The weekly sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1886-1887, 1886-07-29

ceStral / n,lence, and open II new cha pier
of beha, ior; but the vast majority of
them will not, and it becomes all men,
professional. unprofessional. ministers
of religion judges OF courts, philanthro-
piStS and Christian workers, to recognize
the fact that there are these Atlantic and
Pacific sur eS of hereditary evil rolling
on through the centuries.
/ say, of couree, Il man can resist this
tendency, just as III tie ancestral line
mentioned in the first chap er of Mat
thew. You see in the eame Ii in which
Their. WAS a wicked Rehob am an. a des-
perate Manasses, t.-ere aftern -rd came
a pious Joseph and glorious G rist.
But my friends, you must recoG niZe the
fact that these influences go on from
generation to generation. am glad to
know however, that a river which has
produced nothing but miasma fer hun
dred miles, may after while turn the
wheels of factories and i.elp support i'll
du=trous and virtuous populations: and
there are family line y hich We're poi on
ed that are a beIcdiction now. AT the
Last Day it will be .ound 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 frs temptation resisted
more evil than many man who has en-
moral and upright all his life. But up
posing now, that in this age wh.-n there
are SO many good people, TIA; l come
down into this audience and select the
very best man in it. / do not mean the
man who would style himself the best,
for probably he is hypocrite; but l
mean the man who before God is ally
| the best. 1 will take you out from all
your Christian surroundings. l will
take You back to boyhoon. l will put
you in a depraved LoIne. I will put you
in cradle of iniquity. Who is that
bending over that cradle? An intoxi-
cd thAr no ic hot ~ n
| the next room? Your father. The neigh
| bors come in to talk. And their jokes are
| unclean.. There is not in the house q
Bible or a moral treatise, but only few
| scraps of an old pictorial. After while
| you are old enough TO get out OF the
| cradle, and you are str-ck across the
head Tor naughtiness, but nrver in any
kindly manner reprin. anded. After
| awhile you are old enough to go abroad.
| and you are sent out with basket to
steal. If you come home without any
| spoil you are whipped until the blood
comes. At fifteen years OF age you go
| out to fight your own battles in this
world, which seems to care no more for
you than the dog that has died of fit
! under the fence. You are kicked and
| cuffed and buffeted. Some day, rallying
your courage, you resent some wrong.
! man says: "Who are you? I know
who YOU are. Your father had free
!
was up for drunkenness at the criminal
court. Get out of my way, you low
lived wretch!" Ny brother, suppose
that had been the history Of your advent.
and the history of your earlier surround
| ings, would you have been the Christian
| man you are to-day, seated in this Chris
tian assembly? I tell you, nay. You
would have been a vagabond, an outlaw,
a murderer on the scaffold atoning for
your crime. All these considerations
ought to make us merciful in our deal
ings with the wandering and the lost.
Agair. have to remark, that in our
estimate OF the misdoing of people who
have fallen from high responsibility and
usefulness, we must take into considera-
ton the conjunction of circumstances.
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 invest
ment I have of my own property five
should go wrong 1 could easily make it
up" With that wrong reasoning he goes
| on and makes the investment, and it
does not turn out quit: as well as he ex-
pected and he makes another invest
ment, and strange to Say at the same
time all his other affairs get entangled,
and all his g her resources fail, and his
ha nds are tied. Now he wants to extri-
cate himself. He goes a little farts Ell
on in the wrong investment. He t kes
plunge farther head, for he wants to
save his wife and children, he waits his
home, he wants to save his mem bcrshIp
i'll the church. He takes one M Re tliiil sc
and all is lost. Some morning at ten
o'clock the bank door is rot opened, and
there is q card on the door signed 10y al
officer of the bank indie atinS there is
trouble. and the name OF the default Of
the Gefr uGer heads the newspaper col
Umll, ana hundreds of men say: "GooC
for Him ;" hundreds OF other men say
I'm glad he's found out at last" hun
dreds of other men say Just as tolC
YOU" hundreds of other men say: eve
couldn't pos IDLY have been tempted tt
do that-no con junction OF circumstances
could ever Lave oVerthrown me; ant
there is a superaI undance of indiSua
ton but no pity. The heavens full o
lig thing, but not one drop OF dew. L
. j God treated US as society treats tina
man, we would all have been in hell Ion.
ago! Wait for the alternating circun
, stances. Perhaps he may have been the
dupe of others. Before you let all thu
hounds out from their kennel to mau
and tear that man, find out If he has no
been brought up in a commercial estab
lishment where there was wrong sys
tenn OF ethics taught; find out whethe
, that an has OF an extravagant VIII
| who is not satisfied it'll lis honest earn
, | ings, and in the temptation to please he
| he has gone into that ruin into which
! | enough men have fallen, and by tn
same temptation, to make a procession
of many miles. Perhaps some suIdel
sickness may have touched his brain
, and his judgment may be unbalanced
, He is wrong, he is awfully wron., ant
+ he must be condemned, but there lay b
:, | mitigating circumstances. Perhaps un
r der The same temptation you might hav
r fallen. The reason some men do no
2 steal two hundred thousand dollars
, because the, do not get a chance! Hav
) righteous indignation you must abou
t that mans conduct, but temper it wit
: mercy. But you say q am so sorr
. that The innocent should suffer-" Yes,
; am, too-sorry for the widows and OIL
. phans who lost their all by that defalcs