The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-10-29
THE SABBATH SERVICES.
'Imitative Crime" Discussed by Rev.
Myron w. Reed Last Night.
Rev. Reuben Andrus's Observations Regard
ing the Kind eff Preaching Demanded
by the Times.
INITIATIVE CRIME.
Rev. Myron w. Reeds Interesting Discourse
at the First Church.

nlgnC, taxing his text from JOnn Xxx, S-'Iueu
went in also that other disciple" Mr. Reed said;
Why did he not go in before? He outran Peter,
and was first at the sepulcher. But when he
saw Peter go in then he went in. Many men
will walk in path, while few men will make
path. The world waits good while for the one
voyage of Columbus, but when that is made.
then the ocean is white with sails have tray
eled the trail of the Portage" Oftentimes 1t is
worn inches deep by the feet of Hudson pay
men. 1t turns, and crooks, and bends. The
man who made the path had reason for the
turn and crook and bend. Some log was in the
way, and he went around it. The no
longer exists; the log is dust and ashes The
trail ought to be shortened, bnt it is not; 1t fol-
lows the path of the first feet L suppose if We
question some of our customs, we shall
discover that they once had reason
for being but now exist without reason. The
leader of flock OF sheep jumps an obstacle. Re-
move the obstacle and yet every one of the flock
VIII vault into the air In the place where the bar
was.
Because Martin Luther finds it necessary in
his time and place TO take certain attitude.
few people suppose thai that is the attitude for
all time and all places. The spirit OF Luther, the
courage of conviction, that is chiefly what we
can wisely copy. To speak again his words and
do again his deeds is to copy a man, which Is
exactly what he did not. He read the Bible and
prayed a good deal, and struck out for himself.
'He was the first that ever burst upon that
lonely sea-" He had brains, and he exercised
them III an original way. Our neighbOrs object
to the name of 'Campbellites." That is right 1
don't like the words wesleyan" OF "Calvinist,"
or Lutheran" "Call no man master. One is
your master, even Christ" The world is not
|
freezes it, 1t becomes like China like Lows wife.
The world is advanced by the individual.
America moves last because here Is the widest
| liberty for the Individual There Is an inventor
of some new and better way of doing thing in
every village.
The Occupation of "Sairey Camp is not gone
The sick and the wounded are always with us,
| but Sairey's gone, gone to the invisible home
of Mrs. Harris" What was the name of the
| first doctor who allowed a man in fever to
@eVS drink and nf have Waa' cod wn gsn'fs is
| the monument for that man of sense
and couragel He has appeared In my time,
and would like to know his name. There is an
| opinion that certain kinds of sea fish are not
good TO eat. They are caught, condemned with
! one trial, and thrown away by tons. Certain
| brave gentlemen of New York have formed
! society to test this old opinion. They meet at
| stated times and dine on fish that have been
| under ban, 'Uhings forbid, and they find them
generally good. Nobody has died of a strange
| disease after the experiment, Here there is
| good food wasted all these years by the wbims
! of fisherman. There time when the
| oyster was a new thing and a suspicious looking
thing, and the first man who fried him was
either very brave or very hungry, and think
was both. There are endless illustrations. There
are tons of papers written to show that a thing
cannot be done. And while we reading
them the thing Ia done. OF course the faculty
OF imitation does not stand very high in the
intellectual scale Sheep have it and monkeys
have it, IL is thing that growth and freedom
always leave behind,
In reading the newspapers you will notice
that bad things come in groups. and kinds Of
crime succeed one another like boys games. [
| notice that when the marble season comes
around it comes all at once and everywhere. 1t
| Is epidemic. There is more of it for time than
all other games, and it gives way TO tops. so
there is a season OF burglars and supper thieves
and hall thieves and thugs with sandbags. They
run their course like mearles and scarlatina. 1t
also seems that crime is contagious When the
vital forces are lower you will take anything in
the shape of disease that is in the air. When the
moral and intellectual forces are lower crime
seems to spring UP, each sort after its own kind.
notice "A family likeness i'll the murders of the
day. One man in one State kills the whole fam
ily. including himself, and within a week man
in another State copies the deed. OF course the
man who does q wickedness is ready for wicked
ness in general, but the example he has seen and
read or determines the special kind, that gives
the fixed idea, and he goes about his work as if
under compuison-as If 1t was his mission TO do
that particular thing.
Wherever pine has been cleared from land in
due time fire sweeps il, and, the after pop
lar begins to grow-as thickly after, stalks in
a cOrnfield. OF course the fire does NOT make
the poplar seeds. They were in the earth: the
| fire wakes them up. 1t would seem that, in
spite of the home, the school and the church.
there was In TINS country great deal of dull,
STUPID mind-many men only waiting TO hear
read that thing has been done in certain
way to be moved to DO that thing in that
way. 1t is reasOnless. The man seems to be a
machine. Whether he was made so by others or
made himself so-there he is; as certain to do
mischief, when the subject is presented TO him.
a snake. I do not to call n man in this
low prepared state insane All sinners in
sane-hale and health, whole and holy have one
root.
We have to consider if the formation of a
mind ready to be possessed by fixed idea may
not be perverted. L think 1t can; at least some
thing may be done. Education will not stop
crime, but 1 think it will do much to
prevent the servie imitation of crime. Aaron
Burr doubtless wicked man, but his
wickednesS peculiar and unique. A few
lines in a newspaper would have no effect
i'll the way of suggestion him He was
original but his wickedness had plan, pur-
pose ana a reason not sufficient one, but
enough so that no man could call him fool
Now this kind of a man education only polisbes-
puts an edge on, jewels the hll5 of The sword
and etches the scabhard. If he had held the
sword OF Simon Peter, not only the ear but the
entire head OF the servant of the high priest
would have dropped off. He was not clumsy in
his killing. This kind of man is nOJ so much "a
servant of the devil as "a partner and friend
He not only deceives, but gives points An in
telligent, reasoning man sometimes kills himself
but he does 1t in an Intelligent way. He does
not take corrosive sublimate or Paris green. He
does not treat himself as If he were a rat. have
respect for RalstOn that do not have for IA
vulgar suicide With men of this kind cduca-
ton has no moral power, but with men of the
lower kind-creatures of impulse and instinct,
ready TO walk any path because 1t Is path,
education can do much. 1t will wake them up
to think. After that to see path is not enough;
they will ask where IL leads.
Here is boy with temper quick as powder
Provoke him, and he will reach for the first
thing at hand, wood or iron, and let fly. He
grows into man who is quite patient under
provocation. What has wrought the change?
He has been taught to think and he has thought.
The question OF good or bad does not come in,
perhaps. No reasoning man ever will do IL
thing simply because it has been DONE Motive
man Will ever do a thing precisely aS it was done
before. Intelligence will prevent man from
becoming machine, to he moved from without.
Whatever he dOes-goOd bad-there will be
thought in 1t. The characteristic of crimes of
late is their senseessness in purpose and cum-
siness in execution. The remedy for fixed idea
il, think, other ideas, horse concludes not
to go-baIks. You whip him, pound him
with "A sled-stake, be as much Of brute as he is,
and yet he will not go. You must divert his
mind get it off the subject. Tying down his
will often do it.
From good home and from q good school n
wicked man may have graduated, hut not a
brutal man. There is hope in intelligence. IL
can reason il can compare the advantages of
the broad road that leads to he'll and the narrow
difficult path which leads to heaven, and make a
choice. That is the privilege of "A reasoning be-
ing and il separates between "a man and u beast.