Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1845-1854, 1848-09-27
Honesty.


exactly SO. No definition could be near
er correctness Always minding, howev-
er, that there are other ledgers than tie
traders, that man s debls are not 10 be
calculated in pounds, shllings, and pence
1t is not honest for n man to determine his
own nature, to blight his own heart, to en-
ieeb:e his mind or even to neglect his
physical culture. 1t is not honest. in 4 wo-
man lo swear TO love man when she OIL
Iy loves lis house and equipase; nor any
honcster for man TO purchase beast.
For everything has lis certain value;
and 10 pay that which is fairly due is the
prerogalive of honesty. 1t is not honest to
make poet an xcise-ofiicer; any more
,hnn ii is to steal legislators robes TO
throw them over the shoulders Of fool.
1t is not honest 10 preach one thing and
to practice another 1t not honest 10 i'm
poyerish one man to enrich another. For
honesty has the utmost respect for the
rights of ALL 1t is not honest to feel on ne
thing and to sny another, or to say one
thing and 10 do another Alas, for our
daily custom. DO we not continually.
bribed by the hope Of some paltry money
gain, or fearful Of offence giving, put on a
pleasant smirk, and grasp with friendly
zeal the hand which we dcspise? This is
not honest Do we not lie daily for the
sake Of halfpencc, and so pick mems pock-
cts; and look lies for the sake OF empty
smiles and compliments? This is not hon
est Do moi sone of us go about with cold
sneering lips, as ii we were OF customs
frost work, when our hearts are burning
within US; making cow entional grimaces,
and repeating formal catechisms, when our
inmost thoughts are struggling for utter
ance? But we should displease this friend.
give advantage to some foe, be laughed at
by some fool, be deemed rude by the world;
and so we sell our hearts for the rewards
of wor]dliness, and livs, not like true men
made in Gods image, but rather like au-
tomato manufactured by customs patent.
Virtue is like the sun. God gave one
to light the heart the other TO light its home.
There can be no darkness in its presence
no light in its absence: for it hath not
moon and stars to succeed it. Behold the
gloom when the clouds Of storm hide the
orb of day! Behold the night when it sets!
Even so is the moral darkness of that heart
in which the sun of virtue is clonded. But
like night, whose queen hath left her throne
and whose stars are hidden, is that heart
from which the light of virtue is obscured.
Despair will spread its blackness over it,
and leave it like the home prepared for it,
ere God had said, "Let there be lig ht!'-
Happy is the bosom which receives from
virtue its perpetual illumination. Sorrow
and mourning may not enter. Death and
the grave Gun bring no terrors. The
germs Of Immortality strengthen and beau
tily under its genial influence. Us flowers
in summer. The rose warmed into life
by the sunbeam, shall wither and die. So
shall mortality. But the spirit of the rose,
its fragrance and breathing incense, equal
ly with the human spirit, beauti6ed by the
sun virtue, came from God, the central sun
of all, and shall be reclaimed into his c,er-
mai kingdom forever.
nj .-o, D,,an..