Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1881-10-13
Discourse b. Rev. r. Dewitt
Talmase, on Sunday, September
18th.
EMBEzZLEMENT.

Thou shalt not steal. EXODUS Xxx, Is.
am glad that on tho morning of the
afternoon in which wo nre to sit at tho
o'y communion ! am to speak upon the
great subject Of public morals. 1t is high
tlmc that the lords table ceased being the
hiding place for some who are recrcant in
their lives, and for people who ought to
know, in the words of tho liturgy of the
Reformed Dutch Church in which | was
corn, that all thieves and drunkards, aud
Lars, and whorcmosters, and gamcsters,
end idoators cot and drink damuation to
themselves. There is only one argument
that has ever done Christianity any damnge
and that is tho argument drawn from the
Inconsistency Of Christians Aud We
must admi, that it is most depressing to have
the world on communion day look over and
see at the lords table some who are known
as sharpcrs, as Shylocks in bargain, as
Impure aud unchaste in speech and action,
aud as in every way unworthy. 1t is high
time that We preached the morals of the
gospel right beside the faith of tho gospel.
MIR. Froude, the celebrated English histo-
rim, has written of his owu country these
remarkable words:
"trom tho great house in the city Of
London to tho village grocer, tho commcr-
cial ife of England has been saturated
with fraud. SO deep has it gone that q
strictly honest tradeslnan can hardly hold
his ground against competition. You can
no longer trust that any article you buy is
the thing which it prctcnls to be. We
have false weights, false measures, cheat
ing and shoddy everywhere. And yet the
clergy have seen oil this grow up ia abso-
lutte indifference Many hundreds of ser
mons havo | heard in England, many
dissertation on the mysteries of faith, on
bishops and justification, and the theory of
good works, aud verbal insp. lion, and tho
eifioacy of the sacrament, tut, during oil
these wonderful thirty years, never one,
that can rccpilect, on common honesty"
Now that may be an exaggerated state
ment OF things in Englund, but am very
certain that in all parts of the earth VIC
need to preach tho moralites of the
gospel right along beside the faith of the
gospel.
Ooc Of the crying sins of the day is the
abuse of trust funds. Every man during
The course of his life, on larger or sma!ler
scale, has the prosperity of others COM
mltted to his keeping lie is so far
safety dcposit he is an administrator, and
holds in his hand the interest of the family
of a deceased friend. Or he is an attor-
ney, and through his custody goes the pay
ment FROM doctor to creditor. Or he is
the collector for q business house, which
con'pcnsates him for the responsibility. Or
he is II treasurer COZ u charitable Institution
and holds aims contributed for the suffer-
ing. Or he is an official for the city, or
the State, or the nation, ond taxes, and
subsidies, aud salaries, aud supplies are 10
his keeping. 1t is rs solemn trust as
Gcd can make it. 1t is concentrated and
multiplied conlidcntes. On that man de-
pends the support of bcreft household, or
the morals of dcpendants, or the right
movement Of thousand wheels of social
mechanism. A man muy do whit he will
with his own, but he who abuses trust |
funds in that one uct commits theft, false
hood, perjury, and becomes, 10 all the in
tensi'y o. tho word, miscroant. How
many widows and orphpns there arc with |
nothing between them and starvation but u
sewing uachine, or held out Of the vortex ot
destruction simply by the thread of nee
die used with their own h ARTS blood, who
u little while ogo had, by father husband,
left them competency. What is the
mattcrl Tho administrator or tho oxccu
tors have sacrificed it--running risks with
it they would not have dared to encounter
10 their own private affairs. How often it
ls thut q man will earn livelihood by the
sweat Of his brow, und then die, and within
a few months all the estate goes into tho
stockgamb!ing rapids of Wall street How
often is it that you have known tho man to
whom trust funds were committed taking
them out of tho savings bank aud from
trust companies, and administrators turn
ny old homeseads into hard cusl,, and then
putting the entire estate into tho vortex of
speculation. Embczzlcment il un cayy
word to pron6dncc,'but it has ten thou-