The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1872-04-03
Religions Triumphs of sIurderers.

Religious Triumphs of HIurderers.
more unseemly exhibition of the profane
treatment Of sacred subjects has rarely been
afforded than IN the case of the murderer Bolts,
who recently expiated his crime on the gaows,
and who has been canonzed since his death by
various Eastern journals According TO these
papers, this miserable man died in the full odor
Of sanctity. The last moments Of his life were
crowned with beatifc visions, among them one of
Heaven, which appeared TO him as gOrgeously.
illuminated theatre. filed with beautiful women.
clad in bright garments, one of whom took him
by the hand and led him into Paradise. If We
are to believe all that is said Of Bolts, he is
full-fedged saint, purged Of all earthly dross He
had reached that degree Of perfection which is
usually considered to be the result of heavenly
influences which only operate beyond our earthly
/ life He had attained, at a single step, pitch
of goodness which can not fail to be dlscouraging
/ to unhanged beings who have to bear innumera-
/ BILE crosses in their daily lives, and leave this
world with only hope born of unwearied effort
in well-dong. and patient endurance of sore trib-
ulations If the murderer died with the assur-
ance that he was going straight to Heaven, after
the manner OF the impenitent thief, no one would
certainly be cruel enough to dispute him; but we
at least may claim that his canonization shall be
mainly of his own making, and stop there; that
the pious men who accomplished this remarkable
miracle shall not trumpet it abroad and that the
daily press shall not hold out inducements for
other men to earn a hanging means of grace.
whole life, and in the course of his amours killed
man whom he suspected of intimacy with his
mistress. Had he died natural death. in the
midst of his profiigate career, We should have
heard nothing of this instantaneous change |
from badness TO goodness. He would have de- |
parted this life without any other visions than |
those which the remorse of life of sin usually |
paints before dying mans eyes. If therefore, |
a person who commits no crime, but leads life
at peace with himself his neighbors and his God.
dies without any other heavenly certainty than
that which grows out Of hope, if a man who has
crime every day of his worthless life
dies natural death without any hope of Heaven,
we protest that the criminal who dies an unnat-
ural death shall not advertise the gallows as a
into Heaven. Perfect indulgence
Of every passion while living the enjoyment of
heavenly blessings after death, with the additional
assurances of splendid funeral, are
more than enough to satisfy the most fastidious
If sinners. and offer a special nducement to
every cut-throat and thief who is satated with
us pleasures to take his pistol or knife, and with
heir help, set off on his departure to the regions
# the blest. ,
We are not protesting against these sudden I
of notorious criminals while on their
way to the gallows as facts We do insist that {
he ministers of religion shall not invest crime S
Nth any facttiOus glamor, or with borrowed hues
f sentiment, but that they shall picture it in all
IS atrocious deforrnity. 1t is not one of the
riumpbs Of religion to prove that crime is the a
ath to Heaven. and that the man who dies with f
be blood of his feOw-man still red upon his
ands goes to his reward with the same certainty =
the martyr who dies at the stake for the cause
Gods truth or the good man who has lived d
p to his convictions Of what is right to the best
his ability. If we believed in such an apothe- p
SIS of crime, we should certainly urge more :,
sneral application of the efficacy of the galows E
the punishment of other crimes 1t is sadly hi
rough needed. We have great faith in the SC
lllows as preventive of crime, but not as a OIL
ligiOus persuader.