The Brookhaven leader., 1886-08-05

them will not, and il becomes all men,
professional, unprofessional, ministers OF
religion, judges of courts, philanthropists
aud 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, a 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 Rehohoam and desperate
Manassas, there arterward came a pious
Joseph and q glorious Christ But, my
friends, you must recognize tue fact that
these influences go on from generation TO
generation. am glad to know, however,
that a river which has produced nothing
but miasma for one hundred miles, may
after awhile turn the wheels of factories
aud help 10 support industrious and virtu-
Gus populations; and there are family
lines which were poisoned that are a bene-
diction now. At the last day il will be
found out that there are men who have
gone clear over into all 70 ms Of iniquty
and plunge into other abandonment, who
before they yielded to the first temptation
resisted more evil than many man who
has leen moral and upright all his life.
Again, | have to remark that in our esti-
mate of the misduings OF people who have
fallen from high respectabilitv and useful
n SIS, we must take into consideration 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. lie risks part of these
funds in Investment. He says: Now, If
l should lose that Investment | have my
own property, five times as much, and If
this investment sh uld go wrong | could
easily make il W; | could five times make
it up" With that wrong reasoning he
goes on and makes the investment, and it
does not iGrn 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 eutangled and all his
other resources fail, AMI his hands are
ii d. Now he wants to exfricate himself.
He goes little farther on in the wrong
investment. lie takes plunge further
ahead, for he wants to save his wife and
children; he wants to save his home; he
wants to save his membership i'll the
| church. lie takes one more plunge and
all is lost. Some morning at ten 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 delaulter or the delrauder
heads the newspaper column.
UnIer these conditions hundreds OF men
say, Good for hiIn;" hundreds of other
men say: "Tm glad he's found out at
las" hundreds Of other men say: Just
as told YOU" hun irels of other men
say, I'VE couldn't possibly have been
tempted-no con junction Of circumstances
could ever have thrown me-" and there is
q sup.rahundance 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 he'll long ago! Wait for the
ullev ating circumstances. Perhaps he
may have been the dupe Of others. Before
you let all tho hounds out from their
enneis to maui and tear that mau, find GU
if he has not Teen brought up in COM
mer nd establishment where there was a
wrong system of ethics taught; find out
whether thai man has not an eStravagant
wife, who is not satisfied with his honest
earnings, and in temptation to pl' ase her
enough men have fallen, AMI by the same
temptation, to make procession of many
miles. Perhaps some sudden sickness may
have touched his brain and his judgment
may be unbalanced. lie is wrong; he Is
awfully wrong, and lie must be condemn
ed, hut there may lie mitigating circum-
stances. Perhaps under tie same tempta-
ton you might have fallon.
You defan ly say: ~ could not he
tempted in that way" Perhaps you may
be tested after awhile. God has a very
COOL memory, and he sometimes seems to
say: "rhis man feels so strong IN his in
nate power and goodness he shall be
tested; lie is 81 fun of bitter inveclive
against that unfortunate it shall be shown
now whether lie has the power to stand"
Fifteen years 90 by. The wheel of for
tune turns several times, and you are in
crisis that you never could have antlci-
pated. Now, all the powers of darkness
come around, and they chuclIe, and they
chatter, AMI they say: Aha here is the
old fellow who was so proud of his inteS-
rity, and who Dragged he couldn't be
overthrow by temptation, and was so up
roarious in his demonstrations of indigna-
y
Let US sea-" God lets the man go. God,
who has kept that man under His protect
ing care, lets the man go, and try for him.
self the majesty of his integrity. God,
letting the man go, the powers of dark
ness pounce upon him.
l see you some day in your Office in
great excitement One of two things you
can do. Be honest, and be pauperized,
and have your children brought home
from school, your family dethroned in So
cal influence. The other thing is, you
can step a 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 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 few strokes of the pen now.
But, oh, how your hand trembles, how
dreadfully it trembles! The die is cast.
By the strangest and most awful conjunc-
ton of circumstances any one could have
imagined, you are Frustrated. Bank
ruptcy, commercial anhlhhatlon, 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 a whole congress of exclamation
points; and while you are reading the an
athena in the reportorial and editorial
paragraph, it occurs to you how much this
story is like that of the defalcation of fif-
teen years ago, and clap of thunder
shakes the window-sill, saying: with
what mea sure ye mete, it shall be m cas-