Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1871-04-24

moral constitution, and therefore ofjudg-
ing correctly OF our precise moral re-
sPonsibility. There is not & Just innate
sense Of right and wrong in mar per SCI
this fact may be inferred from the vast
and contradictory number Of opinions
held by men about what is "right." Some
people are so delicstely organized, and
have the "scrupulous" bump 30 largely
developed, that they consider it a great
wrong 20 talk to one in an sngry tone, to
60 into the woods hunting, OF to kill hsh.
Others are 30 constituted as not TO sec
anything criminal in the savage practices
Of the buffer. Some are made up of 80
contradictory elements that a little lie,
uttered in thOughtless inadvertence looms
up before the eye of their soul in hideous
defOrmity, and yet, politically they can
act the most enormous lies and sanction
the highest sort Of Injustice. Some can,
without a tinge Of conscience, ruin an in
nocent girl, but yet call it beastly to get
drunk or wen chew tobacco. / could 20
on giving instances without number, but
these will suffice to suggest q tram Of
thought to you which in q very short
time will enable you to arrive, with me,
at the conclusion that there is no criterion
of absolute right and wrong ia the human
composition. We have a law, but there are
almost infinite divisions in the interpre-
tatiOn of that law. Now, If this be true
a. gA1Ak wv a. AAAAAA 49, -
much more true is 1t in reference TO human
LAVISH Who will say that when q culprit
receives his punishment of Twenty years
in the psnitentiary," that he has not got
i've years too much; nay, fifteen too
much2 There is but one just Judge, and
there is but n day on which justice shall
triumph. 1.-THE blood of the innocent
cries to heaven for vengeance" which is
justice. You all acknowledge, because
you know, and many Of you, perhaps,
have felt, that injustices are perpetrated
every day, and we see no moral cOmpen-
sstiOn. In nature every violation Of her
law is compensated by 8 reaction, a recOil;
in other words, she has provided a suita-
BILE punishment for every breach Of her
law. l need but refer 20 the drunkard,
to the lewd man, and to the gluttOn as ex-
amples. We do not see that system car
ried out In the Divine law. Why2 Be
cause il is hid from us. 1t is nevertheless
true. The reaction may be slow, and the
recoil delayed, according to our way Of
computing time, but it is certain. 1t will
come. As moral guilt is ,impalpable to
our senses, therefore must moral punish
ment be hidden. Moral guilt is psrcepti-
BILE to the inner consciousness alone. 1t
is not the action of killing that is a crime,
but the motive of it. The just judge, then,
must be he who understands the motives
OF every human action,
H TRIBUNAL.
"The few suggestions I have here
thrown out, without any attempt at elab-
Grafton, are sufficient to show you that
human justice is a very defective thing;
that it onIy reaches such actions as are
known to more than q person, and then
but -inRdequstely; that it is altogether at
fault whore great wrong is perpetrated so
cially, as by parents upon offspring by in
discretiOns and secret crimes of gigantic
proportions. Now, Ihold that unless it
be proper to punish all sorts
Of wrong it is improper to punish
any; and as our human law does not
reach a 1.-THE of the wrong done. There
must be a law which does. There must
be a power to punish in accordance with
that law, and there must be an open court
where the culprits are to be tried. That
august tribunal will sit on the day of
general Judgment, and before 1t all man
kind viii appear. There the motives of
all action will be made known, and every
human soul receive the punishment due;
no more nor no less. So true and exact
will the justice be that even those pun
ished will be forced to cry out: 80 Lord,
thy judgments are justl" Our guilt shall
appear to all eyes,, I believe that there is
a record kept. This is not strange, not
even unnatural. A perfect man, or one,
l should say, who apprOXimates to pertec-
ton, has a record on the tablet Of
his memory of everything he sees
and hears during the course of a
life time; and with the crude machinery
Of words, he can impsrt to others a knowl-
edge Of all. Now, if man can do such q
wonderful thing as that, how easy it must
be for God to keep a record of what trans
pires in the %universe2 and how easy it
must be for him TO impart a knowledge of
it at once to the entire inhabitants of the
earth? The in~credulous, the coarse
grained, sheer at the ides of the elements
rising up In judgment against the sinner"
SLOW my materislistic brother. Slow!
I believe the very atmosphere keeps q
record of our words. Who shall say that
the word which I speak out Of my mouth
now, and which is multiplied q million
fold, because that same word strikes each
ear, not in a broken fragment, but as a
whole, shall ever be wiped out-shsll ever
be utterly erased from the air which con-
veys it to your hearing7 Who shall say
that it may not rise in judgment either TO
my justification or condemnation? Again,
every action, every position Of the body
is photographed upon the air. Those
pictures may last till that dread day and
confront US. Who shall say that by
means of electricity or some more subtle
fluid our very thoughts may not be cleo
trOtypsd as they are in memory These
elements are the agents of God. They
will rise in judgment against US. The
conclusions which we have been teach
ing through faith may be reached, by
much tOilsome progression, by science;
for it is said that toward the last days
men shall become wise as angels. Our
ideas o fjustice demand a General Judg-
ment.