g were all
that ever happened to a good man, all his days would be a simple matter
of striving and repentance. But it is not all. There come to him certain
junctures, crises, when life, like a highwayman, springs upon him,
demanding that he stand and deliver his convictions in the name of some
righteous cause, bidding him do evil that good may come. I cannot say
that I believe in doing evil that good may come. I do not. I think that
any man who honestly justifies such course deceives himself. But this I
can say: to call any act evil, instantly begs the question. Many an act
that man does is right or wrong according to the time and place
which form, so to speak, its context; strip it of its surrounding
circumstances, and you tear away its meaning. Gentlemen reformers,
beware of this common practice of yours! beware of calling an act evil
on Tuesday because that same act was evil on Monday!

Do you fail to follow my meaning? Then here is an illustration. On
Monday I walk over my neighbor's field; there is no wrong in such
walking. By Tuesday he has put up a sign that trespassers will
be prosecuted according to law. I walk again on Tuesday, and am a
law-breaker. Do you begin to see my point? or are you inclined to object
to the illustration because the walking on Tuesday was not WRONG, but
merely ILLEGAL? Then here is another illustration which you will find
it a trifle more embarrassing to answer. Consider carefully, let me beg
you, the case of a young man and a young woman who walk out of a door
on Tuesday, pronounced man and wife by a third party inside the door.
It matters not that on Monday they were, in their own hearts, sacredly
vowed to each other. If they had omitted stepping inside that door,
if they had dispensed with that third party, and gone away on Monday
sacredly vowed to each other in their own hearts, you would
have scarcely found their conduct moral. Consider these things
carefully,--the sign-post and the third party,--and the difference they
make. And now, for a finish, we will return to the sign-post.

Suppose that I went over my neighbor's field on Tuesday, after the
sign-post was put up, because I saw a murder about to be committed in
the field, and therefore ran in and stopped it. Was I doing evil that
good might come? Do you not think that to stay out and let the murder be
done would have been the evil act in this case? To disobey the sign-post
was RIGHT; and I trust that you now perceive the same