Minnesota weekly times. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1854-1859, 1855-01-09

tent, moving every thing from the beginning to
he end, he nlnst have l.owp when he made man
hat man xosl1 becomo korrs ps and that it would
30 zecessary ~ him t6destrcY him and purge the
ssesh with wickedness, mo1eb into it by the in
'roductiou Of man. This not in accordance
NTH oar idea Of . Crest and Interchangeable God,
but as We consider this depression irrelevant to
The subject, We pass on.
Fourth.-We reiterate what We have preyious-
" said Of Cain-Thst r. the advocates Of Capital
Punishment caim,a some dc, that Cain ought not
to have suffered the punishment of death beeanss
he ignorant of the law, then we say he oughtnot
to have suffered any punishment for the like
reason. If he had received the punishment pro-
portionate to hisguilt according to the doctrines
of those who advocate the Death Penalty, be
would have been put to death. If there was no
law, how could there be transgression2 1t is
far more reasonable to believe that there ,oas
law-that Cain knew the law-violated it and
God punished him according to the crime, clearly
that he did not intend that man should
take the life of his fellow man, but that preroga-
tive belonged to the Deity alone.
Fifth.-ssT Thou shalt not kill is explicit; there
can be no doubtful meaning put upon it, and fur
ther it is in keeping with the acts of God from the
time he placed mark upon Cain to the present mo-
ment. Its in keeping with the teachings of Christ,
who said he came not to destroy life but to save
it 1t is in keeping with true christianity and our
own convictions Of right. There is doubt hang
ing over the passage-ss Whose sheddeth mans
blood by man shall his blood be shed pa doubt
as to whether it is command or q mere prophet
ic sentence, and this doubt arises from the fact
that there are numerous other passages in the
Bible (somc of which we have quoted above) which
will bear the same construction that the one un-
der discussion does. We fail therefore to see
why if one is not commandatory the other is not
" Thou shalt not kill - will bear no other con-
struction but that of a command, and although in
the Scptuagent version the same form of verb
may have been used to express I. Thou shalt not
kill,'' as &C Whoso sheddeth mans blood by man
shall his blood be shed, still it does not neces-.
sarily follow that because one is commandatory
the other therefore must be.
Sixth.-We are willing to receive the testimony
of the learned men quoted by our correspondent.
but it is somewhat singular that he fails to tell us
whether these men believe that this passage is
command of God or prediction. They speak as
to the Translation being good one, but do they
say that the passageis commandatory? But sup
pose they do, does that make it so? Not by any
means-they may be mistaken as well as other
men. In the language of our correspondent, we.
take it &c just it unfolds itself naturally and
consistently" to us-we bring our own Judgment
to bear upon tive analze it, and if we find that
| it does not agree with the teachings of the Sa-
vior and with other portions of the sacred writings
we give it that construction which produces har-
mony between Father and Son, and removes the
| impression that God and Christ are in juxtapo-
sition, for one says, " An eye for an eye, and a
tooth for TOOTH" and the other says &c Ye have.
heard it said an eye for an eye and tooth for a
tooth, but say unto resist not evil -
| Seventh.-'s Citizen " wishes to know by what
ssrule of Interpretation the idea of beast
enter into the construction of the precept -
&c Whose" or ssWhatsoever sheddeth human
blood its blood will be shed.'' We gave this as
the construction of an eminent writer, and we
said it appeared plausible from the fact that the
verse reads and surely your blood of your lives
will require; at the hand of every beast will
require it." What has the beast to do with human
blood? Why was it introduced into this verse at
all?
Now then according to this verse, God requires
the blood of every mans life. MARK, He, the
Almighty, requires the blood of man, as he did in
the case of Cain) then at the hand of every beast
he requires the blood of mems lives and then at
the hand Of every mans brother he requires the
life of man. The writer doubtless could not rec
oncile these conflicting requirements only on the
ground-that in the first instance, which takes
precedence, the Deity requires the blood of every
mans life, and in the seconds Whatsoever
shsddeth human blood, its blood will Gas a natur-
al rcsult) be shed.' As to the arrangement of the
verse in the Bible our correspondent is right. It.
prccedes Whose shcddeth,'' &c and does not fol-
low, as we stated. This however does not in any
way affect the ground of discussion.
| But our correspondent is very anxious that We
should give him the name of the writer who thus
deviates from the old track and puts different
Interpretation upon the passage to which the ad-
vocates of Capital Punishment cling with the
teuacity of Death itself. From this fact we are
led to believe that Citizen" has not investigated
the other side of the question fully he ought,
or otherwise he would be conversant with the au-
thors, the names Of whom he calls upon to pro-
duce. However, he shall be grati6ed. We refer
him to Blake's Ency. article on Capital Punish
ment to the work Of Rev. Mr.. Cheever; to DR..
Claiming to a work by Charles Spear; to tho
life of Rev. Geo. Fox but the passage quoted,
was taken from o work called the Manual of
Peace, by T. c. Upham, page A9. We have a
few more references left, if our correspondent
| wishes them. .t t-,,.l ........ a- .-
Eighth Notwithstanding the array of evidence
produced by our correspondent from commenta-
tors and others, yet we consider the teachings of
Christ to outweigh them all human laws sink
into insignifcance before the burning words of
him who taught peace, and love, and gentleness /;
who rebuked those who sought to take the lives of
their fellow men who virtually abolished the
ceremonial and judicial laws of Moses in his SER
mon on the Mount (Math. w. and who died on
the cross to save fallen world. We are willing
to take him as our guide in preference to those old