The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1912-11-29
Mr.. LEY'S SUNDAY NIGHTS SER
mon

0NRJCCtt 80 49,
Fruit" The text, Gal. ca, BE not
deceived, God is not Knocked; What
soever a man soweth, that shall he
also reap" was treated in such man
ner, in connection with the subject as
10 command the close and undivided
attention Of his audience. Following
is a brief outline of the discourse:
Nothing happens so. Back Of each
event, or phenomenon. there is a pre-
disposing and an adequate cause.'
Men do not gather grapes Of thorns,
nor figs OF thistles." AN evil tree
doth no. bring forth good fruit. Meth
er doth a good tree bring forth evil
fruit" Every evil man is the legiti-
mate and logical fruitage of an EVIL
tree" and every good man is the pro-
duct of conditions and agencies that
make for righteousness. NO man
liveth to himself, and nc man dietn
to himself" Neither does any man
live wholly Of and for himself.
.. Some things are at once, cause
and effect. An apple does not elect
to rot, nor does a rose choose to
blush. \ rabid dog is an effect and
c~ausative. A savage bull cores a
child to death. A voluntary act, but,
while we shoot the dog for the pro
lection of society or destroy the bull
because of his vocious act, we do not
charge the dog with murderous in
tent nor the bull with crime. To be
classed as criminal, there must be
the possession of moral qualities.
This inheres to man alone. We hold
man morally responsible. The mas
ter of the dog, or the owner of the
bull. may be charged with damages,
but not the beasts. But, in so far as
man is by hereditament, or environ
ment, or education, the creature OF
circumstances, we must charge an ac-
counting against those agencies and
influences which conspire to his evil
fruitage. The Nileses are a fruitage
of hereditary and social conditions
over which they have slight control,
and such conditions are largely
chargeable for their ~degeneracy. |
charge prenatal Influences with no
small share of such responsibility.
Marital and sexual relations which
exist, too largely among the negro
race, constitute the. hot-bed from
which springs an evil fruitage. l
charge again, home life, or the alb
sence of any small suggestion of home
life, with a measure of such RESPONSE
bility. Born in incest, and bred in
dissolution, d%egeneracy and perver-
sion become a Logical and sometimes
inevitable fruitage. | charge tn"
white people of the south in some de-
gree responsible for the home cOadi-
tons of our colored friends. A lady
said: IF my cook car prepare a meal,
it's none of my concern where and
how she spends her nights This
| oCulllllCnI OOldlll0 wv 5OAJ' = -
the concern of the white women OF
the south that they interest them
| selves in the morals of their cooks
and house servants and laundry wo-
men. 1t is a serious concern of the
white men of the south that they in
terest themselves for the better
~"homeing" of their black employees.
To dodge responsibility invites disas-
ter. | charge the pool room, where
men and boys ~congregate to lazily
and idly game away the hours of day
and night; to tell and hear jokes at
the expense of virtue, as they mingle
the fumes of tobacco and whiskey,
with a measure of responsibility for
the moral d%egeneracy whose down
ward climax is the galloWs or the fag-
OF pile. This is true of white and
black, but especially true of black,
because of the absence of social re-
straining influences away from the
gaming tables. The remedy is easy.
Stop it. We have no rights? We ex-
ercise the right to stop a man from
entering or leaving his own home
when such liberty is adjudged to be
a menace to health. Why not limit
his liberty" when such liberty is
fraught with the grayer menace to So
cial order and moral ~well-being? |
have talked with many criminals who
have confessed that their downfall be-
gan with pool room associates and as
sociations.
l charge a putrid venal press with
responsibility for the trend of evil
men toward degeneracy and crime. |
hold in my hand an outline of articles
appearing in a leading associated
press daily. on whose first page. I'M
der glazing headlines. appeared a Sc
ries of narrowing descriptions Of
! blood and crime and cruelty, almost
to the entire exclusion of healthy