The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1886-10-02
pIErY ANN DEGRADATION.

Recent defalcations for large amounts
add fresh illustrations to the many
which have occurred within few years
that religious zeal is never safe guar
antee of uprightness. 1t is indeed by
word with many who make too sweep
ing generalizations that pious profess
sions are per Sc sufficient to cause dis
trust of a mans business integrity. To
believe this is certainly a deduction
greatly more fallacious than that which
would put absolute trust in personal
honesty because the patty is devout
church member. The truth lies in nei-
ther of these extremes.
1t is certain that statistics, if carefully
compiled to cover all the facts of the
case, would show that the financial and
social worlds breed vastly more cheats
and swindlers who do not than do wear
the mask of religious profession. What
ever iaay be said to the contrary by pes
simistic observers, the world is generally
disposed to regard the religious connec-
ton as an additional safeguard to in
tegrity, in spite of the many disilusion-
ing shocks which it receives from time
TO time. On the other hand it may be
said that this traditional confidence en-
ables the religious professor, If he be so
inclined, to achieve more colossal
roguery than circumstances would other
wise permit.
1t is probable that among the religious
rogues very small minority deliberately
use the profession Of piety as a lever
with which to carry out their rascalities
or as a cloak behind which to hide them,
or, in other words, are conscious and
premeditatsd hypocrltes. The lapse
from rectitude to rascality is a very
gradual slide, and the conscience has an
opportunity to become habituated to a
new aspect of things. While this de-
terioration of the moral nature is going
on like dry rot, 1T is perfectly possible for
the purely religious or emotional side of
the rogue to be just as sincere and fer
vent as ever, perhaps to glow with ad-
ditional intensity. The deacon, church
trustee or Sunday school superintendent
who, as bank cashier or insurance
officer, is perpetratinG gigantic robbery,
may in his church relations be ardently
sincere. On the same principle the Ital-
ian bandit receives confession from his
hedge priest, and VOWS silver candle
stick to the shrine OF his patron saint,
before he starts on foraging expedition
to rob, and, if necessary, murder some
unfortunate traveller. He has learned,
In fact, to look on the profession of the
highwayman as legitimate exercise of
the talents which he would not hide in
q napkin.
The financial highwayman, whether
he be the salaried officer of trust COM
pany or the independent Wall street
speculator, does not like to mix his
Sunday with his weekday business.
Constituti0nally he prefers to take
each straight, as the topper does his
whisliey and water. In his scheme of
moral economics it is useless to spoil
one with the other. OF course this in
genious separation of interests gets sad
" disarranged by the barbarous clutches
Of the law sometimes, but that is a risk
Which must be met.
The two divergent lines Of life along
which the same man may move, with
only occasional qualms Of conscience
which it is easy to narcotize, constitute
perfectly well known phenomenon.
The public sentiment which lays stripes
on the backs of religious defaulters,
both in a literal and melaphorical sense,
by their retirement to the penitentiary,
Is healthy recognition that the religi,
Gus professor deserves rather more than
less of retribution, even though he
builds churches and endows seminarles
with his ill-gotten gains. Nevertheless,
we must protest again against the ex,
preston which is sometimes called out
by the defalcations of pious people, that
a man is to be distrusted because he /,
regular in taking the euchanstic sacra
Aent, Every sheop's fleece doesn't hid,
wolf