The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1888-05-03
cRrME-1Ts CAUSE AND REMEDY.
A Sermon Preached by Rev. A. a. Mar
shall In the Anderson Baptist Church,
Sunday, April 20, 1883.


shall In the Anderson Baptist Church,
Sunday, April 20, 1885,.
EZEKIEL 7-3: "Make chain; for the
land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is
full of violence
I confess that as rule am an optimist,
and believe in the general growth and ad-
yancement of morals and virtue. believe
the general course of our world is upward.
have no sympathy with pessimistic opin-
ions that hold that tho world is retrogra-
ding, and constantly growing worse. Fro
gress, development, advancement Is the
great law of the universe; and yet. as
Herbert Spencer says, oil progress Is rythn.1-
cal-that is, it rises and falls as notes In
music or it is like the swing of pendu-
slum, now forward, now backward, but each
forward stroke is in advance of the prece,
tdingfand thus rythmically the world
moves Constantly onward and forward to a
higher plane of virtue and morality. Some.
times we conletto eddies in the current or
history, where there seems to be back.
ward whirl and regurgitating waters, but
thew are only like eddies in an ordinary
river which, in spite of the eddies, sweeps
ever onward to the sea. Sometimes in the
smoke of battle, in the thick of the fight,
it NAV look as if the standards of virtue
and morality were being drivensback, and
here and there may be some apparent tenn
porary reverse. Some Goliath of crime
striding forth may inspire short dismay.
Some impious outburst of abandon meiit
and sin may cause doubling ones to trem-
BILE for the common safety, but the tounda-
tions of virtue, truth and morality stand
eth sure, and as things that cannot be
shaken shall remain. I have recently been
of fhof
now to stand upon the verge OF one OF
those eddies in history-it seems as if we
were passing through the backward swing of
the pendulum of progress, for the land is
full of bloody crimes, and the city is full OF
violence. Every one that reads the news
papers of the day is ready to say "the
land surely is full of bloody crimes and
the city is full of violence" Within re-
cent period of time che papers have brought
intelligence of an attempt in "the city BY
the sea- to perpetrate gigantic swindle
upon life insurance companies. The in.
sured feigning death while corpse is deit-
" substituted which, amid the tears and
eroans of relatives, is laid away in the
grave. In our capital city most awful
murder is committed. The keeper of a
bridge. an inotfensive man, is brutally set
upon by unknown parties and murdered
with the hope of securing the money which
was thought to be in his possession. In
sister State The assets OF bank were re-
Gently stolen by the President and Cashier,
who hasten to join others OF their klnd on
the more peaceful shores Of far of Canada,
while the unfortunate stockholders and
depositors are left to regale their lmagina-
tions upon what might have been as they
look through the empty vault anu unnlleo
money chest.
bnt RECENTLY one of the judicial officers Of
the State pronounced the garden spot of the
world even in our own city the torch OF
tn iucendiary has done its work in the de-
struction uf out-houses and residence.
O1,r Oapn people have been startled in their
neace(ul slumbers by the loud cries of hre,
while the lurid glare suggested to many
the possibility of their own homes being
deyoured by the flames, while the bastard
Iv incendiary hides in his lair, or perhaps
moves with inquiring words among the
crowd of anxious lookers-on. Surely the
land is full of bloody crimes, and the city
is full of violence.
The subject, then, to which I ask your
attention to. day is cR1ME-1Ts CAUSE AND
REMEpY-or thoughts suggested by our re-
.Ohe of the most prolific sources of crime
is the lack of family government and pa
rental restraint. believe in the truth of
the old adage, ''as the twig is bent the tree
ia inclined.h EARLY impressions are the
moa lasting. The family is the basis of
good government. "Train up child in
The way he should go, and when he is old
he will not depart from it. The character
of most men is formed III childhood, and
the law of perpetuity continues most OF US
upon the line of our earlier development.
Next to our own indiuiduat responsibility IS
the responsibility for our children. We
cannot shirk this responsibility, nor trans
fer it to another. In the solemn birth
hour the Word of God comes to every pa
rent, .take thou and train this Child for
Me-; and upon the faithful discharge OF
that duty will, in great measure, depend
the honor aud integrity Of the child. Home
life becomes either a nursery OF honor;
from which noble manhood and innocent
womanhood 20 forth to take positions OF
usefulness in life, or it becomes the very
school where criminals are made. How
terrible. then, must be the consequences
where parental restraint and wise home
government are neglected. Solemn as may
BE the thought who knows, mother, but
that the dimpled hand of your prattling
how how which encircled your neck this morn.
ing may drip with human blood, and over
his curly locks some day the hangman's
can he drawn, Who knows bat that the
innocent girl who followed you to-day
with laughing eyes shall bring. your gray
hairs in sorrow to the grave. Whethert this
be so or not will depend, perhaps more
than you think, upon the wisdom OF your
home management. You may feel that
such q thought is cruel and unkind. You
may think had better have left it unsald,
but it is better that should to-day say 1T
in love than to wait till the iron throat OF
the law shall thunder it in your ears.
Better to say it now than to wait till the
electric wires shall flash 1t around the
globe. Better say it now than to wait TIL
he, mid oaths and curses as ne SNAKES Tue
prison CRATE, shall lay at your feet the
blame OF his sin, the censure OF his crime.
Blessed, yea, thrice blessed is the home
where parental care shall check the growth
of passion, and where children kneel around
the family hearthstone-'Where at night.
fall the little ones sing songs of love, and
where mother talks of Jesus till the little
eyelids close in sleep, and the dimpled
hand lets loose the toy on the pillow"
Parental responsibility, oh, how great !!
The marble from which Grecian artists
chiseled statues of beauty crumble into
dust, and the work of their hands. perish,
but We are fashioning the enduring ada
mant of character, and your work. as pa..
rents, is to be tested in the glowing light Of
eternity.
Caste prejudice, and color prejudice, are
also fruitful sources of crime. There hard
Iv was ever a period of time when there
was in the world so much of socialism and
communism, which is but another name
for caste prej,dice-the hatred of one class
of persons by another class, for no other
reason than that one was more prosperous
than the other. The unfortunate conflict
between labor and capitalize strife be-
tween the rich and the poor-together with
Che kindred question of race prejudice, are
to-day tho Most momentous problems We
are called upon to consider. They Gre in
sinuatipg themselves into every part of our
social fabric, and threaten the permanence
of our civilization. In the limits of SER
mon il would be impossible to enter upon
o full discussion of the merits of these
great questions, or to decide as to the equi-
ties of the parties concerned. Labor does
have cause for grievance in the rapacious-.
ness of capital, which, like death, is never
satisfied; and capital may justly complain
in the armed resistance of labor in strikes
and boycott. 1t is, know, no wonder
that, when ir the hands of q single man
there should be more than one hundred
millions, there should be tramps and pau
pers; but yet realize that any utopian
system of equalization would prove fruit
less for the financial capacities of men are