The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1894-02-18
MORAL CONDITION OF men.
Sam Jones Has Something seri.
Gus TO Say.
The Nation Acting OF Wrong Principles
Character Buried Under Chatteis,
Manhood Under aoney-Aaarchists
Made In the Home IAfe-rhe Poison.
ouo ComPanionship of Duaa.-pro-
misouous Literature.

my mind to write series, Of articles on
the moral, social, industrial and politi-
cal conditions of this country. Almost
every day somewhere 1 sm brought face
to face with moral degradation, with
social excuses, industrial friction and
political polecars. One day am D assi-
mist, another day L am an optimist, an
other day am a mugwump, to use q
political expression
This letter will have to do with the
moral conditions OF men. This is the
most important. for it is the very basis
OF right living, in national, social, in
dustrial and political. life. Not only ia
nothing settled until it ia settled right;
really, nothing is begun until it Is
begun right. II the foupda ton be
destroyed, what can the righteous do?
I'care not how Indifferent men NAV be.
nor how reckless they may grow, it is q
fact that he who runs counter to the
great principles which un1erlie moral
reositude wall end an unhappy life In
wreck ana ruin
We are o nation looking to profit and
loss almost exclusively. Financial
profit, with the loss Of character and
besmirched reputation, is not good
| economy. 1 his nation from its humblest
| homo TO its national capito, ought to
| stop and consider that God has pro-
| Jected this world along the lines of
certain fundamental principles, and
that law, all law, within the nds OF
the sacred book, as we'll as all State
law that is worthy of tho name, is but
tho tnoroughfare opened up by the ALL
Wise Being over which the humanity
must travel from The cradle to the
| grave.
| We must study and learn that 1t 10
not wrong to do "A ching simply because
| God or tho IL rislative authority of the
State says it Is wrong, but that all the
laW-making power i'll heaven and earth
| can have only one for any prohibitory
law and that il in the eternal princi-
| pies OF right and wrong We must
know that it. Is not wrong to steal bs-
cause God said Thou Shalt Not Steal"
but that God said Thou Shalt MOI
Steal" because it is wrong 20 steal. !
Nothing can be made right or wrong by
| law, but IT is eternally right OF wrong
in itself, and law is simply disclosure
OF that which al .eady existed.
There is only one standard by which
character can be measured. and that is
law. Subordination and insubordina-
ton to law determines the character of
the citizen. man who is personally
corrupt cannot DO politically pure, or
| commercially honest or socially de cent
|
the Of national life. Men have ceased
to stop and ask is it right?" or us it
wrong" They simply ask now, us
there any money in it?" The character
is often buried under chat tells, and man
hood under money, and God under gold.
| without stopping to discuss the mo
mentous weight or the momentum of
! heridity, oil students OF men and things
Will admit environment has much to do
| with ShaDinp charaNtar and 1atarp,;p;nrr
destiny. AS surely as Evil communi-
cations corrupt good morals and as
| Iho man is known by the company he
keeps" so surely does environment
have its force 1 have water spaniel
at homo, the best rat dog that know Of;
MS association with NY scotch terrier
has made hin so.
| Tho moral uplifting or the moral
downfall OF this country is largely with
| thoso who control our home life God
gives To tho parents the infant child as
| impressionable aS warm wax, and has
fixed 1T so that the immortal child can
not walk away from its mothers side
until II is year old. Then he has
liked 1T so that for the next two or three
years mother must keep g vigilant eye
| over IL
Anarchists are made in the home
llfe. a boy Us years old, whom mother
and father cannot control, will not
obey law by and by. Tho want Of re.
stralnt In our home life peoples our
penitentiaries and furnishes our
gallows with their victims. Eli re-
strained not his son and God said:
when l make a beginning | will make
an ending" and the whole family were
overthrown. Example and precept are
the coal and water by which we pull up
the hill and attain for our children the
nheritence which God intended. The
father who would raise sober boys must
not drink. Ii he would not have them
gamble he must not set tho example.
So lot every father be and do az he
would have his children be and do; and
with wise restraint and brave adherence
to tho right let him show to the world
that even in the midst of this crooked
and perserve generation. ne can bring up
children beautiful in character, unpur-
chasable and unbelievable, with right
and wrong clearly defined. Let each pa
rent enthrone government in the,
breast OF each Child, and lot that gov
ernment be founded on the principles OF
right Let each ono have q law within
himself he dare not violate, then we
Will know that he who ruleuS himseN is
greater than he who taketh = city Let
US teach our children that ,he achieve
ments OF life are built on character and
manic od; which is thousand times
better for Thorn than tho grace OF ora
tory or luck in lottery or tho prize won
at the progressive euchre game or the
stakes at horse race or tho brutality
OF the prizo ring which may crown Thorn
champion
The father and mother who allow