The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1901-07-06


! have seen in the archives of the
nation in ssss national capital large |
book in which one of the early pres
idents of the United States kept an |
account N his own handwriting of |
gains and losses at playing cards |
on one page the gains and on the |
other the losses, and there are many |
pages. IN other days many OF ma
tional reputation went from the halls |
of congress and the senate chamber |
to spend the night in notorious gam
bling saloons. One of the ablest men
of the centuries, Charles Fox, got
ready for his speech against The
Petition of the Clergy" by spending
% hours at the gambling table. Irv-
ing's life of Oliver Goldsmith says
that the great poet lost $50, all his
earnings, in a short tour to see the
world. Gibbon, the author of "The
Decline and Fall of the Roman EN-
pire." came to his own decline and
fall through gaming practices and
in a letter in 1776 said: Il have un-
done myself, and it is to no purpose
to conceal from you my abominable
madness and folly. l have never lost
so much in five days as l have to-
night, and I am in debt to the house
for the whole"
One act of fraud told of in big head
lines in the morning papers rightfully
arouses the nations wrath. 1t is the
interest of every good man and good
woman who reads of the crime to have
it exposed and punished. Let it go un-
scathed, and you put a premium on
fraud, you depress public morals, you
induce those who are on the fence be-
tween right and wrong to get down on
the wrong side, and you put the busi-
ness of the world on a down grade.
The constabulary and penitentiary
must do their work. But while the
merciless and the goddess cry: Good
for him!" 81 am glad he is within the
prison doors!" be it your work to find
out if that man is worth saving and
/ what were the causes of his moral
overthrow. Perhaps he started in
/ business life under a tricky firm, who
| gave him wrong notions of business
integrity: perhaps there was a comb.-
nation of circumstances almost un-
paralleled for temptation; perhaps
there were alleviations; perhaps he
was born wrong and never got over ii;
perhaps he did not realize what he wa s
doing. and if you are a merciful man
you Will think of other perhapses
which. though they may not excuse
will eXtenuate. Perhaps he has al
ready repented and is washed in the
blood of the Lamb, and is as sure of
Heaven as you are. What an opportu-
nifty you have for obeying my text.
You were angry at the misdemanor,
but you are hopeful for the recovery
of the recalcitrant. Blessed all prison
reformers Blessed are those gov
ernors and presidents who are glad
when they have a chance to pardon.
Blessed the forgiving father who well
comes home the prodigal. Blessed
the dying thief whom the Lord took
with Him TO glory, saying: This day
shalt thou be with Me in Paradise.'
There is another evil that We ought
to abhor, while we try to help the
victim, and that is intidelity. 1t
snatches the life preseryer from the
man afioat and affords not so much
as a spar or plank as substitute. 1t
would eXtinguish the only light that
has ever been kindled for the troubled
and the lost. Let the spirit of inf
deity take hold of a neighborhood
and in that town the marriage rela-
ton is a farce and good morals give
place to all styles of immorals. Let ii
take possession of this earth, and
there will be no virtue left in all the
worlds circumference. All the sins
rebuked in the Ten Commandments
would be dominant. The torch that
shall llindle the conha grafton of the
earth in its last catastrophe will not
do as much damage as would infidel-
ity and agnosticism, if they got the
chance. BE angry with such theories
of unbelief and hatred of God. Never
laugh at the witticisms of those who
would belittle the Bible with thei,
iocularity. Quote to them the -four
lines of Whittier:
And weary seekers OF the best
We come back laden with our quest
To find that all the sages said
Is in the book our mothers read.
"a IS INNING al OhA anu q
flush in your cheek and frown or
your brow for a bastard that woulC
!, blot out the sun and moon and stars
of Christianity and leave all things il
an arctic night, the cold equal to the
darkness. You do well to be angry
i but how about those who have beer
, flung of scepticism, and that is more
/ millions than you will ever know O.
until the judgment day reveals every
thing. All, here comes your opportu
: nifty for gentleness, kindness anC
} sympathy. The probability is that i
you had been piled with the same in
/ fluences as this unbelieyer ther,
would not be Bible in all you
) house from cellar to attic. Perhap
he was in some important transaction
1 swindled by a member of the churcl
| whose taking of the sacrament was