Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1906-04-12
The ObSerXer.

! Inc CHlel lOfce OF our LOru'S tempUa-
tion did not consist in the direct ap-
peal of evil, but in the fact that the
| goods ought to lure Him from the best.
lie was victorious because He possessed
the power of an infallibly right judg-
ment in all things, the power to esti-
mate things at their true value, to dis
criminate not only between the bad
and the good Ia comparatively easy
thing to do), but also to discriminate
between the good, the better and the
best. In deciding upon any course of
action whatever one must always make
a selection out of number of compet-
ing alternatives, each one of which
represents certain degree and kind of
good. "All action is guilt.o saws
Hegel. That is, every decision that we
make involves the murder of number
of alternatives in support of which
some measure of sound reason might
have been urged.
These reflections have been suggest.
ed to the Observer by case which re.
Gently came to his notice, of man
who was so blinded by an appeal to his
pity and generosity that he lost sight
utterly of nearer and higher duties.
The qualities of this mans heart are
the best that exist in the world. He
has always been friend to the friend
less, tender in pity, generous in
thought, and liberal beyond his means.
The Observer once saw him. when he
thought no one was looking, slip a
dollar into the hand of a poor woman
who with her small children had
travelled to the county seat to visit her
imprisoned husband, and who had not
the means with which to return to her
distant home.
Bot like many another, this man can
not always see more than one thing at
time. When any particular object of
pity is engaging his attention, he is like
ly to lose sight for the time of all other
objects and claims. This was what oc-
Cured when his Eity became aroused
on behalf of a sick and friendless
woman who came to him in the course
Of her courageous efforts to carry out
a business project in which she was in
terested He became obsessed by the
idea that it was his imperative and sole
duty To befriend this friendless suffer
er; and to this purpose he adhered
until she was beyond the need of
further human aid, oblivious of the
fact that his attentions to her had be-
come scandal to his family and to the
community, and that he was allowing
his pity for stranger to cost him his
business, his home, his credit and his
reputation. No appeal or remon-
STRANGE could move him out of his
fixed idea;" and nothing apparently
can shake the witness of his own mis-
taken conscience that had he done less
than he did it would have been murder
Murder? Yes But does not every
right thinking and right deciding man
have to murder a score Of alternatives
every day in order that he may follow
the course which has the strongest
moral claim upon him? 1t takes nerve
and something that seems like hard.
ness of heart to say No to the good in
order that one may say Yes to the best.
Pity is good thing and kindness to
strangers is virtue, but one has no
moral right to permit pity and kind
ness to strangers to come between him
self and his duty to his own home. AS
much evil is wrought by want of a
right Judgment to control good i'm
pulses as by the want of good impulses
themselves.