St. Paul daily globe., 1890-07-07

ceed in showing how these, one after
another, viii give way to something
higher in the evolution of thought,
shall do more for you than any mere
argument would accomplish. This will
be my intention, and for this end [
will begin with the lowest manifesto
ton OF the belief in retribution.
. Nemesis and the Furies.
When the world was yet in the bonds
of a general ignorance, man felt the
rising of that connection with the
infinite, that consciousness of God'' we
sometimes call the moral sense; and
when. as result of this, he began to
feel the tie of obligation and the sense
of guilt; and when, lacking knowledge
and possessed of an unframed imagina-
ten, he pictured all kinds of fanciful
conditions as real ones; then he drew
the pictures of the furieS, with their
serpent locks, their adder wands, their
accompaniment of black clouds, grasp
ing winds, hail and bolts of lightning,
| with which to pursue the sin
ner; then he drew the image
of, Nemesis with her watchful eve
and her tireless foot, pursuing the sin
ner over land and sea until death si-
lenced his breath and glazed his eye,
then taking him to the gates of Tarta-
rms, where the flames awaited him; /;
therefore we see how strange and how
crude were the ideas at frst;.how the
literal mouth of the burning underworld
was located in valley in the south of
Europe and men did not think that
knowledge would ever pull down one
often another of these c0nceits until
the last was gone.
Er,l f1,o{ oil az
period had long after-life; that it was
supposed that terrible punishment i'm
pressing the eye in a dramatic fashion
would be the awful example, and that
the awful example would deter from
crime; while as matter of fact the inge-
nulty OF man was pushed to the last eX-
tremity: women were tied in great
bag with cats frenZied to madness; live
Yipers, the most deadly. were turned
loose IN the cell OF the criminal; red hot
'pincerS tortured him, he was pulled
apart piecemeal on the rack, all to
show that the awful example would de-
ter from crime; yet the world only
grew better in the slow evolution of
things and we see, [ am sOrry. to say,
remains of this going idea in the world
OF the present. although 1T is fast taking
lis place among the relics.
III. Punishment of the Monarch.
In taking this development we are
not following distinct order in time be-
cause one idea will live long after an
other has come, and even after the other
has taken firm root in the world. And
this idea which is now looked at is the
one that takes place whence evolution
of thought has practically displaced the
first. 1t had its birth in the time of
Moses. it grew to some strength i'm the
day of the Hebrew Judges, it only came
before the world in full form when the
glory of Solomon broke in full exhalation
upon a wondering world. when he sent
the long camel train with its white-tur-
baned drivers across the desert, their
long snake-like train moving in swift
atrideS to distant lands where they
found gold and the rare ivory and the
beautiful woods used to inlay the furni-
ture: when his men with shout and song
laid the axe at the root OF the Old cedars
OF Lebanon, and with creaking whels
and neighing herses came rushing down
The steep hillside as Dore represents
them; when he sent to distant coasts,
to the isles of the sea and to far king
dom. and then compromising all that he
had brought from ali places into one
house Of ipagnificence. made himself
monarch as dramatically glorious, as
judieially master as he had the outward
features of his reign, SO that he was the
glory OF hiS own and the wonder of all
succeeding ages.
And when men saw this they said.
and God also is king; He rules men
with power; He is more magnificent
than Solomon; He has his court OF JUS
tice: He Judges. He executes, He has
the books in which the actions of men
are written down: He has the prison,
and there men will meet their pr per
punishment. Right in this same cons
nneetlon came the ideas of pardon. based
on the custom of the king to pardon
men for otfenses: right here came the
notion that punishment must be de-
ferred altogether until men were
brought before court and the charges
made against them. and here came the
IDEA of prison more terrible than the
earthly prison, for the idea of the first
age came in with It's pictures. and both
united to give us the flames of a literal
lake. And here again we find the pur-
pose to inspire fear in the hope that
fear will repreSS men, deter them from
crime. 1t never appealed to the higher
motive, never sought to base itself on
the belief in consciousness of God in
the mental furniture of man; fear was
its one weapon.
III. The Real Teaching of Retri-
button.
But in time the world begins to dis
trust its beliefs about God being great
king; one of its writers Introduces the
',republic of Cod" republic, whatever
may be the practical difficulties, comes
"a ha nf
preachers catch the idea that God is
spoken OF as the Father everywhere in
the New Testament: and then begin to
look and they find that even far back in
human history they find in the patri-
arch. who sat in the gate and dealt out
justice to all, who was eyes to the blind
and feet to the lame, help to the op-
pressed, and hope to all, was a tyne Of,
God. And they further find that in
hundred mysterious ways the retriba-
ton of the future is being woven day
by day i'm the creation of habits that re-
act on the person; in weaving entangle-
mentS that enWrap us after awhile as
the cords did the Lady of Shallott:
that when a habit is once formed
it is almost certain to come aud take the
man agaiu in the same snare that caught
him before, SO that railroads having
once dlSpudEStu d Ildl lOI uIuHktuutSo
go Oh the experience of the past when
they refuse to take him into employ and
even give him a second chance: the
methods are various, but the work goes
on all the time.
When we read in Isaiah that the wick
ed are like restless sea whose waters
cast UP mire and dirt, and when we
take the latest criminal report to find
the average criminal deficient in health,
ia foresight, in courage, and always
leaving some clue to his deed, We are
led to believe that after all the man who
sleeps the best is the man who is sure
Of the sympathy of his neighbors in any
time of special need; when we read the
history of men and women in all ages,
il all lands. in all conditions, we are
made all the more aware of the fact that.
as the Bible says, verify there is re-
ward for the righteous, even ROW and
here.
+ When we look at the matter III a
larger way we see that by the laws of
social life, of family life, of national
/ life and of human life taken as a soii-