Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1898-05-06

llIlCNltoiN INV hhNhN NsAN
have been bad, and there has been II
coming down over moral declcVity,
if the man surrender to the influences
he will go down under the overmaster-
ing gravitation unless some supernatr
ural aid he afforded him. Now, such q
person deserves not your excoriahon,
but your pity. Do not sit with the lip
curled in scorn, and with an assumed
air of angelic innocence looking down
upon such moral precipitation. You
had better get down on your knees
and first pray Almighty God for their
rescue, and next thank the Lord that
you have not been thrown under the
wheels of that juggernaut.
In Great Britain and in the United
States, in every generation, there are
tens of thousands of persons who are
fully developed criminals and incar-
cerated. l say IN every generation.
Then suppose there are tens of thou
sands of persons not found out in their
criminality In addition to these there
are tens of thousands of persons who,
not positively becoming criminals, new
erthelcss have criminal tendency.
Any one of all those thousands by the
grace of God may become Christian,
and resist the ancestral influence, and
open a new chapter of behavior;
but the vast majority of them will
not, and it becomes all men, profess
sional, unprofessional, ministers of re-
ligion, judges of courts, philanthro-
pists, and Christian workers, to recog-
nize the fact that there are these At
lantic and Pacific surges of hereditary
evil rolling on through the centuries.
say, of course, man can resist this
tendency, just as in the ancestral line
mentioned in the first chapter of Mat
thew. You see in the same line in
which there was a wicked Rehoboam
and desperate Manases, there after
ward came pious Josiah and glori-
Gus Christ. But, my friends, you must
recognize the fact that these inau-
ences go on from generation to genera
ton. | am glad to know, however,
that river which has produced moth
ing but miasma for 100 miles, may,
after awhile, turn the wheels of fac
tories and help support industrious
and virtuous populations; and there are
family lines which were poisoned that
are a benediction now. At the las,
day it will be found out that there are
men who have gone clear over into al
forms of iniquity and plunged into
utter abandonment, who, before they
yielded to the first temptation, resisted
more evil than many man who ha'
been moral and upright all his life.
But, supposing now, that in this age
when there are so many good people
and select the very best man in it. do
not mean the man who would styl,
himself the best, for probably he is ;
hypocritc; but | mean the man who be
fore God is really the best. ! vii
take you out from all your Christian
surroundings. / will take you bacl
to boyhood. | will put you in I
depraved home. l will put you il
cradle Of iniquity. Who il
bending over that cradle? An in
toxicatcd mother. Who is tina
swearing in the next room? You
father The neighbors come in ant
talk, and their jokes are unclean
There is not IN the house Bible or
moral treatise, but only few scrap
of an old pictorial.
After awhile you are old enough I,
get out of the cradle, and you ar
struck across the head for naughtiness
but never in any kindly manner repri
manded. After awhile you are oil
enough to go abroad, and YOU are sen
out with a basket to steal IL yol
come home without any spoil you ar
whipped until the blood comes. At /
years of age you go out to fight you
own battles in this world, which seem
to care no more for you than tn
dog that has died of a fit under tn
fence. You are kicked an
l cuifed and bufreted. Some day, rally
ing your courage, you resent SON
| wrong. A man says: "Who are YOU
t | know who you are Your father liza
Q free lodgings at Sing Sing. Yor
b. mother, she was up for drunkenness {
j. the criminal court Get out of IN
c way, you low-lived wretch" My brotl
t or, suppose that had been the histor
C of your advent, and the history Of you
, earlier surroundings, would yoa hay
e been the Christian man you are to-da.
: seated in this Christian assembly?
l tell you nay You would have been
5 vagabond, an outlaw, murderer c
: the scaffold atoning for your Grim
!, All these considerations ought TO NAL
a us merciful in our dealings with IL
a wandering and the lost.
s Again, have to remark, that in OF
estimation of the misdoing of peop
e who have fallen from high respect
a bility and usefulness we must tai
II into consideration the conjun
e ton of circumstances. In nil
k cases out of ten man who go
e astray does not intend any positi
j. wrong. lie has trust funds. lie ris
IS part of these funds in investmer
e l1c SdyS' NOWs II ollOulu lOoC VI
v investment have of my own proper
d five times as much, and if this invei
2. ment should go wrong, | could east
e make it up; could five times make
1t up" With that wrong reasoning
IN goes on and makes the investment, a.
a. it does not turn out quite as well rs
m expected, and he makes another
" vestment, and, strange to say, at t
l. same time all his other affairs get {
" tangled, and all his other resource
10 fail, and his hands are tied. Now
e. wants to extricate himself lie goes
j. little further on in the wrong inve
it ment. He takes o plunge furtE
ii ahead, for he wants to save his W
a and children; he wants to save
Is home; he wants to save his mcinb
IL ship in the church, He takes one 100
10 ,,1,,poa and a III ic Lost