The Leavenworth weekly times., 1875-08-19
DoRcAs ALLEN.
XoraliRes q Li:tle On Various Subjects
What she says About the Crime Of En- oez-
element. Interesting Sunday Reading.


LEAvENwoRTH, August 18th, 1875.
SISTER JERUsHA: Your letter was to-day
received, and must say, its contents
alarmed me, have always counted Oh you
as an able defender of the faith, and now /
am Obliged to think that you have written
without giving the matter sufficient thought.
That you may see Just what you did write,
and be able to ponder we'll the paths Of
your feet, transcribe your letter for your
reperusal, the original wish to keep.
'SIsrER DoRCAs: received your letter
some days ago, and since then, you and
Melinda and Abiram, have hardly been
out of my mind but the more think, the
more / can't help feeling that you and
Melinda, are giving yourselves great
deal of unnecessary trouble about Abiram,
l remember him as an earnest young man,
who was in the habit Of taking time to
make up his mind, and then WAS able TO
give reason for his way OF thinking. Now
the Bible independent of its history is a
very vague book. full Of stratling utter
ances, which admit OF great variety of
Interpretation. 1t seems to me this very
vagueness is what gives it the powel OF
adaptation to every human heart, and con-
s.itrtes it "The word OF Life" 1t is said
that on the day OF Fentecost eleven tom
CUES OF fire seemed 10 rest on the heads If
the Apostles, and that Medes, Parth,ans
and Elamiles, each heard in their own
tongue even SO is The Bible written, aud
to every earnest reader it speaks his own
language.
Now you know it isn't SO very large a
book, but like the few loaves and fishes, it
is sufficient 10 feed thousands. and yet have
some left. 1t may be Abirs "A
is one OF those who "gather up the frag-
ments that nothing be lost" But, Dolcas,
in reading the Bible, you should alway 5
bear in mind that 'the letter killeth, but
tine spirit giveth life" Perhaps the sririt
of enlightenment has presented a difiereH:
phase of truth to Abrams mind, for truth
is infinite, and cannot be comprehended n
its entirety by any one person. Watson
and Wesley, Calvin and Jonathan Edwaris
were all good men with strong insellec!S,
but they differed vastly among themselves,
and so long as there is Light which
lighteth every man that comeih into the
world'-I, for my part, prefer to use my
own light, rather than 10 run round to bor-
! row my neighbOrs. After ali it isn't so
much what we believe-as what we do,
and the spirit We manifest, that decides on
character as Christians. The disciples were
over-zealous when they forbade one to cas-.
out devils, because he followed not them,
and the Divine Master rebuked them See,
then, Dorcas, that YOU come not under the
s2-le censure. A" |, Dorcas, how can l en-
ter The Divine presence yi.h the pi 2suml =
uous request that Abiram may be led to
see the error in his belief, when, possibly
he may be nearer right than ], for / can.
not be so self-sufiicient as to believe that l.
or my church, only have the right.
| In all Christian charity, your sister.
JERUsHA JENKINS.
Imust say, Jerusha, as l wIite your let.
ter out and get the sense of it more, il
seems real charitable-like. You know
"God moves in a mysterious way,
| His wonders to pe'to,m."
and it may be he is leading Abiram through
these tortuous paths, to save his soul at last
Melinda won't let me read your letter q
Abiram. She says she won't have him
bolstered up i'm such stiff-neckedness. S!,e
says he might believe as she does, Just 10
please her if nothing more that any man
who loves his wife amt a going to tormen,
her life out of her with such new-fclg'
notions about heaven and hell besit
she says, all the respectable part of
community will be down on him, and h /.
business will suffer from it 4, and il there =
any one thing she can't bear it is to be III
popular. All the really stylish folks, she
knows, goes 10 church real regular. Abb
ram keeps as pleasant through it all as il
he was real Old Testament saint She
believes Just as she's mind to. She goes
to church and sewing society, and Home Of
the Friendless and Orphan Asylum meet
ings, and last winter when some of them
had slight unpleasantness," she'd come
home and fret about their unchris;ian ways
She says herself that she must say Abiram
always excused them, and said you must
not expect perfection in any one.
And now come to another very uncom-
Portable thing-he will always say some
thing in favor of every criminal. One day
this week young man was arrested for
embezzlement He had used about forty
dollars Of his employers money. His faith.
er died when he vas three or four years
old. His mother could not know all the
temptations 10 which he was exposed, and
SO the vices, which go by the mild name of
sowing wild oats"-when rich mems sons
commit them-ruined this poor young
man. OF course, there were extenuating
circumstances to be plead, nevertheless
there were several reasons why this was a
good case to make an example of. In the
first place, YOU see the sum was small
enough to come within the scope of the
law. A person can embezzle a good many
thousand dollars with impunity, for nc
'jury OF his peers" could be found to con.
vict him. Again, this boy had no inauea.
tial friends to bother, so we said, "lei hin
be punished, by all means. 1t is high lime
the majesty OF the law should be vindl
Gated"
But Abiram said, while you maintain
the dignity of the law, please bear in mind
that with every such legal Indictment, soci
ETY., you and I are indicted before the
higher bar Of human justice. That SO 10 o,s
as We place fictitious value on certain y,
complishments, possessions, or ways of iy'
ing; 50 long a. We are the victims of ia {
tastes, and daily appear before the world z:
anything but what We really are
so long Just such young mer
will be the legitimate product
You may make examples of the uniortu-
nate from nov until the day of doom you
may pray until heaven is wearied with
your prayers, if that be possible, and the
tide OF crime will roll on resistlessly, and a
vast number Of our sons, crippled and pal.
sled by vicious indulgences, will fill wore
than drunkards' graves. l tell you this
sin of embezzlement is small, compared
with the sins almost daily committed by
men of honor (?) and the penalty Of the
penitentiary (if it comes to that is light,
when compared with the punishment re-
sulting from violated law-nature's re-
venge-visited from the fathers to the
children to the third and fourth genera
tions.' 'If the minister" said Abiram, a.
he went on, "would tell us less about heav-
en-, and the way to get there, and more
about hell. right here, and the way to get
out Of il, could go to church as regularly
as you," aud he turned away quickly, as If
he feared to say more. Oh Jerusha, some
times fear that We do not understand our
plan of salvation" fully that the Gospel
scheme, If it should once get hold of us,
would shake Us out of our self-compla-
cency.
Write soon, and tell me how this impress
| a yor. Your Sister