Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1886-08-05


) court Get out OF my way YOU low-lived
wretchp' Ny brother, suppose that had been
the history OF your advent, and the history Of
your earlier surroundings would you have
been the Christian man you are to day, seated
IN this Christian assembly, tell you, nay
You would have been vagabond, an outlaw,
murderer on the scaffold atoning for your
crime All these considerations ought to
make us iterciful In our dealings with the
Wandering and the lost.
CIRCUMSTANCES MAKE CRIMINALS
Again l have to remark, that in our esti-
mate OF the misdoing Of people who have
fallen from high responsibility ard useful
ness, we must take Into consideration the
conjunction OF circumstances. In nine cases
out OF ten man who goes astray does not
intend any positive wrong, He has trust
funds He risks part Of these funds in in.
vestment. He says: Now, IL should lose
that investment | have Of my own property
five times as much, and II this investment
should go wrong could easily make It up;
could five times make 1t up" With that
wrong reasoning he goes on and makes the
well as he expected, and strange to say at
the same time all his other affairs get entan-
gled and all his other resources full and his
hands are tied. Now he wants to extricate
himself. He goes a little further on in the
wrong investment. He takes a plunge farther
ahead, for he wants to save his wife and
children, he wants his home, he wants to save
his membership in the church He takes
| ohC hoic IiuuSc duu All Is lust. some morn
ing at 10 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,
aud the name Of the dcfali!ter or the defraud-
dreds Of men say: sGood for him. Hundreds
of other men say: "Pm glad he's found out
| at last.n Hundreds OF other men say: Just
as told youm Hundreds Of other men say:
"We couldn't possibly have been tempted to
do that-no conjunction of circumstances
could have overthrow me-" And there is
superabundance of indignation but no pity
The heavens full of lightning, but not one
| drop Of dew.
| JUSTICE TEMPERED BY MERCY.
If God treated us as society treats that man
we would have all been in hell long agol Wait
! for the allevating circumstances. Perhaps he
| may have been the dupe of Others. Before YOU
| let gil the hounds out from their kennel to
maui and tear that man, find out If he has
| not been brought up in a commercial estab-
| lishment where there was a 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 the tempta-
ton to please her he has gone into that ruin
into which enough men have fallen. and by
the same temptation, to make a procession OF
many miles, Perhaps some sudden sickness
may have touched his brain, and his judg-
ment may be unbalanced. He is wrong, he is
awfuly wrong, and he must be condemned,
but there may be mitigating circumstances.
Perhaps under the same temptation you might
have fallen. The reason some men do not
steal two hundred thousand dollars is because
they do not get chance! Have righteous in
dignaton you must about that mans conduct
but temper 1t with mercy. But you say: II
am so sorry that the innocent should suffer"
Yes l am to-sorry for the widows and or
phans who lost their all by that defalcation.
l am sorry also for the business men, the hon
est business men who have had their affairs all
crippled by that defalcation. l am sorry for
the venerable bank president to whom the
credit of that bank was matter of pride.
Yes / am sorry also for that man who brought
all the distress; sorry that he sacrificed body,
mind. SOUL reputation, heaven, and went into
the blackness of darkness forever.
TEMPTATIONS HARD TO RESIST.
You defanty say: Il could not be tempted |
after while. God has very good memory, |
and he sometimes seems to say: This man |
feels so strong in his innate power and good |
ness he shall be tested; he is so full of bitter |
invectve against that unfortunate it shall be |
shown now whether he has the power to |
stand" Fifteen years go by. The wheel of |
fortune turns several times, and you are in a |
crisis that you never could have an |
ticipated Now, all the powers of |
darkness come around; and they chuckle |
and they chatter. and they say: aha! Here |
is the old fellow who was so proud of his in |
tegrity, and who Dragged he couldn't be over |
thrown by temptation, and was so uproarious |
in his demonstrations of indignation at the |
God lets the man go. God, who had kept that |
man under His protecting care lets the man |
go and try for himself the majesty of his in
tegrity. God letting the man 90, the powers |
of darkness pounce upon him. / see you |
some day in your Office in great excitement
One or two things you can do. Be honest and |
be pauperized, and have your children |
brought home from school, your family de-
throned In social influence. The other thing |
is, you can step little aside from that which
is right, you can only go just 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 en-
dow a college, and build public library in
your native town You halt and wait until |
your lips get white. You decide to risk it.
Only few strokes OF the pen now. But o, |
how your hand trembles, how dreadfuIly it
trembles The die is cast. By the strangest |
and most awful CONJUNCTION of circumstances I
any one could have imagined, you are prostra-
ted. Bankruptcy, commercial humiliation,
exposure, crime. Good men mourn and devils |
hold carnival, and you see your own name at |
the head of newspaper column in whole
congress of exclamation points; and while you
are reading the anathema in the reportorial |
and editorial paragraph, 1t occurs to you how |
much this story is like that of the defalcation
fifteen years ago, and clap of thunder |
shakes the window sill, saying: 'Wth what
measure ye metc, 1t shall be measured to you
again.'
BAD TEMPER DUE TO ILLNESS.
You look in another direction. There is
nothing like an ebullition Of temper to put
man to disadvantage. You, man with calm
pulses and fine digestion and perfect health,
cannot understand how anybody should be |
capsized in temper by an infnitesimal annoy
ance. You say: Il couldn't be unbalanced |
in that way" Perhaps you smile at provoca-
ton that makes another man swear. You
pride yourself on your imperturbabi)ity. You |
say with your manner, though you have too
much taste to say it with your words: 81 have
a great deal more sense than that man has; | |
have great deal more equpose of temper
than that man has; never could make such
peurile exhibition of myself as that man has
made.n
Ny brother, you do not realize that that
man was born with keen nervous organiza-
ton, that for forty years he has been under a
depicting process that sickness and trouble
have been helping undo what was left of
original healthfulness, that much of the time
it was with him like filing saws, that his
nerves have come to be merely tangle of
disorders, and that he is the most pitabe OBJ
ject on earth, who, though he is very SICK,
does not look sick and nobody sympathizes.
Let us see. Did you not say that you could not
be tempted to an ebullition of temper. Some
September you come home from your sum-
mer watering place and you have inside,
away back in your liver or spleen, what we
call in our day malaria, but what the old
folks called chills and .fever. You take
quinine until your ears are first buZzing bee
hives and then roaring Niagaras You take
roots and herbs You take everything. You
get well.
BROUGHT HOME TO MANY MEN.
But the next day you feel uncomfortable, |
and you yawn, and you stretch, and YOU
SILVER, and you consume, and YOU suffer.
Vexed more than you can tell, you cannot
sleep, you cannot eat, you cannot bear to see
anything that looks happy; you 20 out to kick
the cat that is asleep in the sun. Your chill
dren's mirth was once music to you; now it is
deafening. You say Boys stop that rack
et!" You turn back from June TO March. In |
the family and In the neighborhood your popu-
larty is ninety-five per cent of. The world |
SAYS: "What Is the matter with that disagree
able man! What woe-bcgone countenance!
l can't bear the sight Of him" You have got |
your pay at least-got your pay. You feel just |
as the man felt, that man for whom you have |
no mercy, and my text comes In with marvel |
GUS appositeness: "With what measure We |
mete, 1t shall be measured to you again"
In the study OF society l have come to this
conclusion, that the most Of the people want |
to be good but they do not exactly know how /