The Abbeville messenger. (Abbeville, S.C.) 1884-1887, 1886-08-31

man in it. I do not mean the man who would
style himself the best, for probably he Is a
God is really the best. will take you out
from all your Christian surroundings. will
take you back to bovhood. / will put you In
: aePTavsa home. viii VIII put you 70 in Ra a era,
over that cradle9 An intoxicated mother.
Who is that swearing in the next
:ooml Your father. The neighbors come
In to talk. and their jokes are ~uncIean. There
Us not N the house a Bible or q moral treatise,
PVT only q few scraps of an old pictorial
AFTER a while you are old enough to get out
Of the cradle, and you are struck across
the head for naughtiness, but never in any
you are old enough to go abroad, and
you are seut out with a basket to steal.
II you come home without any spoil, you
are whipped until the blood comes. At
own battles in this world, which seems to
rare no more for you than the dog that
has died of a fit under the fence: You are
kicked aud cuffed and buffeted. Some day,
WRONG. A man says: "Who are you! I know
who you are. Your father had free lodgings
At Sing Sing. Your mother, she was up Tor
drunkenness at the Criminal Court. Get out
2f my way, you low-lived wretch!" Ny
brother, suppose that had been the history Of
your advent, and the history Of your early
surroundings, would You have been the
christian man you are to-day, seated in this
| CuIlSUldu oSS6ulOlY. i t0I you nav. Y on
would have been a v~agabond, an outlaw, a
murderer on the scaffold atoning for your
crime. All these considerations ought to
make us merciful in our dealings with tn:
wandering and the lost.
Again, I have to remark that in our esti>
mat3 of the m~isdoings of people who have
tallen from high responsibility and useful.
aess we must take into consideration the con,
junction Of circumstances. In nine cases
out Of ten a man who goes astray does NOT
intend any positive wrong. He has trust
funds. He risks a part of these funds in in.
vestment. He says; "Now, if I should lose
that Investment l have Of my own property
should 20 wrong I could easily make it up!
could five times make it mp" With that
wrong reasoning he goes on and makes the
we'll as he expected, and he makes another
Investment, and, strange to say, at the same
! time all his other affairs get entangled, and
AL his other resources fail, and his hands are
tied. Now he wants to extricate himself. He
goes a little further on in the wrong invest
ment. He takes a 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 baas 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 nams Of the defaulter or the de-
hundreds Of men say: Good for him."
hundreds of other men say: Pm glad he's
found out at LAST" hundreds Of other men
say: Just as told you" hundreds of other
tempted to do that-no conjunction Of cir
cumstanc es could ever have overthrow me; !"
and there Is a s~uperabundance of indigna-
ton but no pity. The heavens full Of light
ming. but not one drop of dew. If God
treated us as society treats that man we
would all have been in hell long agol Wait
for the alternating circumstances. Perhaps
he may have been the dupe of Others. Be-
fore you let all the hound out from their
kennel to maui and tear that man, find
out if he has not been brought up In a
commercial establishment whore there was
a wrong system Of ethics taught;
find out whether that man has not
with his honest earnings, and in the tempta-
ton to please her he has gone into that ruin
into which enough men Aavo fallen, aud by
the sam9 temptation ~ to make a procession s;Y2na OF
may have touched his brain. and his judg-
ment may be unbalan ED. He is wrong-he
is awfully wrong, and h must be condemned,
but there may be mitigating circumstances.
might have fallen. The reason some men do
not steal s2o0, 600 is because they do not get
n chance! Have righteous Indignation you
must about that mans conduct, but
so sorry that the innocent should suffer-"
Yes. I am too-sorry for tho widows aud Or
phans who lost their all by that defalcation.
am sorry. also, for the business, men, tbs
affairs all crippled by that defalcation. l
am sorry for the venerable bank President to
whom the credit of that bank was a matter
of prize. Yes, | ams9rry, also, for that man
sacrificed body, mind. soul, reputation, J
Heaven, and went into the blackness Of dark
ness forever.
You deiantly say: II coull not be- tempted
In that way;" Per Perhaps zap YOU may nay, be n,o tested 9
and he sometimes seems to say: This man
feels so strong in his innat, power aud good
ness he shall be tested: he is so full of bitter
invective against that uafortln Ute, it shall be
shown now whether he has the power to
stand" Fifteen years 60 b.. The wheel of
fortune turns several times, and you are in a
crisis that you never coult have anticipated.
Now oil the powers of darkness come around,
and they chuckle, and they chatter, and they
say: "Aha! here is the oil fellow who was
so proud of his integrity, and who
Dragged he couldn't be overthrown by
temptation, and was so uproarious in his
demonstrations of indignation at the defa!ca.
ton fifteen years ago: Let us see. God lets
the man 60. God. who had kept that man
under His protecting care, let's the man go and
try for himself tina ma iesty of his integrity.
God letting the MAJ g., the powers Of dark
ness pounce upon him. | sea you some day
in your Office in great Q eaitement. Ono of two
things you can do. Be hon est, and be paupar-
ICED, and have your children brought home
from school. your family dcthronea in social
influence. The other thing is, you can step a
little aside from that viii h is ri ,ht, You can
only Just go half an inch oat OF the propor path,
YOU can only take a little risk. anil then you
nave all your finances fair aud right. You
have a large property. You can leave a fo:-
tune for your children and eadow a college
and build a 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 a few strokes of the pen now.
But oh. how your land trembles, how
| dreadfullx il tramhles The die ,s cast.