The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1893-02-16
THE GROWING FAITH.
sey Tnonas DIXON on THE FUTURE
or CHRISTIANITY

Prelude on the Ae~s"
Carlyle Harris case-CAristiAnssy MAE
,.r M.r~ Rapid rrsgr~ss Today ThAa
Ever Before
srw YORK. Feb. 5.-In his review OF
rnrrsut events before the sermon TINS
morning Rev. Thomss Dixon. Jr., dis-
cussed the problem of capital punish
ment, with an application to the case o.
Young Harris. under sentence CT death.
convicted of the murder of his wife lie
said:
Has n civilized community the right
20 kill a human being:
The answer our laws make to tins Is
an emphatic yes
Upon what principles does the law
providing the death penalty rest:
The theory is that the community Is
thus preserviag its own life. Self pres
eryation is tie first law of nature Un-
doubte,ily there are hours of crisis In IN
surrection and anarchy, when bad men
must be summarily executed. But IN
times of peace and order is this trues
Our theory Of the law is one thing.
The fact of the origin Of the law Is an
other. The death penalty is simply
survival of the barbarisn OF lex talionis,
and God has said in unmistakable terms:
Vengeance is mine. will repayT
But it is urged that the state must
kill in order to deter other criminals
from murder. Again theory Is one
thing. The fact is another thing. The
death penalty does not deter from muir
der. We had 1000 murders in America
last year, and only 100 legal executions.
to be hung or electrocuted. They know
that they have $500 chances of escape
against 100 chances Of execution.
The risk involved is contemplate as
measured against the resistless impulse
Of q morbid passion demanding life.
The penalty Of law is preventive of
, crime not in proportion to its theoretic
severity, but in proportion to it's GER
tainty of infection. The man who COM
mits murder has one chance only in
seventy against him. He does not fear
the one chance. The consequence is
that homicide is practically unchecked
today in America, SO far as law Is con-
cerned.
The progress of civilization must re-
suit always in reducing the severity Of
penalties and increasing the certainty Of
execution. The old English laws pro-
vided the death penalty for over $50 Of
| lenses. Such were the laws Of barbara
| ans. Society has not suffered by the
modification of these penalties, but has
been always the gamer in their repeal.
We long ago reached a period of devel
opment when life imprisonment should
have been substituted for the death PEN
| atty. If men were imprisoned for life
| for murder. the law against homicide
| would not be a dead letter. 1t would be
| executed, and criminals would be de-
| TERED. The rules governing the admis-
sion Of evidence would be so modified
that conviction would be more surely q
certainty for guilt, and the prosecuting
attorney would not be handicapped by
the tremendous pressure of sentiment
It Is next to impossible to enforce the
death penalty today in our centers Of life
if the victim be a man who can excite
the least sympathy and about whose
guilt there fingers the least suspicion of
error.
| The heart of the community rebels at
the thought of numbering any mothers
child. whether by law or without law,
and the thought of strangling an inno-
cent man to death with chain of cir
cumstantial evidence that may, after all
be lie is an unspeakable horror that
ever haunts the heart of the people in
such crisis.
Take the case of Carlyle Harris. Hero
Is one Of the unlucky number of the 100
fatal cases FOR execution. Six thousand
nine hundred escaped. He was caught
in the tolls of circumstances that were
not explained to the satisfaction of a
jury. The law says he must be roasted
to death with current of electric fire.
But now comes the supreme test for
the law. The mother of that boy ap-
pears upon the scene Of this awful pub
lie tragedy-the mother whose heart
beat with joy at the cry of her frstborn,
mothers divine love, who followed him
through the years with a mothers pas
sionate faith! All, we are all kin to that
mother! Her wild cry of anguish touches
all hearts alike. You hear in it the pos
sible echoes of your own souls cry Of
| despair.
There presses upon the soul Of the
community again and again the terrible
thought that the boy may be Innocent
No matter if jury did decide it agains
him. Juries have hung many an inno-
cent man in the history of the world.
Trials are often smuggling matches be-
tween legal giants, in which the strong
est arm wins-evidence or no evidence.
And in the case of this young man,
| speaking from my own view Of the evil
dence, was amazed at the verdict. He
may be guilty, but If had been ON the
jury I'd have hung that jury to the pres
emit moment before would have agreed
to death on the evidence presented. 1t
seemed to me there was more than a rea-
sonable doubt Of guilt. It may have been
proved that he was bad man, but do
not see how under the laws governing
evidence in such cases he could be found
guilty of murder. Such situation Is q
nightmare of civilization. It is an un-
speakable horror, Upon the broadest
grounds Of Christian humanity such q
mans punishment should be committed
to life imprisonment by the governor If
he be finally sentenced.
And then our lawmakers should abol-
ish the death penalty and substitute for
It life imprisonment, and we may be able
to enforce the law against homicide.
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE.
have yet many things to say unto you, but
| ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit, when
ne, the spirit OF truth. Is come, he shall guide
you into all the truth.-John xvi. Il, Ia
The idea Of religion and Of the last
word OF Revelation being thing fixed,
IKE formula of mathematics, and fixed
centuries ago and delivered to man sim.
ply Tor the purpose of manipulation, is a
purely human invention. It has no
warrant in the words Of Jesus, nor Is Il
freachnd anvxuhora l., a. ro:l1