The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1898-04-02

| SiStad more evil than many a man VINO
has been moral and upright all his
life. E&SS
But surprising now, that in tins age.
when there are 50 many good people,
that come down into this audience
and select the very best man in il. |
do not mean the man who would style
himself the best, for probably he is a
hvpocrite: hut | mean the man who
before God is really the best. I will
take YOU out from all your Christian
surroundings. | will take You back
10 boyhnod. | will pnt you in n de-
PRAYED home. | will put you in 4
cradle of iniquitv. Who is bending
over that cradle? An intoxicated
mother. Who Is that swearing in the
next room9 Your father. The neigh
bors come in and talk, and their jokes
/ are unclean. There is not in the house n
Bible or a moral treatise, but only Il
few scraps of an old pictorial.
After awhile you are old enough TO
get out of the cradle, and you are
struck across the head for naughti-
ness, but never in any kindly manner
reprimanded. After awhile you are
old enough to go abroad, and you are
sent out with d basket to steal. If you
come home without any spoils you are
whipped until the blood comes. At 10
years of age you go out to fight your
own battles in this world, which seem
to care no more for you than the dog
that has died of n tit under the fence.
You are kicked and cutfed and buffet
ed. Some day, rallying your courage,
you resent some wrong. A man says:
who are you? know who you are.
Your father had free lodgings at Sing
Sing. Your mother, she was up for
drunkenness at the criminal court.
Get out OF my way, you low-lived
wretch My brother, suppose that
had been the history of your advent,
and the history of your early sur
roundings, would you nave been the
Christian man you are to-day, seated
fl this Christian assembly, l tell you
nay. You would have beer a vaga-
bond, an outlaw, a murderer on the
scaffold ~atoning for your crime. All
these considerations ought to make us
merciful in our dealings with the wan
dering and the lost.
Again, 1 have to remark, that in our
estimation of the misdoing of people
who have fallen from high respecta-
bility and usefulness we must take
into consideration the conjunction of
circumstances. In nine cases out of
ten a man who goes astray does not
intend to do any positive wrong. He
has trust funds. lie risks n part of
these funds in investment. He says:
Now, If l should lose that investment
1 have of my own property five times as
much and if this investment should go
wrong, l could easily make it up; l
could five times make it up" With
hat wrong reasoning he goes on and
makes the investment, and it does not
turn out quite as we'll as he expected,
and he makes another investment.
and, strange to say, at the same time
all his other affairs get entangled, and
all his other fail and his
hands are tied. Now he wants to cx-
tricate himself. He goes a little fur
Their on in the wrong investment. He
takes a plunge further ahead, for he
wants to save his wife and children;
he wants to save his home; he wants
to save his membership In the church.
He takes N more plunge and all Is
lost.
Some morning the bank door IS not
opened, and there is a card on the
door signed by an officer OF the bank,
indicating there is trouble, n the
name of the d~efaulter or the defraude
CdN AZ eBHRS $1,000
dreds of men say: Good for him."
hundreds of other men say: Pm glad
he's found out at last" hundreds of
other men say. just as ! told you;"
hundreds of other men say, I'VE
couldn't possibly have been tempted
to do that-no con junction of circum.
stances could ever have overthrown
me" and there is a superabundance of
Indignation, but no pity. The heav-
ems full of lightning, but not one drop
of dew. If God treated us as society
treats that man we would all have
been In hell long ago!
Wait for the alternating circum-
stances. Perhaps he may ave 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 ex-
travagant wife who 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
temptation to make a procession or
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
nnder the same temptation you might
have fallen. The reason some men do
not steal $500, 900 Is because they do
not get a chancei Have righteous in
dignation you must about that mans
conduct, but temper it with mercy.
You delantly say: ~ could not be
tempted in that way" Perhaps you
may be tested after awhile. God has
q 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 SO full of bitter
invective against that unfortunate 1t
shall be shown now whether he has
the power to stand" Fifteen years go
by. The wheel of fortune turns sever
al times, and you are in q 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 10
the old fellow who vas so proud OF his
integrity, and who Dragged he couldn't
be oVerthrown by temptation, and was
so QprOdflOuS III us cIuOnSITaLlOhS .
indignation at the d~sfalcation 10 years
ago. Let us see"
God lets the man go. God. Who had
kept that man under his protesting
care, lets the man go, and try for him.
self the majesty OF his integrity. God
letting the man go, the powers of
darkness pounce upon him. see you
some day in your office in great excite
ment. One Of two things you can do.
Be honest, and be pauperized, and have
your children brought home from
school, your family dethronod in so,
cial influence. The other thing Is.
you can step a little aside from that
which is right, you can only just go half
an mel out of the proper path, you
can only take n little risk, and then
you have all your finances fair and
right. You will have a large property.
You can leave n fortune for your chill
dren, and endow a college, and build &
public library in your native own
You halt and wait, and halt and wait
until your lips got white. You decide
~