The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1884-06-18
The Safe Way.

We find ourselves quite often puzzled
as to the issues of right and wrong in
the practical questions of daily life. We
have a strong inclination to some course
of procedure concerning the wisdom or
prOpriety or lawfulness of which we can
not help entertaining a doubt viii it
do for us to 90 forward, or will it vio-
late some standard of duty by which
we ought to be governed? May we
crafty our desire, or will such self-in-
diligence strain and weaken our ale
glance to the purest morality? May we
safely take some step quite agreeable
to us, or will the act exert an unwhOle-
some influence upon those whose esti-
mate of good and evil is affected by our
example? We wish we could see clear
ly the merits of the case, and we can
not assume the affirmative in the prob
lem of privilege without some slight
misgiving as to the vindication Of our
course. We do not mean to do wrong,
and we hope we have not gone astray,
for nothing would induce Us to trampls
upon any positive law of rectitude.
Still there is a little cloud brOOding the
whole transaction, within which there
may lurk above our head a shadow of
y
in such questions of personal conduct
so as to sec the right clearly, through
the haze, and commit no trespass}
Well, 1 would suggest that there is,
in most of these puzzles, one indisputa-
bly, safe side. 1t may not be quite right
to crafty our inclination in a given in
stance, but 1t is unquestiOnably right
7l0t TO do so. Shall we take the cup
lifted to our lips, so sparkling and fra
| grant and stimulating? We hesitate to
say: "Yes, but, without hesitation,
we may say: No" and fOrego the
| tempting draught.
There is some profitable walk of busi-
/ ness, the influence of which upon the
/ public good and the common safety is
often questioned, but the profits of
/ which are large. May we engage in it
without Just censure? We'll, there will
be no deserved reproach for letting it
| alone.
Will it be safe and right for us to
| place upon our board for our own use,
and to offer to our guests, stimulating
! and Intoxicating drinks, and to aCcus-
! tom our children to this feature of do
mestic life? We hope we have enough
| strength of self-contrOl-and that 9TH
ers have-to prevent any mischief.
That may be so, but it can not be do
MED that abstinence is safe.
There is some style of public enter
tainment, which, in its own nature or
in the character of the performers, or
in the more usual and prevalent type
of its exhibition, is a violation of the
most sensitive purity and delicacyi and
leads often practically to wantOnuess of
Imagination, if nothing worse. May
sanction and endorse it with my pres
ence, for the sake Of some qualification
of my taste? If, in such qualification,
/ have no thought or meaning or expert
ence but what is pure and wholesome,
still if there be a question Of its pro,
priety and benefcence on the broad
scale of public mOrals-it will can
not dispute-be safe for me to stay
away, and keep my skirts clear from
| possible evil. There is one safe SIZE.
Let us learn and apply this truth in
all the round of our personal habits, and
so escape impeachment from God and
man, DR.. 4, l.. Stone, ig Pacific.