Did not one who was as near to me almost, as flesh and blood, and who stood high both in church and in business circles, in an evil hour fall into forgeries? When he awoke to the magnitude of the transgression he would take no release, and said, “I have sinned, and I ought to suffer as any other man would suffer who has sinned,” he forced a trial upon the court, was sentenced to the penitentiary and went there willingly. He took his place among the prisoners and served there faithfully; but the hand of the Lord was on him, and his child sickened and died, and the government would not remit a day that he might go to the burial of his darling. Months rolled on, and the wife sickened; her very reason languished. That suffering was followed by all-merciful death. Then in this chastening, even the heart of the government relented, and let him go home to the burial of his wife. Since then he has walked a free life, so far as the law is concerned; but he is solitary. He lives as if he were in the center of the great desert of Sahara; for society will not forgive any man who touches its money.—BEECHER.
