The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1885-11-18

Jaw that the prisoner was idiote and ire
,ponsible aud ought tn be put in an asylum
rather than put to death, the heroic counsel
uttering these beautiful words: Il speak now
in the hearing Of a people who have pre-
judged the prisoner and condemned me for
pleading in his behalf. He is q convict, a
pauper, q negro, without intellect, sense or
emotion. My child with an affectionate
smile disarms my careworn face of its frown
whenever 1 cross my threshold. The beggar
in the street obliges ma to give because he
says ''God bless your as I pass. My dog
caresses me with fondness if I will but smile
on him. My horse recognizes me when I
fill his Manager, but what reward. what
gratitude, what sympathy and affection can
I expect here? There the prisoner sits. Look
at him. Look at the assemblage around you.
Listen to their Unsurpassed censures and
my neighbors or my fellow mon, where, even
in his heart. l can expect to find the senti-
ment, the thought, not to say Of reward or
acknowledgment, but even Of recognition
y X X Gentlemen, you may think Of
this evidence what you please, bring in what
verdict you can, but I assererate before
heaven and you that to the best of my
knowledge and belief the prisoner at the bar
does not at this moment know why it is my
shadow falls on you instead Of his own.' He
was sentenced to die, but the ~post-mortem
to all the surgeons and to all the world that
the public were wrong and William r.. Sew
ard was right, and that hard and stony
step Of obloouy in the Auburn courtroom
was one step of the stairs Of fame up which
he went to the top or to within one steI
of the top. that last denied him through
the treachery of American politics. Nothins
,ublimer was ever seen IN American court
room than William II. Seward, without re-
ward, standing between the fury OF the popu'
lace and the loathsome imbecile. Substitu-
tion!
In the realm Of the fine arts there was as
remarkable an instance. A brilliant but by.
percriticised painter, Joseph William Turner
was met by q volley of abuse from all the art
galleries Of Europe. His paintings which
have since won the applause Of all civilized
nations, 1.-THE Fifth Plague of Egypt"
FISHERMEN on q Lee Shore in Squally
Weather." "Calais Pier" "The Sun Rising
Through MIST" and 'Dido Building Car.
thage," were then targets for critics to shoot
1t. In defense Of this outrageously abused
man a young author of twenty-tour years, just
,ne year out of college. came forth with his
pen, and wrote the ablest and most famous es-
laws on art that the world ever saw or will
,ee-John Ruskin's "Modern Painters" For
seventeen years this author fought the battles
If the m~altreated artist, and after in poverty
md Observation-Disclosures the painter had died
md the public tried to undo their crueltles
toward him by giving him a big funeral and
burial at st. Paul's cathedral, his old-tlme
friend took out Of a tin box $4,000 pieces OF
paper containing drawings by the old painter,
ind through many weary and uncompensated
months assorted and arranged them for pub
lie observation. People say John Ruskln III
ais old days is cross, misarthropic and morbid.
Whatever he may do that he ought not to
10 and whatever he may say that he ought
not to say between now and his death he will
cave this world insolvent as far as it has any
capacity to pay this authors pen for its
,hivalric and Christian defense of O poor
painters pencil. John Ruskin for William
Turner. Blood for blood. Substitution.
What an exalting principle TINS Whlch
kindles enthusiasm OF awakens eloquence or
chimes poetic canto or moves nations. mat
principle is tue dominant one in our religion
Christ the martyr, Christ the celestial hero,
Christ the defender, Christ the substitute.
No new principle, for it was as old as human
nature, but now on a grander, wider, higher,
leeper and more understanding scale.
The shepherd-boy as champion for Israel,
with a sling toppled the giant OF Philistlne
~braggadocio in the dust; but here IS another
David who for all the armies of churches
militant and triumphant hurls the Goliath Of
oerdition into defeat, the crash OF his brazed
irmor like an explosion at He'll Gate.
Abraham had at Gods command agreed to
sacrifice his son Isaac, and the same
God lust in time had provided a ram OF the
!hicket as a substitute. But here is another
Isaac bound to the alter and no hand arrests
the sharp edges of liberation and death, and
The universe shivers and quakes and recolIs
and groans at the horror. All good men have
Tor centuries been trying to tell who this
substitute was like, and every comparison,
Inspired and uninspired, evangellstlc, pro-
phetic, apostolic and human, falls short, for
Christ was the Great unllse. Aoam, SyPe
If Christ because he came directly from God;
Noah, a type of Christ because he delivered
his own family from a deluge; Melchlsedec,
ltype of Christ because he had no predecessor
,r successor; Joseph, q type OF Christ be-
cause he was cast out by his brethren; Moses,
! type of Christ because he was q dellVerer
from bondage; Joshua, a type OF Christ be.
cause he was O conqueror; Samson q typo OF
Christ because Of his strength to Stay the
ions and carry of the iron gates OF I'M
possibility; Solomon, a type OF Christ IN the
lfluence of his dominion: Jonah, q type or
Christ because of the stormy sea in which ne
GuT6W ultuSell ~ VLlO VI!
out together Adam and Noah, and Melchlse-
lee and Joseph, and Moses and Joshua, and
Samson and Solomon and Jonah, and they
would not make a fragment OF q christ, q
quarter of q Christ, or the millionth part OF a
Christ. He forsook O throne and sat down
IN his W footstool. He came from the top
If glory to the bottom Of humiliation and
changed a circumference seraphic tor a CIR
.umference diabolic. Once waited on by
angels, now Kissed at by ..brigands.
From afar and high up, he came
lown; apast meteors. swifter than thoy; by
starry thrones, himself more lustrous; past
arger worlds to smaller worlds; down stairs OF
ornaments, and from cloud to cloud, ana
;hrourh the tree.tops, and into the Gamers
tall. to thrust his shoulder under our bur
dens and take the lances Of pain through MS
yitals and wrapped himself in all the agonles
which we deserve for our mlsdolngs ana
stood on the splitting decks Of a laundering
shin amid the drenchlng surf OF the sea, and
passed midnights on the mountains amid WIZ
beasts Of prey, and stood at the poin1 "nere
all earthly and Internal hostilitles charged Oh
him at once with their keen saDers-our SUD
Stitute!
When did attorney ever endure so much tol
a pauper client, or physician for the patient
in the lazaretto, or mother for the child IN
n,embranous Group as Christ for US and Christ
for YOU and Christ for me? Shall any maj
or woman or child in this audience who has
ever suffered for another find it hard to un
derstand this Christly suffering for uss Sha
those whose sympathies have been Wrung II
behalf of the unfortunate have no apprecla
ton of that one moment which was lifted GU
of all the ages of eternity as most conscplcu
GUS when Christ gathere up all the sins o
those to be redeemed under his one arm ane
all their sorrows under his other arm am
said. II will atone for these under my RICH
arm and I will heal all those under my LEI
arm. Strike me with.all thy glittering shafts
oh, eternal justice. Roll over me with ell tn.
surges, We oceans Of sorrow!" And the thun
der6olts struck him from above and the sea