THE STEADFAST HEART
Money he must have or oil he must have and neither was forthcoming. His credit was exhausted; every scrap of property he owned was pledged and he was face to face with disaster. The moment in which any man realizes this—especially such a man as Malcolm Crane—is one of dreadful possibilities and potentialities. Your business man, your man who pursues a career whose success is dependent upon the approbation of the public, fears insolvency even more than he fears death. Almost daily in the public prints this dark fact is demonstrated—the fact that, offered the choice between facing bankruptcy and his Maker, a man will choose to throw himself into the abyss of eternity…. We find, as we study mankind in the laboratory of life, that he will prefer the risks of crime to the mercilessness of the bankruptcy court. Faced with financial ruin, a disaster which seems to carry down reputation as well as fortune, the most upright man will not escape his hour of temptation…. It is the good fortune of many in such an emergency that temptation is not coupled with opportunity.
Judge Crane was an honest man. He was not a big man, might even be a small man, yet he owned his set of ideals, and honestly held its place among them. Perhaps it was the honesty of expediency—much virtue exists not for
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