Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-03-30

llo ~ AOkhoAnhAt1 fNNbANSo Noh b0
made in suppressing crime. We quote:
'UThere are things of vastly more conse-
uuence than enactments. Ideas control the
world. What men believe, letters or frees
their wills and determines their conduct.
Starting from this point we declare that the
first necessity now, in our nation, for the
security Of life, is a profound, wide. spread
conviction of three things-God's imme-
date personal presence here on earth: an
inhexible and irresistible law of God; and
an eternal retribution under that law for the
deeds done here in the body. 1t is the alb.
sence or denial of this threefold reality that
makes life so cheap in our land, and en-
boldens furious passion 10 wreak its will. 1t
is not in human nature to rush into murder
with that tremendous conviction of an
eternal retribution of an inflexible and
eternal law, of a present and beholding God,
upon the mind. 1t is not till the murderer
has denied or forgotten these for himself
and for his victim, that his stroke is firm and
swift
"While not absolutely necessary that the
murderer should be an infidel or Universal
list, yet, for the time being, he must be OBJ
livious of those great realities"
Of course the writer's logic holds those
whose preaching destroys the belief in the
eternal perdition, guilty of the murders
which are committed.
"Looking now at the efforts of so many to
destroy, out of public belief, this three-fold
safeguard of life-eternal retribution, an
inhexible law, a present and avenging God,
we nave little surprise at the existing inse-
curity Of life"
Also, our laws against crime do not re. en-
act eternal damnation, as well as temporal
penalties.
"And when, in addition to these efforts,
we nave been seeing our governments, those
powers in shaping public sentiment, setting
aside the Law of God, ignoring the doc.
trines If divine presence AID retTibution,
and tie supremacy of divine law in the af.
fairs of nations, there is still less reason for
surprise at the increasing chespness of life"
Furthermore, it is necessary that an eter-
nal hell should be certain, because the law
is so uncertain.
"The uncertainties of human retribution
are so great, that the absolute certainty of
an eternal retribution, under a law of inev-
iia-,e ~;"ctice, has ever been, and is now,
more .t,u ever a necessity to overawe the
dan grgon5 elementsin sinful human beings"
Tie Free Nation launched into the world
with professions of the largest liberality in
religion so much so as to excite apprehen-
sions among journals of rigid orthodoxy,
like the Press, that its liberalism might run
into rationalism-a very dangerous thing.
But our alarm soon began to be relieved,
and now, when we find it charging home the
responsibility for the murders and all other
crimes of society on the Infdels, Rational
lists, Universalists, Unitarians, and all who
in any wal mitigate the fires of eternal tor
ment, we are ready to extend to it the right
hand of orthodox fellowship. We see now
that its liberality is not dangerous.
They who'll lead others to perdition, go there
of course; that disposes of all who believe in
slackening the eternal fires. So we see that
liberal religious Journalism consists in a
Loose way of dealing out eternal damnation.
We like the doctrine, but there are SOM
difficulties in the practical details, which we
presume the Nation will remove. Murder.
eEs do not go to hell. They become the pc.
culiar subjects of the means of grace. The
chances of a condemned murderer to go tc
Heaven, compared with those of an inno
cent man, are about as 100 to one. Ii
our observation or reading we can not re
call an instance in which a CONDEMNED muir.
derer did not give the usual signs of saving
grace.
CleIgymen vie with each other in waiting
his soul straight from the gallows to the
mansions of bliss. 1t is a matter of profess
ional pride, just as it is to a surgeon to &C.
complish a desperate operation. This puts
the thing out of joint. And here, according
to his W theory, IS will find the great
guilt. All certainty of eternal retribution
on the murderer is foiled by the efforts Of
the clergy to save his soul. OF course, 49,"
will hold the clergy responsible for the in
crease of murder, by destroying the certainty
OF eternal retribution.
And we find that rs" does not stand to
the logical sequences of his own doctrine, for
in another part of the article he says in re-
gard TO the murderer:
Save his soul, but execute the law on his
body for a terror TO evil doors"
Will the iDfexible certainty of an eternal
retribution be made a terror to evil doors by
saving the soul of the murderer, aud send
ing ulin Oh llOm bhO khilOWb u bIlRul dUu
shining example of redeeming grace?
Here rs" will find a weak spot in his
theory. We regret it, for it seemed SO
orthodox. He says the law can not prevent
murder without a belief in eternal perdition
Also, that a misplaced and false philan,
thropy destroys the swiftness and certainty
of the laws execution. Then how mucl
more false the philanthropy which destroy
the certainty of eternal retribution by saving
the souls of condemned murderers.
If the terror of hell is the chief preventive
of crime, why does not is" apply to tn
efforts to destroy that terror, the saue ex
hortation that he does 10 the terror of tn
civil law2
"Let philanthropy appear in making lif
secure, not in breaking down Its deienses
Save your man from the crime by the terro
of your law, not from its terrors."
If men are to be restrained from murde
by the terror of eternal torment, it must b
by making that perdition inhexibly certain
not by turning all the machinery of saliva
ton in the neighborhood TO save the mur
derer. CleTgymen must pronounce sentenc
on him not assure him of mercy.
Here is the difficulty. All are net cult
waited up to the logical sequences Of thei
own doctrines. "S." shows in the sam
article that he is not, by exhorting to say
the souls of murderers-although frmness il
this respect might be expected from him
any one, for one ofthe Stated contributors
whose signature would naturally be IS.
was once reported in a city paper as stating
in the pulpit that one of the enjoyments o
the blessed would be the contemplation 0
divine Justice in observing from the erysta
battlements Of Heaven, the damned plung