American telegraph. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1851-1851, 1851-08-15

profit by knowledge of all The proofs in sup
port of the custom Of human stranguIation.
He, however, has made it necessary for us to
reply to few points in the foregoing article,
and we will endeavor to do 50 very briefly.
First as to the command to Noah. We shall
quote the passage Genesis, ch. tx
4. But flesh with the life thereof, which is the
blood thereof, shall ye not eat
D. And surely your blood of your lives will
require; at the hand Of every beast will | re-
lquire it3 and at the hand Of man at the hand
of every mans brother will require the life of
man., I'M gl..s .s.f 1s
! .. Whose sheddeth man S blood, by m an shan
his blood be shed: for in the image of God
made he man.
Several laws are here laid down, all resting
on the same authority. Two of them no Chris
tian regards Why should he The Mndp
| Second, as to the instance of Cain. Let us
quote the passage from Genesis, chapter 4th:
8. And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is
Abel thy brother? And he said, know not
4m my brothers keeper?
~. And he said, What hast thou done? the
ro'ce Of thy brothers blood crieth unto me from Me
ground
ell.iAnd nom art thou cursed from The earth
achach hath opened her mouth to receiue thu brothers
blood from thy hand; 81
u. When thou duest the ground, ii shall moi
henceforM yield unto thee her strength; fugitive
and uagadond shall thou be in Me earth.
\. Cain is not here condemned to death on the
contrary, the curse of the Almighty is that he
shall hoe-live, and bear with him the penalties
Of his guilt. There is no pardon. And now
art thou cursed" is the fearful language of the
Almighty. A strange pardon
Is. And Cain said unto the Lord, My punish
ment is greater than can bear
IA. Behold, thou hast dricen me out this day
from the face Of The earth and from thy face shall
IN the earth; and shall come to pass that eUery
one that ttndeth me shall slay me-
The Almighty had not told him this, but the
contrary Then, how did he know it He did
not know it, for it was not to be-. But he was
a murderer, and therefore guilty, conscience
stricken, and cowardly; and that a murderer
is ever coward, and apprehensive of the in
jury he has visited upon his victim, is all that
is proved by this passage.
We daily behold this same fear The mur-
derer who has been shielded from all punish
ment, because Of the severity of that which is
prescribed, is still "a fugitive and vagabond:"
and although he knows that he is protected
as much as any man by the laws of the COM
munity in which he dwells, yet fear never for
sakes him. The curse Of Cain is upon him, and
haunts his guilty soul, and he looks in every
hand for the weapon of his destruction Nor
does the earth yield unto him its strength. Al
wandering, Improbable life is proverbially his
In seeking to flee from his own thoughts he flies
from his home, from the associations connected
with his guilt from the faces Of those who know
of that guilt, and hopes in excitement to forget
his terror; yet there it still is with him, and all
else is vanished
But let us quote the conclusion:
10 And the Lord said unto him, Therefore
whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be
taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord set n
mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should
kill him.
! Of this our correspondent says that the Su-
preme Governor here interposed his pardoning
power, and that this was required to prevent
the infiction of death upon Cain But this
cannot be SO; it is clear that he did no pardon
him and pronounced his punishment, one jjot or
title of which was not abated. No death
penalty had been spoken OF, no idea of death
existed anywhere, save in the excited mind of
him who had looked upon the death he had
wrought, until all its terrors were within him.
No particular punishment for murder had been
revealed until now and that death was not
/ ,,,4n, Il Al, Ia
the fact that whoever should sloy Cain, ven
geance should be taken of him ssue,Jold. There
can be no multiplication Of the death penalty.
4 "Phlanthropos' says ~ cain had not
kno,ra that he death peaaip lad been a6F1cd 10
murder, he ,could not hare dredded IT," Has hc
never dreaded any thing he did not know to
exist : We have; and so have all other men.
great poet has truly said, Our fears are
traitors" by them we are evermore deceived.
No pardon was pronounced, no penalty COM
muted but the trembling, guilty one was
rired Of the protection his fears told him he had
| forfeited.
| The subsequent authorities to which " Phi
lanthropos" refers are very generally admitted.
No one will doubt that the penalty Of death was
enjoined for many offences under the Jewish
dispensation. But although he regards it as
an "easy, fippant way to get clear of a sturdy
argument" &C., he must pardon us for holding
! in very high regard the mild and benignant
spirit Of the New Testament, and for thanking
/ God that we live under its merciful dispense
tion Its exaltation should not offend him.
4 We seek no higher law" than it; and if it
has power to repeal that which preceded it, it
should be the first authority referred to.
I, We are told that Christ came not to destroy
the law and the prophets, but to falfl." He
surely came not to destroy the moral law, but
to fulfil it, and also to fulfil the prophecies re-
lating to himself; yet he who repealed the rule