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

hiLiociI III du duceSLTdl current where
there is good blood flowing smoothly
from generation to generation, it is
not a very great credit to him If he
turn out good and honest and pure
and noble. He could hardly help it.
But ppo he is born in an ances-
trail line, in a hereditary line, where the
influences have been bad and there has
beer a coming down over a moral de-
clivity, if the man surrender to the in
fluences he will go down under the
overmastering gravitation unless some
supernatural aid be afforded him.
Now, such a person deserves not your
excoriation, but your pity. Do not sit
with the lip curled in scorn and with
an assumed air on angelic innocence
looking down upon such moral precip-
itation. 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
gernaut.
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 l suppose there are tens of thou
sands of persons not found out in
their ~criminality. In addition to these
are tens of thousands of persons who
not positively becoming criminals
nevertheless have a criminal ten
dency. Any one of all those thou
sands, by the grace of God, may be-
come Christians and resist the ances-
trail influence and open a new chapter
Of behavior, but the vast majority of
them will not, and it becomes all men,
professional, unprofessional, ministers
of religion, judges of courts, philan-
thropists and Christian workers, to re-
cognize the fact that there are these
Atlantic and Pacific surges Of heredi-
tary evil rolling on through the CEN
turtles. I say, Of course, a man car
resist this tendency, just as in the an
cestral line mentioned in the first
chapter of Matthew. You see in the
same line in which there was a wicked
Rehoboam and a desperate Manassas
there afterward came a pious Josiah
and. a glorious Christ. But, my friends
you must recognize the fact that these
influences go on from generation to
generation. / am glad to know, how
ever, that a river which has produced
nothing but miaSma for a hundred
miles may after awhile turn the wheels
of factories and help support indus
trious and virtuous populations, and
there are family lines which were
poisoned that are a benediction now.
At the last day it will be found that
fhnpn ~ n urho houn ronn o1nor
over into all forms of iniquity and
plunged into utter abandonment who
before they yielded to the first tempta-
ton resisted more evil than many a
man who has been moral and upright
all his life.
THE BEST MAN BEFORE GOD.
But supposing now that in this age,
when there are so many good people,
that 1 come down into this audience
and select the very best nan in it. do
not mean the man who would style him
self the best, for probably he is a by
pocrite, but I mean the man who before
God is really the best. I will take you
out from all your Christian surround
ings. I will take you back to boyhood.
I will put o in a depraved home. l
will put you in a cradle of iniquity.
Who is bending over hat cradle? An
intoxicated mother. Who is that
swearing in the next room? Your
father. The neighbors come in to
talk, and their jokes are unclean.
There is not in the house a Bible or a
moral treatise, but only a 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 naughtiness,
out never in any kindly repri-
manded. After awhile you are old
enough to go abroad, and you are sent
out with a basket to steal. If you
come home without any spoil, you are
whipped until the blood ONE At Is
years of age you go out to fight 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 cuffed and buffet
ed. Some day, rallying your courage,
you resent some wrong: A man says:
"Who are you? l know who you are.
Your father had free lodging at Sing
s. Your mother, h was up for
dr. me 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 earlier SUR
roundings. Would you have been the
Christian man you are today, seated in
this Christian assembly? 1 tell you
nay. You would have been 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
dering and the lost.
SWAYED BY CIRCUMSTANCES.
Again, 1 have to remark that in our
estimation the misdoing of people who
have fallen from high responsibility
and usefulness we must take into on
s%ideration the conjunction of circum-
stances. In nine cases out Of ten a
man who goes astray does not intend
any positive wrong. He has trust
funds. He risks a part of these funds