At
last it is ready to yield to a temptation which it would have taken no
notice of, ten or twenty years ago. We will apply that temptation in the
form of a pressure of my finger. You note the result?
Y.M. Yes; the ingot has crumbled to sand. I understand, now. It is not
the SINGLE outside influence that does the work, but only the LAST one of
a long and disintegrating accumulation of them. I see, now, how my
SINGLE impulse to rob the man is not the one that makes me do it, but
only the LAST one of a preparatory series. You might illustrate with a
parable.
A Parable
O.M. I will. There was once a pair of New England boys--twins. They
were alike in good dispositions, feckless morals, and personal
appearance. They were the models of the Sunday-school. At fifteen
George had the opportunity to go as cabin-boy in a whale-ship, and sailed
away for the Pacific. Henry remained at home in the village. At eighteen
George was a sailor before the mast, and Henry was teacher of the
advanced Bible class. At twenty-two George, through fighting-habits and
drinking-habits acquired at sea and in the sailor boarding-houses of the
European and Oriental ports, was a common rough in Hong-Kong, and out of
a job; and Henry was superintendent of the Sunday-school. At twenty-six
George was a wanderer, a tramp, and Henry was pastor of the village
church.
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