Milford chronicle., 1905-05-26
Only FIrst oRense.

the new hemisphere from the old
Only First ORense.
One Offense is often sufficient to
break up a lifetime Of friendship
"What is the matter, Mr.. So-and-soY
1 ask. Has any one done you an in
jury? You look angry enough to make
somebody suffer-" well, l should say
So" you answer "You know my old
friend. John Newman. We have been
for years the closest of associates. We
grew up together as boys. We have
had many business dealings in com
mon Some months ago he came to
me and said: Harry, 1 have a fine herd
Of cattle out in western Kansas. l
want you to help me weather the win
ter through | lent him $500. He has
not only lost every cent of it, but as
far as l can make out he lied to me
about the cattle He never owned
horn or hoof He squandered my
money in Wall street" "Is that 50?
What are you going to do?" "NOth-
| ing" you answer. What can do ex-
cept contemptuously leave him alone?"
Yes. you can DO that if you viii But
I tell me, friend, has John Newman ever
I failed you before? / grant that he was
not truthful. I grant that he did not
90 right. But are you going to let that
ona act. that one sin. blot out the five
hundred good deeds he has done you
in the past and the five hundred good
deeds he would do for you in the fu-
ture If you would only forgive him
this once and give him another chance?
Because a gun misses fire once or
twice or thrice shall the hunter throw
1t aside rs useless? Yet that is the
way some of us deal with those who |
have done us wrong. Suppose you
were in the position of a very dear |
friend of mine some years ago. He |
took a young man into his employ and |
made him his right hand man in the .
business. He confided to him his most
treasured secrets and purposes. One
day that young man, under great
temptation, betrayed my friend. He
tried to start rival business and to
entice away all his clerks and steal his
employers agencies. He failed. What
would you do under such conditions?
For the one error, the one mistake
would you blind your eyes to many
years of faithful service? let not the
sun 90 down upon your wrath" You
had a right to be angry for little
while. In one sense, you had right
to strike back. But do not bear that
grudge any longer. Forget and for
give" is the meaning of the Pauline
commandment.
Home Rules Waterloo.
But the danger Of harboring resent
ment is not limited to the breaking Of
we may suffer it to preju-
dice lis against good causes. Try as
hard as we will, we must and do asso- /
ciate the success or the failure of the
onward movements of great principles
and causes with the personalities Of (
our friends and neighbors. When
Charles Stewart Parnell was dethrOned
from the respect and affections Of his
the Irish cause Of home rule
met its Waterloo Home rule was de-
feated at the time when the palm Of ,
victory was about to be grasped by the I
hands of its advocates.
When Mark Antony loved his sinful ]
Egyptian enchantress more than he I
owed Rome, then the mightiest war ]
who ever trod in the foot |
steps Of julius Caesar saw his follow Z
srs flee his standards, even as the birds I
If the forests seek the shelter of their {
tests before the tempest blasts of the
tornado. When Mirabeau 4
)reathed his last and was thought to '
)e untrue by his henchmen, then the /
-oyalists' cause was defeated in |
France, and the guillotine had to be '
lrenched with the blood of a Marie 2
Antoinette and a Louis XVI. Say y
what you may, every man naturally t
epresents a cause or a principle apart c
rom his personality. When you bear /
Tudges against men you bear grudges
.gainst causes. When you divorce your Q
Elections from individuals you lose !
our fidelity to the causes and move a
lents which those men, in more than 4
ne sense, may typify.
Let me Illustrate. Why are you pref 6
diced against the church of the Lord
esus Christ? You are not bad. You
elieve in Jesus as your Saviour. You h
-ere reared in a Christian home. Some n
( the best and happiest recollections b
f your life are of the Sunday school fl
nd of the church of which your moth II
r was a member. Il know it." you T,
nswer. Il never think Of the church 81
f my youth but with mostened eyes n
nd tremulous lips. l would not be the Il
oman l am today had l not had that Il
asst church training. But about ten v
ears ago we had an awful church o.
wv They say the worst rows on I'll
nth are church rows, and l believe it. m
he people in our church divided them te
lives into factions My husband was h,
trustee. They charged him with dis Il
lnesty, and no more honest man ever ca
ved than he The minister might If
I've stopped the difficulty, but he did or
IT. We left the church. We took our te
tiers. The result? Ny husband and tb