Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1886-08-13

! ny pOCEllN, buJ L Ile man VINO DelOTe
| God is really the best. will take you out
from all your Christian surroundings. l will
! take You back to boyhOod. / will put you in
deprave1 home. ] will put you in a era
die Of iniquity. Who is that bending
over that cradle? An intoxicated mother.
Who is that swearing in the next
rScnl Your father. TIE neighto"s coma
in to talk. and their jokes are unolean. There
is not in the house a Bible or moral eatise,
but only few scraps of an old pictorial.
Afte- whil9 you are old enough to get out
7 OF the cradle, and you are struck across
the head for naughtiness, but never in any
kindly manner reprimauded After while
you are old enough TO go abroad, and
/ you are sent out with a basket to steal
/ If you come homo without any spoil, You
are whipped until the blood comes. At
fifteen years of age, you go out to fight your
own battles in this world, which seems to
care no more for you than the dog that
| has die1 of fit under the fence. You are
kicked and cuffed AMI buffeted. Some day,
! rallying your courage you resent some
] wrong. A man says "Who are youl ] know
! who you are. Your father had free lodgings
! at Sing Sing. Your mother, she was up for
drunkenness at the Criminal Court. Get ont
of my way, you low-livel wret1h'n My
brother, suppose that had been the history Of
| your advent and the history of your early
Christian man you are today, seated in this
Christian assembly. | tel you nay. You
would have been vagabond an outlaw,
murderer on the scafold atoning for your
crime. All these consd rations ought to
make us merciful in our dealings with th5
wandering and the lost.
Again, have to remark that in our est-
mate Of the misdoings of p ople who have
fallen from b gh re5pe liability and useful
ness we must take into consideration the con-
Junction Of circumstances. In nine cases
out of ten man who goes astray does not
intend any positive wrong. He has trust
funds. He risks part of these funds in in
vestment. He says; "Now, If I should lose
that investment | have of my own property
five times as much, and if this investment
should 60 wrong l coull easily make it up; l
could five times make it up.n With that
wrong reasoning he goes on and makes the
investment and it does not turn out quite so
we'll as he expected, and he makes another
investment, and, strange to say, at the same
time all his other affairs get entang gled, and
all his other resources fail, and his hands are
tied. Now he wants to extrcate himself. He
goes little further on in the wrong invest
ment He takes plunge further ahead,
for he wants to save his wife and children,
he wants to save his home, he wants to save
his membership in the church. He takes one
more plunge and all is lost Some morning
at 10 o'clock the bank door is not opened, and
there is a card on the door signed by an off
GER of the bank, Indicating that there IS
trouble, the nam9 of the c~faulter or the de
frauder hea Is the newspaper column, and
hundreds of men say: Good for him.
hundreds of other men say: "pm glad he's
found out 90 last;n hundreds of other men
Eay: "Just a; told you;n hundreds of other
men say: 1--WE couldn't possibly have been
tempted to do thab-no conjunction Of cir
cumstane ees could ever have overthrown me-"
and there is a superabundance of indigna-
ton but no pity. The heavens full of light
hing, but not one drop of dew II God
treated US as society treats that man we
would all have been in hell long agol Wait
for the alleviating circumstances. Perhaps
he may have been the dupe OF others. Be-
fore you let all the hounds out from their
Kennel to maui AMI tear that man, find
out if he has not been brought up in
commercial establishment where there was
a wrong system of ethics taught!
find out whether that man has not
an extravagant wife, who is not satisfied
with his honest earnings, and in the tempta-
tion to please her he has gone into that ruin
into which enough Een have fallen, aud by
the same temptation, to make a procession of
many miles. Perhaps some sudden sickness
may have touched his brain, and his judg-
ment may be unballn ed. He is wrong-he
is awfully wrong, AMI b. must be condemned,
but there may be mitigating circumstances
Perhaps under the same temptation YOU
might have fallen. The reason some men do
not steal 50 20,000 is be cause they do not get
a chlncel Have righteous Indignation you
must about that mans conduct, but
temper it with mercy. But you say: II am
so sorry that the innocent should suffer-
Yes, l am to)--sorry for thu widows and or
phans who lost their all by that ttefalcation.
! am sorry, als), for the business men, ths
hon act ht,cin rvl,C hoyr l,oI tba;r
affairs all crippled by that defalcation. 1
am sorry for the venerable bank President to
whom the credit of that bank was a matter
of pride. YES | am sorry, also, for that man
who brought al the distcess-sorry that he
sacrificed body, mind, soul, reputation,
Heaven an1 went into the b,acknesj OF dark
ness forever.
You defiantly say: 81 coul not be tempted
in that way" Perhaps you may be tested
after awhile. God has a very good memory.
and he sometimes seems to say This man
feels so strong in his innat9 power and good
ness he shall be tested; he is so full of bitter
invective against that unfortunate it shall be
shown now whether he has the power to
stand" Fifteen years go By. The wheel Of
fortune turns several times, and you are in O
crisis that you never coull have anticipated.
Now all the powers of darkness come around,
and they chIckle, and they chatter, and they
say: AHA! here is the old fellow who was
Dragged he couldn't be overthrown by
temptation, and was so uproarious in his
demonstrations Of indignation at the defalca-
tion fifteen years ago. Let us see. God lets
the man 60 God, who had kept that man
under His protecting care lets the man go and
try for himself the ma jesty of his integrity.
God letting the man CO. the powers of dark
ness pounce upon him. ! seq yoI some day
in your Office in great excitement. One of two
things you can do Be honest, and be Eauper-
lied, and have your children brought home
from school, yoar family dethroned in social
influence The other thing is, you can step a
little aside from that viii h is right you can
only Just go ha fan inch out of the proper path,
you can only take little risk and then you
have all your finances fair and right. You
have large property. You can leave for
tune for your children and eldow college
and build public library in your native
town. You halt and wait, and halt and wait
until your lips get white You decide to
risk it. Only few strokes of the pen now.
But OH how your hand trembles, how
dreadfully it tremblesl The die is cast.
By the strangest and most awful
conjunction Of circumstances any one
could have imagined you are prostrated.
Bankruptcy, commercial annihilation, ex-
posure, crime. Good men mourn and devils
hold carnival, and you see your own name at
the head of the newspaper column in n whole
congress Of exclamation points; and while
you are reading the anathema in the repor-
torial and editorial paragraph, it occurs to
you how much this story is like that of the
defalcation fifteen years ago, and a clap of
thunder shakes the wndow-sill, saying: "With
what measure ye mete, it shall be measured
to you again"
You look in another direction There is
nothing like an ebullition of temper to mt n