The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-03-28

dtion to these there are tens of thous-
ands of persons who, not positively be-
coming criminals, nevertheless have a
criminal tendency. Any one Of all those
thousands by the grace of God may be-
come Christian, and resist the ancestral
influence, and open new chapter of be-
havior; but the vast majority Of them will
not, and it becomes all men, professional
unprofessional, ministers OF religion
judges of colhts. philanthropists and
Christian workers, to recognize the fact
that there are these Atlantic and Pacific
surges of hereditary evil rolling on
through the centuries. ! say, of course a
man can resist this tendency, Just as in
the ancestral line mentioned in the first
chapter of Matthew. You see in the
same line in which there was a
wicked Rehoboam and a desperate ManasA
ses, there afterward came pious Josiah
and a glorious Christ. But, my friends.
you must recognize the fact that these
influences go on from generation to gem
GRAFTON. l am glad to know, however
that a river which has produced nothing
but miasma for a hundred miles. may.
after a while, turn the wheels of facto-
RES and help support Industrious and
Vlrtuous populations; and there are fam
lily lines which were poisoned that are a
bened!ction now At the last day II will
De found out that there are men who
nave gone clear over into all forms of
iniquity and plunged into utter abandon
ment. who before they yielded to the first
temptation resisted more evil than many
man who has been moral and upright
all his life.
But, supposing now, that In this age.
when there are so many good people. that
come down into this audience and select
inc very best man in it. / do not mean.
the man who would style himself the
best for probably he is a hypocrite; but
mean the man who before God is really
the pest. will take you out from all
your Christian. surroundings l will take
you back TO boyhood. 1 will put YOU In
a depraVed home.I will put you in a cradle
OF iniquity. Who is bending over that
cardle? An intoxicated mother. Who is
Ihat swearing in the next room? Your
rather. The neighbors come in to talk
and their jokes are unclean There Is nor
IN the house Bible or a moral treatise
put only a few scraps of an old pictorial.
AIter awhile you are old enough to get
out OF the cradle, and you are struck
across the head for naughtiness but never
IN any kindly manner reprlmanded After
while you are old enough to go abroad
ana you are sent out with a basket to
Steal III you come home without any
spois you are whipped until the blood
comes. AT fifteen years Of age you go
out TO hight your own battles in this
world which seems to care no more for
you than the dog that has died of a fit
under the fence. You are kicked and
cutfed and buffeted. 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 IN
for drunkenness at the criminal court Get
OUT oil my way, you low-iived wretchn
MY 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 a vaga-
BOND, an outlaw, murderer on the scat
fold atoning for your crime. All these
considerations ought to make us merciful
in our dealings with the wandering and the
lost.
Again, | have to remark, that in our
estimation the misdoiug of people who
have fallen from high responsibility and
usefulness, we must take into considera-
ton the conjunction of circumstances. In
nine cases out of ten a man who goes as
| tray does not intend any positive wrong
| lie had trust funds. He risks a part of
| these funds in investment He SAYS Now
| II l should lose that investment l have of
| my own property five times as much. and
! If this investment should go wrong, l could
| easily make IL up; could five times make
1T up" With that wrong reasoning he
goes on and makes the investment, and 1t
| does not turn out quite as well as he ex-
| pected, and he makes another investment
| and strange 10 say at the same time all
| his other affairs get entanged, and all his
| other resources fail, and his hands are
| tied. Now he wants to extricate himself
! He goes little further on in the wrong
| Il tnly
! 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 one more plunge and
all is lost.
Some morning 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 and the name
| of the defaulter or the defrauder heads the
| newspaper column, and hundreds of men
say; Good for him." hundreds of other
| men say; I'm 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 conjunction of crcum-
stances could ever have overthrown me;''
and there is a superb bundance of indigna-
ton, but no pity. The heavens fun of
lightning but not one drop of dew. If
God treated US as society treats that man
we would all have been in he'll long ago.
Wait for the alleviating circumstances.
| 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 commercial 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 pro-
! cession of many miles. Perhaps some
sudden sickness may have touched his
brain, and his Judgment may be unbal-
anced. He is wrong he is awfully wrong,
and he must be condemned but there NAV
be mitigating circumstances. Perhaps
under the same temptation you might
have fallen. The reason some men do not
steal 100000 is because they do not get
a chance! Have righteous Indignation you
must about that mans conduct, but tenn
per 1t with mercy.