The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-04-01

anu u Oh meu say, 0OOu loi
him!" Hundreds of other men say.
I'm glad he's found out at last"
Hundreds Of other men say, Just as
I told you" Hundreds of other men
say, I'VE couldn't possibly have been
tempted to do that-no conjunction of
circumstances could ever have over
thrown me-" And there is a superb
bundance of Indignation, but no pity.
The heavens full of lightning, but not
n drop Of dew. If God treated us as
society treats that man, we would all
have been in hell long ago.
TEMPER WRATH MERCY.
Wait for the alleviating circum-
stances. Perhaps he may have been
the dupe of others. Before you let all
the hounds out from their kennel to
maui and tear that man find out If he
has not been brought up in a CONNER
cial establishment where there was a
wrong system of ethics taught; find
out whether that man has not an x
travagant wife VINO is not satisfied
with his honest earnings and in the
temptation to please her he has gone
into that ruin into which enough men
have fallen, and by the same tempta-
ton, to make a procession of many
miles. Perhaps some sudden sickness
may have touched his brain, and his
judgment may be unbalanced. He is
wrong, he is awfully 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 5000, 900 is because they do
not get a chance. Have righteous in
dignation you must about that mans
conduct, but temper it with mercy.
But, you say, Il am sorry that the
innocent should suffer" Yes, I am,
too-sorry for the widows and orphans
who lost their all by the defalcation. I
am sorry also for the business men,
the honest business men, who have
had their affairs all crippled by that
d~efalcation. I am sorry for the ven
cradle bank president, to wnom the
credit OF that bank was a matter of
pride. Yes, I 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.
You d%efantly say, Il could not be
tempted that way" Perhaps you may
be tested after awhile. God has a very
good memory, and he sometimes seems
to say: This man feels so strong in
his innate power and goodness he shall
be tested. He is full of bitter invective
against hat 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 anticipated. 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 integrity and who
Dragged he couldn't be overthrow by
temptation and was SO uproarious in
his demonstrations of Indignation at
the defalcation Is years ago! Let us
see!"
A GLANCE BACKWARD.
God let's the man go. God, who had
kept that man under his protecting
care, let's 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. I 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 de-
throned in social influence; the
other thing is you can step a little
aside from that which is right, you
can only just go 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 will have
a large property. You can leave a for
tune for your children and endow a
college and build a public library in
your native town. You halt and wait
and halt and wait until your lips get
white. You decide to risk it. Only a
few strokes of the pen now. But, oh,
how your hand trembles, how dread
fully it trembles! The die is cast. By
the strangest and most awful conjunc-
ton of circumstances any one could
have imagined you are Frustrated,
Bankruptcy, commercial annihiliation,
exposure, crime. Good men mourn
and devils hold carnival, and you see
your own name at the head of the
newspaper column in a whole congress
of exclamation points, and while you
are reading the anathema in the repor-
torial and editorial paragraph it occ-
ours to you how much this story is like
that of the defalcation fifteen years
ago, and a clap of thunder shakes the
window sill, saying, with what meas
ure We mete it shall be measured to you
again."
You look III another direction. There
is nothing like ebullitions of temper to
put a man to disadvantage. You, a
man with calm pulses and a fine di-
gestion and perfect health, cannot un-
derstand how anybody should be cap
sized in temper by an ininitestimal
annoyance. You say, 81 couldn't be
unbalanced in that way" Perhaps you
smile at a ~provocation that makes an
other man swear. You pride yourself
on your imperturbability. You say
with your manner, though you have
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