Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1886-08-07

and bufleted. Some day rallying your
courage, you resent some wrong. A
man says: '.Who are youp | know
| who you are. Your father had free
lodging at Sing Sing. Your mother.
she was up for drunkenness Mt the
criminal court. Get out of my way,
you low-liyed wretch!" My brother,
suppose that had been the history Of
your advent, and the history of your
earlier surroundings, would you have
been the Christian nan you are to-day,
seated in this Christian assembly? |
tell You nay. You would have
been a ~vagabond, an outlaw. a muir
derer on the scafiold atoning for your
crime All these considerations ought
10 make rs merciful in our dealings
with the wandering and the lost.
Again, F'haye to remark, that in the
| estimate of our misdoing of people
who have fallen from high respectable
ity and usefulness, we must take into
consideration the conjunction of cir
cumstanccs. 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 investment. He says: Now, if |
should lose that Investment | have Of
my own property five times as much,
and if this investment should 70 wrong
| 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
quito as well as expected, and he
makes another Investment, and strange
to say Mt the same time all
his other affairs get entangled,
and all his other fail,
and his hands are tied. Now he wants
to extricate himself. He goes a little
farther on in the wrong investment.
He takes a plunge farther ahead, for
he wants to save his wife and children,
HE wANTs HIS HOME,
he wants to save his membership in the
church. He takes one more plunge
aud 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 officer of the bank indicating
there is trouble. and the name of the
defaulter or the %defrauder heads the
newspaper column, and hundreds Of
men say: ''Geod for him. hundreds
of other mcn say: ''Im glad he's found
ont at last hundreds of other men
say: just rs | told you hundreds of
other men say. 1--WE couldn't possibly
have been tempted TO do that-no con-
junction Of circumstances could ever
have overthrown me- sand there
is a superabundance Of indignation.
but no pity. The heavens full of
lightning but not one drop of dew. If
God treated us as society trc"ts thar
man we would all have been in nell long
ago! Wait for the alloviating circum-
stances. Perhaps Ike may have been
the dupe of o,hers. Before you let all
the hounds out from their kennel to
maui and tear that man, fad out if he
has not been brought up in a CONNER
cial establishment where there was a
wrong system of ethics taught; find out
whether that man has not an extrava.
giant wife who is not satisfied with hi,
honest earnings, and in the temptation
to please her he has gone into that ruin
into which enough men have fallen. and
by the same temptation, to make a pro.
cession of many miles. Perhaps some
sudden sickness may have touched his
brain, and his Judgment may be un.
balanced. He is wrong, hc is awfully
wrong, and he must be condemned, but
there may be mitigating circumstances
Perhaps under the same temp.
tation you might have fallen. The
reason some men do not stea'
two hundred thousand dollars
is because they do not get a chance
Have righteous Indignation you must
about that mans conduct, but temper
it with mercy. But you say: 81 an
so sorry that the innocent should sui
fer" Yes, | am too-sorry for the
WIDOWS N ORPHANS
who lost their all by that defalcation
| am sorry also for the business men
who have had their affairs all crippled
by that defalcation. | am sorry for the
credit of that bank was Il matter o.
pride. Yes, | am sorry also for tina
man who brought al. the distress
sorry that he sacrificed body, mind
soul, reputation, heaven, and went in
10 the blackness Of darkness forever.
You defianrly say: Il could nct b,
tempted in that way Perhaps vol
may be tested after awhile. God has s
very good memory, and he some
times seems to say: ''This mar
feels 20 strong in his innate
power and goodness 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 90 by. The wheel OF
fortune turns several times, and you
are in a crisis that You never could
have anticipated. Now al. the powers
Of darkness come around, and they
chuckle. and they chatter, and they
say: .'Ah ha. 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 al
the defalcation fifteen years ago. Let
us see." God lets the man 90. God.
who had kept that man under his pro-
t~octinu caro- LET'S the man po and frv