St. Landry democrat., 1886-08-14

less have criminal tendency Any one
OF all those thousands by the grace of Goo
may become Christian, and resist the an.
cestral influence, and open a new chapter
of behavior; but the vast majority OF
them will not, and it becomes all men,
professional, unprofessional, ministers OF
religion, judges of courts, philanthropsts
and Christian workers, to recognize the
fact that there are these Atlantic and
Pacific surges of hereditary evil rolling ON
through the centuries.
say, of course, man can resist this
tendency, just as in the ancestral line
mentioned in the first chapter of Matthew.
You see in the same line in which there
was wicked Rehoboam and desperate
Manassas, there afterward came pi Gus
Joseph and glorious Christ But, my
friends, you must recognize the fact tn at
these influences go on from generation to
generation. l am glad to know, however,
that river which has produced nothing
but miasma for one hundred miles, may
after awhile turn the wheels of factories
and help to support industrious and virtu-
Gus populations; and there are family
lines which were poisoned that are bene.
| diction now. At the last day it will be
| found out that there are men who have
| gone clear over into all forms of iniquity
and plunged into other abandonment, who
before they yielded to the first temptation
resisted more evil than many man who
has been moral and upright all his life.
Again, l have to remark that in our esti.
mate of the misdoings of people who have
fallen from high respecta bility and useful
ness, we must take int consid or alton the
conjunction of circumstances. In nine
cases out of ten the man who goes astrav
does not intend any positive wrong. He
has trust funds. He risks part of these
funds in investment. He says: snow. if
l should lose that investment I have my
own property, five times as much, and if
this investment should go wrong I 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 ex.
pected, and he makes another invest
meNt, and strange to say at the time 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 farther on in the wrong |
investment. 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 ten O'Clock
the bank door is not opened, and there is
card on the door signed by an officer Of
the bank, indicating there is trouble, and
tho Of tbo Iofa Jofr |
heads the newspaper column.
Under these conditions 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 l told you;" hundreds of other men
say, "We couldn't possibly have been
tempted-no conjunction of circumstances
could ever have thrown me-" and there is
a superabundance of indignation, but no
pity. The heavens full of lightning, but
not one drop Of dew. II God treated US as
society treats that man we Would all have
been in hell long ago! Wait for the
circumstances. Perhaps he
may have been the dupe of others. Before
you let all the hounds out from their
ennels to maui and tear that man, find out
if he has not been brought up in COM
mercial esta blishment where there was q
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 temptation to please her
he has gone into that ruin into which
enough men have fallen, and by the same
to make procession of many
miles. Perhaps some sudden sickness may
have touched his brain and his Judgment
nay be unbalanced. He is wrong; he Is
awfully wrong, and he must be condemn
ID, but there may be mitigating circum-
stances. Perhaps under the same tempta-
ion you might have fallen.
You defantIy say: ''I could not be
empted in that way" Perhaps you may
oe tested after awhile. God has a very
good memory, and he sometimes seems to
Jay: "This man feels so strong in his in
late power and goodness he shall be
ested; he is so full of bitter invective
lgainst that unfortunate it shall be shown
low whether he has the power to stand"
Fifteen years go by. The wheel of for.
une turns several times, and you are in t
'risis that you never could have antici- Y
'ated. Now, all the powers of darkness /
.ome around, and they chuckle, and they i
halter, and they say: "Ahal here is the I
Id fellow who was so proud of his integ- '
ity, and who Dragged he couldn't be I
'verthrown by temptation, and was SO up 1
oarious in his demonstrations of indigna- 9
ion at the defalcation fifteen years ago. I
let US see." God let's the man go. God, +
Who has kept that man under His protect s
ng care, let's the man go, and try for him.
elf the majesty of his integrity. God,
sitting the man 90, the powers of dark
ess pouncs upon him.
7 see you some day in your Office in