The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1886-08-06

may become Christian, ami resist the an.
cestral influence. and open q 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. phiian, hropists
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, q 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 a wicked Rehol'oam and q desperate
Manassas, there afterward came a pious
Joseph and glorious Christ. But, my
friends, you must recognize the fact that
these influences 60 on from generation to
generation. 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 virtui
Gus populations; and there are family
lines which were poisoned that are hene-
diction now. At the last day it will be
AVuuu Vus Snob suOs0 osO ''Ou =" Nv n"S Q
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 Teen moral and upright all his life.
Again, have to remark that in our esti.
mate of the misdoings Of people who have
fallen from high respects biiity and useful.
n. IS, we must take into confederation the
conjunction OF circumstances. In nine
cases out of ten the man who goes astray
does not intend any positive wrong. He
has trust funds. He risks part of these
funds in Investment. He says: "Now, II
l should lose that investment I have my
own property. five times as much, and il
this investment should 60 wrong could
easily make it up; could five times make
it up" With that wrong reasoning he
goes on and makes the investment, and il
does not turn out quite SO well 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
ii d. Now he wants to extricate himself.
He goes little ia, Their on in the wrong
investment. 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 ten o'clock
a card on the door signed by an officer of
the bank, indicating there is trouble, and
the name Of the defau1ter or the defrauder
heads the newspaper column.
Under these conditions hundreds of men
say, "Good for him." hanareds Of other
men say: "I'm glad hos found out at
last;" hundreds Of other men say: "Just
as told YOU" hundreds of other men
say, 1--WE couldn't possibly nave been
tempted-no conjunction of circumstances
could ever have thrown mes" 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 trents that man we would all have
been in hell long ago! Wait for the
alternating 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
il he has not been brought up in a COM
mercial establishment where there was q
wrong system Of ethics Taught; find out
whether that mn has not an eztravagant
wife, who is not satisfied with his honest
earnings, and in temptation to please her
he has gone into that ruin into which
enough mon have fallen, AMI by the same
temptation, to make a procession of many
miles. Perhaps some sudden sickness may
have touched his brain and his judgment
may be unbalanced. He is wrong; lie Is
awfully wrong, and he must he condemn
ed, but there may he mitigating circum-
stances. Perhaps under the same tempia-
ton you might have fallen.
You defan ly say: 81 could 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 in
nate power and goodness he shall lie
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 for.
tune turns several times, and you are in a
crisis that you never could have antici-
pated. Now, all the powers of darkness
come around, and they chuckle, and theS
chatter, and they say: saba! here IS the
old fellow who was SO proud OF his integ.
rity, and who Dragged he couldn't be
overthrown by temptation, and was SO up
roarious in his demonstrations of indigna-
so,, ot ho lorn1ootip,>
Let Us see." God let's the man 60. God,
who has kept that man under His protect
ing care, let's the man go, and try for him.
self the majesty of his integrity. God,
letting the man 60, the powers of dark.
ness pounce upon him.
see you some day in your Office in
great excitement. One of two things you
can do. Be honest, and he pauperised,
and have your children brought home
from school. your family dethroned 10 so.
cial influence. The other thing is, you
can step little aside from that which is
right, you can only just so half an inch
out Of the proper path, you can only take
a little risk, and then you have all your
finances fair and right. You have large
property. You can leave q fortune for
your children, and endow = college, and
build public library in your native town.
You halt and wait, and halt and wait I'M.
til your lips get white. You decide to risk
it. Only u few strokes of the pen now.
But, oh. how your hsnd tremhles, how
dreadfully it trenlJles! The die is cast.
By the strnngest aud most awful conjunc-
ton of circumstances any one could have
imagined, you are FRUSTRATED. Bank
ruptcy, commercial annihiiation, expos
ure, crime. Good men mourn and devils
hold carnival, and you see your own
name at the head Of the newspaper col
umn in whole congress of exclamation
points; and while you are reading the an.