LIVING IT DOWN | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 31, 1901

LIVING IT DOWN.

The Christian.

IT is easy to suspect a man of being a rascal, to charge him with being a rascal, and even to prove him a rascal, provided that lies are good evidence, and he has no opportunity of contradicting or disproving them.

But suppose when you have proved that a man is a rascal, the man himself refuses to be a rascal. What can be done then? Proving a man a rascal does not make him one: it only shows the rascality of those who have tried to blacken and defame an honest man.

“A while ago an honest mechanic did a day’s work in one of the houses of a Massachusetts town. That night the house was robbed. The workman was at once suspected, and his house searched. Though no evidence of his guilt could be found, he was put under the ban of the community; his friends shunned him, his employers gave him no work. A large family of children depended upon him for support, but his hands could find nothing to do. He asked for a trial. No one would bring charges against him. He was advised to leave the town, and that course seemed the only means of relief. That, however, would be construed as a confession of guilt. He determined to remain and live down suspicion. Unlike many in similar situations, he neither took to drinking, lost his religion, became sour, nor blamed men for regarding him as they did, since he would have done likewise under similar circumstances. He just remained firm and kept hoping. After two years the real thief was found, and the persecuted man was vindicated.”