The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1878-05-08
PERSONAL HONOR.

PERSONAL HONOR.
1t is well for men to guard themselves;
others may injure their reputation for a time
but honor-integrity-is matter of person
al culture. One of old said: It'll 1 die, 1
will not remove my integrity from me-"
He understood the high responsibility, the
personal charge the guardianship of his own
character. and he resolved to be true to it.
DR.. Watts said:
a thousand ways has Providence
To bring believers home.
And in contrast it may be said, Just as
tersely, that:
Evils come on every breeze
To lead the weak astray.
Hence, it becomes each individual to
guard we'll the citadel of his own dwelling
pIace-to look well to the motives, princi-
Piles and spirit of his own actions and life.
Too many in these days appear to think that
a life of policy, of trick, of sharpness is the
most apt to prove a success, and they move
out on this line as if 1t was one of utter
safety. They care nothing for honor, nothing
for integrity. They are driving to the post
of success. To be a gamer in the worlds
stop at nothing; they drive right On regard
less of everybody's interest, and intent only
upon their own. Such was Napoleon's
idea when he denounced Josephine, such
was Judas delusion when he betrayed his
Lord and Master. 1t was just such a spirit
as this that lead the valiant Benedict
Arnold to commit the great sin OF mis- life
He cared nothing for. personal honor,
nothing for patriotic integrity, and
he struck the anvil for self.
and it only required a few brief days to
teach him that the sun of his glory had set;
that he was the traitor of the age, and that
nothing equaled his crime but the infamy OF
the one who sold his Lord.
History teaches by example. Men may
see In the lives of those who have gone be-
fore them the shadows of the just Judge,
who deals out day by day the rewards due to
integrity and honor and the penal suffer
ings of those who dare to do wrong
Every age has its lessons, and every COM
munity furnishes its examples. Even the
blind man need not err.
The voice of truth tells us that honor can
not be violated, that integrity can not be cast
aside with carelessness or reckless and i'm
punity. The law is memorable, and the
penalty is as certain and as definite as the
rising and the setting of the sun.
"The mills of the gods grind slowly" but
they always grind, and the result is seen in
the fates of years, and in the destiny and
doom of the actors and in the history OF
their children's children.
Our own country has given US the chsrac-
tiers of Washington and Arnold and
the diverging destiny of each. We
have also that of Hamilton
and Burr and a host of other lesser lights
who have gone glimmering before us like
the shadows on the dial, telling us in defin-
lite numbers the plain story that human
life is only true to God where it Is strictly
devoted to the welfare of man.
This is the universal principle, and it
makes no difference where men live, move
or have their beings. 1t is always the same
in politics as in religion, in private as well
as in public life: it is the same immutable,
eternal principle. The fate of empires is
always the result of personal honor and
integrity, and personal destiny is al
ways of the same moral response
bility. Our own country of late is
grinding out specimens of moral delinquency
which may well AWAKEN US. We are almost
daily introduced to new specimens of per-
sonal failures that are enough to intimidate
us and to make us afraid that the boosted
freedom of our land Is, after all, only myth;
that virtue and truth, integrity and honor,
are only imaginary virtues that we have pro-
fessed, without a show OF genuine reality.
Men OF high social standing have gone
under right before our faces, and the very
foundations of our moral strength have given
way as the crumblings Of an arch of rotten
ness and decay. Wesee everywhere that men
are weak in virtue as well as in principle,
and the numerous instances of these occur
rences have struck in on the body polite
until the whole head is sick and the whole
heart is faint. The tide of evil has come
upon us like flood, and it will behoove
the better class of our citizens of the day to
"look well to the east" or else the dream
of a bright and glorious future will
end only in the gloom OF a
destiny of infamy and disgrace.
We need the services of thoughtful minds;
the guidance of true and honest hearts, or
the crisis of the hour may bring us to q
point of moral standing where evil may
come upon us and death may devour Us.
The defalcations In our banks have been