The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1881-03-25
ON CANONIZING CRIMINALS.

Tesus. FauXh. What mischief that thief on
he cross did. Cas- a man who has cTept up
o the gallows through common sewers. at
he last moment, just before the last EFFORT TO
obtain a pardon suddeRIy blossom out into
Iervent religious IiFe9 Idon't believe it."
The extent to which Mr. Beeeher may
have violated the traditions of strictly
theology in giving utterance
10 the foregoing sentiments, is not the
purpose of this article to determine.
We regard il safe to say, however, that |
while many deyout people will I'M
regard his reference to one
OF the central figures 10 the
awfully tragic scene of the
of the worlds Redeemer as
closely allied to blasphemy, it is beyond
the reach of successful cavil that the
bold words of the distinguished divine
herein quoted will strike responsive
chord in thousands of hearts which are
sick to loathing of the nauseating senti-
mentality which lionizes the most IN
blushing offenders against the laws of
God and man, and invests the sickening
and repulsive details of criminal execu-
tions with a circumstance that is as
baneful in its effects upon the public
morals as its hateful obtrusiveness is de-
structive to every sense of propriety and
impulse of common decency.
There can be no more mournful com
meniary upon the depraved taste of the
reading public OF America, than the
woliSh avidity with which all varieties
of criminal intelligence are seized upon,
and the importunate demand which
renders it obligatory upon the part of
the journalist To elaborate into entire
columns the revolving details of crimes,
n mere reference to which should shock
the sensiblliiies of person of even or
binary refinement. Now, what is the
inevitable tendency of this pernicious
system but to familiarize the public
with the most execrable forms of vice, by
persistently thrusting them into the
foreground, and thus focalizing popu-
lar attention upon objects of contempla-
ton that cannot be considered without
q deterioration of that moral sense
which is the safeguard of every COM
munity! But the evil stops not here.
The ilLtimed prominence given 10 the
offcnse, by the inevitable law of associa-
ton, lioniZes the criminal, and the ruth
less transgressor of the unwritten law
and the statute, instead of being made
to bear the ignOminy which he has
earned, becomes the hero of the hour,
and SO far from being held up to public
scorn and execration, matcrialiZes into
an absorbing center of thAt wretched
and idiotic sentimentality which takes
captive silly men and women, who burn
the incense of mistaken sympathy al
the shrine of vice and hopeless depray-
ity.
The gradations in this popular process
of canoniZation are easy and natural
BY its operation the red-handed murder
er, instead of being left ~ the contempla
ton of his awful crime aud the analysis
of his relations to the results of his act
both in regard to its bearings upon his
present and future state, is speedily di
verted from the tardy discipline of self
examination by the visits and attentions
of prurient news-mongers, gushing WON
en- and swift spiritual advisers, all in
tent on mitigating the tedium OF {
cherries confinement, and dragging from
the well-earned Obscurity of a feloni
cell the brutal homicide, into the
light of public sympathy. The fata
and mistaken policy of thus placing ;
premium upon vice, and eondoning the
sin which should be rendered hateful il
the sight of all men, speedily bears 1t:
legitimate fruit, not only with the pub
lie whose morals it corrupts, but will
the recipient of the ill-bestowed offices
who, seeing his deep guilt extenuateC
by his infatuated sympathizers, comes Il
regard himself martyr to the law, anC
his fleeing, feverish days of notoriet,
are, in the tulluess of time, appropriated,
crowned by an obtrusive profession O
faith in Christ, and the scaffold become
the standpoint of exhOrtation from whicl
the deluded subscriber to a system @
false teaching adjures his admiring SUI
vivors to meet him in heaven.
And now, can 1t be construed in tn
light of reflection on the infinitude G
divine clemency to pronounce all this
miserable travesty upon common rcaso
and enlightened theology? Is the ia
naticism which glnrifies the CHASTITY d.
movement 20 such wretched farce i
accord with the most comprehensiy
, views of the Christian atonement:
character a mere mushroom? Can il
r like Jonah's gourd, spring up IN day
Is it in accordance with the rules {
E analogy 10 assume that a man who's
every impulse has been warped by cor
, tiuued course of depravity can vaul
, with single bound, into newness c
life, and having washed his hands of til
blood of his victim, cleanse, by a pre-
cess equally mechanical, the pOllr
r ton of his heart? Is it rational {
believe, nay, is it safe to concede, that
man who has been crimsoned with III
stain that made the first murderer wan
derer on the face of the earth, has but t,
, dip himself for an instant in the font G
: death TO rise from the baptism with tn
snowy plumage OF an angel: Can tn
reflective mind subscribe to the fallac,
that all the evil OF life of vice, may
? IN q moment, be obliterated, and all it
wrong-doing, in the twinkling Of an eye
redeemed and that the sigh of repent
ance, which purges the guilt of the pas
. | ha cntal inf Mt oil faliRif,
which forgets its painsS No. Such
philosophy unsettles the secure founda
tions of the social and moral law, and i
in open conflict with the eternal principl
upon which rests the development of al
character. set forth in the words of sacre'
truth; Whatsoever a man soweth tina
shall he also seaP,"
Every revelation of God teaches tina
He never shuts the gates Of mercy upoI
a soul that seeks the healing influence
of pardoning grace with true penitenc
and sincere contrition; but the process
of moral expansion, like that of physica
growth, Is one of gradual unfolding, ant
the system of ethics that ignores tn
purifying influences of discipline
which consumes sin, Us fire eliminate
} dross, is based on error, and fails 10 con
serve the best interests of our commol
humanity, both in this life aud tina
which is to come. The impulses, tn
motives, the thought of the man, alon
survive the decay of his earthly tene
ment. That they are perpeiuated ami
those surroundings best calculated L
their highest development Is a belief il
harmony with all natural and revealed
law. That they rise from the mists ant
, Obscurities of life of guilt and sin 1
the full stature of heavenly grandeur, j
: theory as revolving TO reason as il
DISTINCTIVE 40 the ntaaca and nnrifY q