"Now go home, and take this
interesting young man with you."
The guilty pair departed in silence, and the minister was not troubled
with them again. The courage and prudence of an innocent man enabled
him to defeat this deep laid scheme for his ruin. Had he yielded and
paid the money, the demand would have been renewed, and he would in the
end have been ruined and disgraced without ever having committed a
crime.
We recently heard of a case of an opposite character. A minister,
settled over a large and wealthy congregation, was approached by one of
these women, and charged with a crime of which he was entirely
innocent. The woman professed to have an abundance of proof against
him. He was a weak, vain man, proud of his reputation, and afraid of
the slightest whisper of scandal, and he was terrified by the woman's
bold assertions. In order to get rid of her, he paid her the sum she
demanded, and received her promise not to trouble him again. In a few
weeks she returned, and demanded a larger sum, which was paid. These
demands then became so frequent and heavy that the minister could
hardly support his family on what was left of his salary. He resigned
his charge, and accepted a call to a distant city, hoping to escape his
persecutors, for he could not doubt that the woman was urged on by
others; but they followed him to his new home, and so harassed and
plundered him that he was forced to ask the aid of the police, who
discovered and arrested his tormentors.
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