Morning journal and courier., 1888-10-15
SERMON nx DIR. SMITH.

LWe0A AASM aAe2 S SNBSACC-EA AAGAK GAAA@SAO
 Perlls Because of the Delay of JuS-
 tfce In the Courts.
 Dr. Newman Smyth, pastor of the Center church, preached 8 sermon yesterday morn ing to bis congregation which nobody should fail to thoroughly read and digest. He bases it on the evil doings of men in this commu-
 nifty whose sins have come to light The dis course is given in full below. Dr. Smyth took his text from
 Amos I: a-''This saith the Lord: For three trans gressions ofDamascus yea for four VIII not turn away the punishment thereof
 have been thinking how many are the obS stacIes which may intervene in this world be- tween men and the punishment Of their sins. One sometimes feels bitterly these intervsn- tions between men and justice. when man does wrong thing, breaks law, hu- man or divine, see what troop of hlndrances rise up in the way to his punishment. There are to begin with difficulties in the discovery of sin These probably are not so great in these latter days as they have been in other centuries. For modern business is conduct ed under more public scrutiny, modern so- ciety exists under an electric light of public | ity. Consequently it is not so easy for evil to remain long in coneealment. What is spoken in the ear in the inner chambers do not the newspapers now proclaim 1t on the house tops! Some hundred years ago gen. tleman clipped from the columns of paper for single month list of the names of men who had run away from their homes. The clippings of the names of these delinquents when pasted together reached from the hoer to the ceiling of his room. It was compara- lively easy then for social defaulters to go hide in the wilderness. But now the telegraph runs before fugitives from justice, anl 1t is not easy to find anywhere wilderness in
 which sin may hide it's shame. That old say ing of Israel's law-giver has always been true, and it is truer to real life now than ever, Be sure your sin win find you out. But beyond whatever difficulties may still exist in the discovery of sin, there are other and not in- considerable obstacles to the punishment of evil. One of the most familiar is the power of money to put itself between men and jus tice A rich sinner is not so easily brought to the halter as a poor sinner. If money cannot buy up justice it seems often to have power to tie up justice for long time. One of the anarchic perils of our civilization threatens us from the possible delay of jus tice in the courts of the land. am aware
 that this evil is incidental in part to processes of law which are the necessary safeguards o1 innocence; nor is it for layman to the law to suggest how the evil of the delay of justice may be bettered; but spoke of it as an an archie peril because the popular sense of il and irritation at the power of money to post pone justice indicate enc of the sore points 1T the life of the people from which anarchic disturbances may fester and spread. Besides this obstacle-and I wish for my further purpose simply to enumerate severa \ without dwelling on any-there ii
 also to be noted too often a hindrance t' N punishment, soft public sentiment concern \ ing law and penalty. Society seems some \ times to find spice for life in recitals tha \ ought to disgust and anger it; false glamou
 has been thrown sometimes around the bol, \ of Iv
 smart rascality, even when brought to jail \ has received tributes of flowers from sill, women, and petitions for pardon from sillie men. Moreover, there are the commercial hindrances to punishment; it often pays t. ! compound with felony. If 8 man steal \ enough he may compromise; men are not ex \ pected to punish others against their ow1 interests. Then there are certain common feelings or opinions upon which gentleman. villainy confidently banks; the natural desir of good people to hush up ofenses, and \ common disposition to shield high bred sin | ners from too unpleasant consequences O ' their misconduct, are the stock upon whicl ! much polite rascality makes heavy drafts \ There Ia also among right-minded persons ! certain instinctive reluctance to infiict pun | ishment. Perhaps this shrinking which we fesl from the visitation of penalty upon others arises from our common consciousness of
 sin-our knowledge of temptation \ ana our human
 \ Perhaps, also, it has it's source in some di- vine sentiment of pity for the offender which has not been extinguished even by centuries of wrong from the heart of man; but what ever it's origin, it undoubtedly exists in us, and it does not grow less with moral refne-
 ment, this shrinking from the infiction of penalty, willingness to leave to other hands the execution even of necessary justice. Men in their business discover some peculation, some fraud; and they know how often they
 hate to use their just power and strike down
 the offender. Moreover, there intervenes in
 many instances another great difficulty be- tween men and the punishment of their sins. There is the innocent family to be thought of The guilty comes clothed in social responsibility, bound by family ties, dragging perforce with him to the judgment some woman whom he once
 promised to honor, going down to his con- demnation with little children elinging to
 his hand. And that is hard And it is not easy not to hold back from punishing when one knows how the innocent must suffer with the guilty. For the sake of the inno- cent, men have often escaped the just pun ishment of their eins. Nor is this all.
 It were easier to punish an old man hard ened to his sin, and about to leave this world, than to strike down with justice 6 young man, just about to live. Youth, inexperf-
 
 abilities of reformation in the future, all
 unite in pleading for mercy. And SO it hap
 pens from these and many another cause that
 justice pure and simple has a hard road to
 follow in pursuing sin; punishment about
 to overtake 8 man is arrested, judgment
 turned aside. The transgressor goes free,
 sometimes perhaps to reform; and often to repeat the sin.
 But there is no nobler sentiment than jus tice. Nothing commando men more than justice. Some times the sense of it becomes an overpowering consciousness. All other voices for the moment are silenced. All oth- CT interests are swept out of sight The hu- man soul in it's hour of justice becomes like the pure heavens-not cloud, not one soft ening color, not one touch of tenderness pure, cold, bright, high heaven, all light, the earth as nothing beneath it.
 There are scriptures which show us God in his justice, a consuming fire. The prophet of old looked up-he was tired of the wrongs of men; he had seen enough of the sins of the nations: Damascus, the cruel, with it's thresh- ing instruments of fire; Gaza, the strong, carrying @ whole people captive; Tyre, the
 deceitful, remembering not the brotherly
 covenant; Edom, the pitiless. pursuing his
 brother with the sword; Ammon, the grasp
 ing, devouring women and children in his
 thirst for possessions; Moab, the reckless
 profaner of human rights, burning even the
 bones of kings into lime; Israel, the prof1igate:
 selling the righteous for silver; and Judah,
 worst of all becsused most privileged, Judah,
 the infdel, rejecting the law of the Lord only these laws are ancient, the history is modern, the transgressions are the present sins of the nations-and the prophet looking up, sees that tod in heaven will not turn away their punishments; the punitive powers of the universive are following those sins; the arm of the Almighty is not out
 stretched to save; for three transgressions,
 yea, for four, saith Jehovah, will not turn punishment aside; for the sum and heap of your iniquities will not revoke my word of judgment. The Lord is not repre- sented in this text as coming in judgment, but az refusing to intervene be- tween men and the just punishment of their sins. Obstacles enough there may be on earth in the way of mems punishment, but no intervention from heaven. So we may look up from the spectacle of wrongs unright- ed, and rejoice that heaven will not interfere between sin and its consequences. So in the prophets vision of Jehovah with hand not lifted to save, while punishment pursues sin, we may face the evil of our world and rest satisfied. Satisfied? No, not 50. We may be encouraged to virtue, we may be made strong for conflict with wrong, by the vision of the Lord with arm unmoved, with power held still, while law proclaims the right and iustice swaryes not from its hi0h ands