People's voice. [volume] (Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas) 1890-1917, 1895-07-04

In his pulpit at that place:
And it came to pass that at mid
night the Lord SmOte all the frst.born
10 the land of Egypt, from the first
born of PharOah that sat on his
throne unto the frSt-bOrn of the cap
tive that was 10 the dungeon, and all
the tlrSt-bOrn of cattle.-Exodus 1929.
The Egyptians had enslaved the
free-born Israelites, and for four hun.
4 dred years kept them in bondage, de-
prived them of the fruit of their
labor, and made life burden to them.
Through Moses, God demanded their
liberty. King Pharaoh not only re-
fused, but increased their burden for
the crime of asking for freedom. God
Wreaked vengeance upon Egypt with
divers plaques and finally smote with
death the flrst-born in every house,
from the King on his throne to the
prisoner in his cell, and there was no.
a house in which there was not one
dead. The land was dripping with
the blood of divine vengeance. Egypt
was alarmed for its own safety and
urged the people to depart out of the
land, and they left that night.
What is the lesson we are to learn
from this incident to-day? 1t is this.
that there is such thing as divine
vengeance-blOod atonement for ma
tiOnal crimes. 1t is an illustration of
the Bible declaration, Vengeance is
mine, l will repay, saith the Lord
But in order to understand the sub
ject we must remember that the Bible
assumes certain things to be true.
First, that there is God who is the
author and source of all things, God
who takes a deep interest in mans
welfare, and who loves fair dealing
and hates robbery, oppression and
wrong; a God who Furnishes vice and
rewards virtue. Second, that God is
the arbiter of life and death. And il
God exists at all this must be true.
Third, that God possesses the right to
demand and enforce blood atOnement
for crime. This is the teaching of my
text and all the scriptures. And |
hold these to be self-evident truths.
These facts must be graSped in order
to understand my text. This thought
explains all those terrible and bloody
wars and disasters. The crime of
Egypt against the Jews was in making
them slaves and rObbing them of lib
erty and of the fruit of their toll.
The penalty was death. This is the
principle of blood atonement to which
the Bible gives its sanction.
We find the same thing in the his
tory OF all nations, past and present.
Witness the overthrow Of ancient
Babylon, Nineveh, Jerusalem and the
Roman Empire. In the language of
the Bible, righteousness exalteth a
nation; but sin is a reprOach to any
people" A nation can only prosper
which deals righteously; but a cor
rupt nation must sooner or later per.
ish under the just indignation of
heaven. What an illustration We
have of this principle of blood atone
ment for national crime in the history
OF our own country. For many ga S
this nation enSlaved, robOed, oppressed
and outraged the negro, deprived him
OF his liberty and the fruit of his
labor. 1t was national crime. What
followed? This nation was plunged
into civil war. There was blood
atOnement. God forced US to atone
for our crimes and pay the debt in
full, dollar for dollar, blood for blood,
and life for life. History repeats
itself; but nations refuse to learn the
lesson and take warning. We as a
nation would do well to learn the les
son. For more than a century We
have had the opportunity to solve the
questions Of human liberty and ma
tional righteousness. But we have
not made the best use of our oppor-
tunities. All over this land the
working people are being robbed and
plundered of the fruit of their toll by
corporations and organized greed,
with the sanction of the government.
Now it is the Standard Oil Trust
that robs us Of fifty millions of dollars.
and then the Beef Trust plumbers US
of fifty millions more. Then these
public thieves and highway robbers
build churches, endow universities,
art galleries and public libraries with
which to appease the wrath of the
people, bride God, atone for their sins,
escape the damnation of hell, and win
heaven. The president of this great
republic sells US and our children into
bondage to England and rObS US of
freedom. Working men are denied
the right to live in comfort, and are
robbed of the fruit Of their toll by a
class Of men who do little or no work,
and this under the form of law. They
are compelled to work for less than