Charlotte messenger. [volume] (Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) 1882-18??, 1886-08-21

IRE 50 many good people that come down
into this audience and select the very best
man in it. do not mean the man who would
style himself the best, for probably he is q
God is really the best. Twill take you out
from all your Christian surroundings. ! will
take you back to boyhood. will put you In
. depraved home. / will put you in a era
die Of iniquity Who is that bending
over that cradles An intoxicated mother
roomi Your father. The neighbors come
Is not in the house Bible or moral treatise
but only few scraps of an old pictorial
After while you are old enough to get out
Of the CRADLE and you are struck across
the head for naughtiness, but never in any
kindly manner reprimanded. After q whilo
you are old enough TO go abroad, ana
you are sent out with basket TO sIeal.
If you come home 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 70
rare no more for YOU than the dog thai
has died of a fit under the fence. You are
kicked and cuffed and buffeted. Some day,
rallying your courage, you resen1 some
wrong. A man says: "Who are you. l know
who you are. Your father had free lodgings
1t Sing Sing Your mother, she was UP Cor
drunkenness at the Criminal Court. Get out
81 my way, you low-livei wretch!n My
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
Christian assembly. l tell you nay. You
would have been vagabond, an outlaw,
murderer on the scaffold atoning for your
crime. All these consid erations ought to
make us merciful in our dealings with the
wandering and the lost
AGAIN. i have to remark that in our esti>
mats of the misdoingS OF people VINO nave
fallen from high respe liability and usetui-
ness we must take into consideration the cons
junction of circumstances. In nine cases
out of ten man who goes astray does mob
intend any positive wrong. He has trust
funds. He risks part of these funds IN IN
yestment He says; Nov, If should lose
that investment have of my own properly
five times as much, and If this lnvestment
should go wrong l could easily make it up;
could five times make it up 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
lime all his other affairs get entangled, and
all his other resources fail, and his hands are
tied. Now he wants to extricate himself. He
goes little further on in the wrong invest
ment. He takes q 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 name of the defaulter or the de-
frauder. heads the newspaper column, and
hundreds of men say: Good for him."
hundreds of other men say: I'm glad he's
found out at last" hundreds of other men
say: "Just as told you" hundreds of other
men say: I'VE couldn't possibly have been
tempted to do that-no conjunction of cir
cumstan 'es could ever have overthrown me-"
and there is a superabundance OF indigna-
tion but no pity The heavens full of light
ning but not one drop of dew. If God
treated us as society treats that man we
would all have been in hell long agoi Wait
for the alternating circumstances. Perhaps
he may have been tine dupe of Others. Be
fore you let all the hounds out from their
kennel to maui AMI tear that man, lind
out if he has no. been brought up in
commercial establishment where there was
a wrong system of ethics taught;
find out whether that man has not
an extravaganza wife, who is not satisfied
with his honest earnings, and in the tempta-
ton to please her he has gone into that ruin
into which enough men have fallen, and by
the same temptation, to make procession OF
many miles Perhaps some sudden sickness
may have touched his brain. AMI his judg-
ment may be unbalanced. He IS wrong-he
Is awfully wrong, and 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 81 10000 is because they do not get
O chancei Have righteous Indignation you
must about that mans conduct but
temper it with mercy But you say: Il am
so sorry that the innocent should sulicr."
" Fa. FL, t1rtnr. m
phans who lost their all by that defalcation.
am sorry, als) for the business men, the
honest business men, who have had their
affairs all crippled by tha5 defalcatiol. l
am sorry for the venerable bank PRECEDENT to
whom the credit of that bank was matter
of pride Yes, / amsorry, also, for that man
who brought all the distress sorry that he
sacrificed body, mind. soul. reputation,
Heaven, and went into the backness OF dark
ness forever
You defiantly say: 81 could not be tempted
in that way" Perhaps you may be tested
after awhile. God has very good memory.
and he sometimes seems to say: This man
feels so strong in his innate 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 a
crisis that you never could have anticipated.
NOW,dll Lne powers OIL udrkueSS COile diounu,
and they chuclzle, and they chatter, and they
say: AHA here is the old 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 defalca-
tion fifteen years ago. Let us see. God lets
the man go. God who had kept that man
under His protecting care, lets the man go and
try for himself the majesty of his integrity.
God letting the man go, the powers of dark
ness pounce upon him. see you some day
in your Office in great excitement. One oftwo
things you can do. Be honest, and be pauper-
lied, and have your children brought home
from school, your family dethroned in social
influence. The other thing is, you can step a
little aside from that which is right, you can
only Just go half an 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 endow 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 enc
could have imagined, you are Frustrated.
Bankruptcy commercial humiliation, ex-
posure, crime. Good men mourn and devils
hold carnival. and you see your own name at
the head of the newspaper column in a whole