holy trinity the main theme is almost exactly that of the hymn tune oh god our help in ages past it is the fugue in e flat major by JS Bach [Organ starts] [Organ cont]

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[Organ ends] [silence] Frederick Swan plays for us now an arrangement of the lovely melody from the church cantata I stand with one foot in the grave the arioso by Bach [Organ starts] [Organ cont] [Organ cont] [Organ cont] [Organ cont] [recording ends abruptly] [silence]