The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1888-06-14
Lynching.
1Rusticus.1

"Did you read that account in the
papers Of the lynching down in A1i-
IONA? How did those masked men
know that the prisoner was guilty?
What right had they to judge and
condemn him ?"
"None at all. But people are doing
such things all over this town every
day"
"What lynching bere-hanging peo-
pie withoutjudge or jury"
'Well, I admit that they don't hang
them, bnt they stab them behind their
backs, and that is just as bad"
II haven't heard of any stabbing-
what do you mean?"
as not mans reputation as valua-
bic as life itself? What is life worth
without friendship, without society,
when one is treated as if he were leper.
When a company of gossips organize
their lynch court in a parlor or on some
street corner and decide upon the
character of Mr.. A or Mrs. B, taking
only eX parte and hearsay evidence,
they commit as great an outrage
against justice as that mob in Arizona.
We have no right to think evil Of our
neighbor unless facts compel us to. But
how often do We judge and condemn
him on mere suspicion? And then We
don't keep that condemnation to our
selves, but we talk about him. we join
with others as unjust and cruel as our
selves in numbering his reputation
without giving him any chance to de-
fend himself. When these self-con-
stituted judges meet their victim, he
sees in the averted eye that they have
no faith in him and no charity for him.
He feels that they ought to be his
friends, that if they understood all his
circumstances and motives, that they
would give him sympathy instead of
suspicion, and esteem instead of aver
sion. But he has no opportunity to
explain. They have not sought his con-
tidence. They have not permitted him
to open his heart to them. They sat
down together and put their own con-
struction upon what they saw and
heard Of him, and settled the whole
matter, so far as their inference can
60, against him. Now, this is the
height Of injustice and the refinement
CT cruelty. What have We to do with
our neighbours faults and follies? We
have enough of our own to attend to.
And We are commanded to love him
and not to judge him. Charity think
eth no evil.
"As a rule the most pure-minded are
the most charitable. Those who are
honest and true themselves are least
disposed to suspect their neighbors of
fraud and falsehood. The conscious
ness of evil in ourselves tempts US to
impute evil to others, and we geta little
comfort in the eself-condemnation that
we cannot avoid by condemning some
body else. Hence the gossiping and
criticising world is like company of
criminals denouncing all mankind as
thieves and robbers in order to try to
persuade themselves that they are not
as bad rs they are. When I hear a
man or woman insinuating that Mr..
y and Mrs. y and Miss Il are no better
than they should be, I am reminded of
the Saviour's words to accusing Phari-
sees, Let him that is without sin cast
the first stone Their hypocrisy was a
worse crime than that of her they ac-
cuSed. And the consciousness Of it, the
moral degradation into which-it had
brought them, and not a love of purity,
made them quick and relentless in
Furnishing those who were guilty of any
offence against the letter of the law.
So now, we who are sinners ourselves
have no right to be casting stones at
others; and if there was perfect saint
on earth, he would have the spirit of
the Saviour and not that of the Phari-
see.