Port Royal standard and commercial. [volume] (Beaufort, S.C.) 1874-1876, 1876-02-03
LEGALIZED ROBBERY.

LOCALIZED ROBBERY.
ALecture on the Grimes Of the Day, nnd a
Striking Analysis of Them.
Rev. David o. Mears, of Cambridge,
Mass, gave lecture upon Vital Prob
lens, the subject for the evening being
Legalized Robbery. There are two
standards, he said, in every Christian
community by which the acts of each
citizen are measured-the moral and the
legal. The one is the expression of the
Divine will, the other the expression of
the principle of the State or nation.
The one is never altered to suit the In
clinations of the community the other
varies with public opinion. Our civil
code has been written by imperfect, fall
lible men, and it by no means follows
that because these imperfect, falible
men are not condemned by the laws of
their own making, therefore they are
without reproach. Inquiring into the
validity of the legal standard, we notice
first, the uncertainty of right and justice
in framing the laws. Lobbyists crowd
our legislatures, and votes are bought
and sold and traded on the most impor-
tant questions. Second, we notice the
uncertainty of the laws as to their exc
cution. The same influences that work
against right and justice in framing our
laws work against their execution. Ii
bribes are powerless in defeating the
expression of strict justice, they are
often powerful in defeating the execu-
ton Of Justice. We have laws against
gambling, yet under guard of the police
we may enter every gambling house In
Boston. In the third place, We notice
the uncertainty of the standard OF law.
What seems right in this generation
may be overruled in the next; thus the
lepal standard as to the question OF
slavery has been reversed and on the
greatest question of to-day, the suppress
sion of intemperaace, the legal standards
vary. From each Of these points we are
driven to the irresistible conclusion that
it is morally wrong for us to rest salts
fed in an appeal to the legal standard as
gauging our conduct. Yet men almost
without exception act according to the
legal standard members Of the same
church, sitting at Christ's table together,
are never sure of business transaction
until the papers are passed not one
mau in thousand, becoming prosper
Gus after once failing in business, ever
paws the old debts which the law has
cancelled.
The highwayman who plumbers his
victim is robber. Another man, re-
spected in society, under cover Of the
law defrauds his neighbor Of thousands,
and because it is legally done, he holds
his position rs before the transaction IS
a legalized robbery. A moral wrong
committed. lawlessly or lawfully, is a
moral wrong still. -,
We live in an age of great financial
temptations. Wealth can build cities
and whiten the ocean with the sails Of
commerce. It can erect palaces and
bring TO homes many comfort and JOY.
1t is a power, yet 1t cannot purchase
contentment or love; cannot buy back
the virtue once trampled IN the dust !;
cannot bribe death or win heaven. 1t
would ring countelfeit-ike on the pave
ment of heaven its mansions would
look gross and mean beside those which
Christ has gone to prepare. Yet men In
their haste to be rich stifle the convic-
tions of conscience by saying their trans
actions are legal.
We notice, first, fraud at home. We
refer to the very common transaction OF
deciding property to the wife or children
in time OF approaching disaster. A mao
has S25, 900, but borrows enough to give
him 100000 for his purposes. he
takes Sl5. 900 and builds house and
deeds it to his wife, and this is legal
transaction. As a matter OF fact, he Is
doing business to the extent OF SS5, 600
on $4,000 capital, and as matter OF
necessity, the odds are against him.
What right has this business pretender
what moral right, to the house ne has
bmlt2 What moral right has he to hold
it from his creditors in case of his almost
inevitable failure2 Yet the law allows
it. "Woe unto him that buildeth his
house by unrighteousness and his cham
bers by wrong; that useth his neigh
bor's service without wages, and glveth
him not for his work that saith, Will
q WkOO uOuoO eA4Ao 49, SA-~
bers, and cutteth him out windows and
it is ceiled with cedar, and painted with
vermilion. Shalt thou reign because
thou closest thysef in cedar9"
Secondly, the credit system. The
tendency observable in the last fifteen
years is alarming. Men borrow in order
to carry on business, and if we are te
trust the results, it is but q poor invest
ment for the lender. Corporations ad
vance a part and borrow the rest
and eventually fail. Towns hold thell
meetings and vote to construct rail
road or build schoolhouse, and borrow
the money. Cities do the same. Church
es vote to build houses of worship, ant
do as every other organization, mortgag'
the building for the amount above wha
they have raised. If the words of tn
sacred book are true. "The borrower i
servant to the lender" we are in stat
of bondage indeed. From such bond
age the doctrines of reputation and in
faticn have sprung up. Leav ng out G
account all persons fifteen years of ag