The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-09-07
TEACHING POINTS.

INTRoDUCTIoN.-Blood revenge was prevail
ent custom before the day Of Moses. Moses was
compelled. in Difference to the tribal division of
the Hebrews, to continue the custom of blood
revenge; but he provided that the evils attend
ing 1t should be as much as possible reduced.
I'm scarcely anything was Moses a truer pro-
phet than in providing that the one who is
charged with crime should be held to be inno-
cent until he was proved guilty.
~ The Appointment of the Cities of Refuge.
The blood aveDger was the appointed execu-
toner of the manslayer. and the cities of refuge
were the appointed defence from the undue
vengeance of the avenger of blood.--It was an
excellent thing In Moses to make men In de-
gree responsible for carelessness. as well as for
deliberate evil choices.--While these words
are being penned hammer-sounds come to the
ears of the writer from six-story building In
process Of erection near by. From the roof OF
that building. by the giving way of the staging,
a man yesterday fell and was instantly killed.
Whose the fault? Had the overseer been will
fully negligent, or had he been carelessly negli-
gent? Or was it the workman's own fault? Per
tinent questions In every such case.-Had this
casualty occurred during the dominance OF
blood revenge, the contractor or the overseer
would be at once assumed to be guilty of muir
der, and the avenger would be in honor-b0und
to take his life. And then the avengers life
must be taken by the nearest-of-kin to the man
thus wrongfully killed Then that manslayer's
life must be taken So each avenger by the
sword would successfully perish by the sword.
We have read that on the island of Corsica,
where the law of blood revenge still holds sway,
four hundred people annually die at the hand of
the private avenger.--Why are not cities of
refuge needed In the United States? Because.
in effect they already exist everywhere. Every
policeman is the incarnation of the principle I'M
derlying the old cities Of refuge.
(2.) Vac. The Law Governing the Cities of
Refuge. The refugee, on his arrival. shall be
promptly admitted. The pursuing avenger shall
stay without. The manslayer shall tell his own
story to the judges at the gate. He shall have
power to summon his neighbors for witnesses;
and his condemners shall also be heard. If he
IS proved a murderer, the avenger. through the
authorities to which he is at his home amenable.
shall be made his executioner. If he is found
innocent. or guilty only of carelessness, he shall
remain in the security of the city of refuge he
has sought, and shall have livelihood provided
for him until the death of the high priest who is
living at the time, then he shall go forth a free
man, with the shield Of the law upon him.
(3) v. 10, The Naming of the Cities of Re-
fuge. Kedesh and Shechem and Hebron on the
west side Of the Jordan. Bezer and Ramoth and
Gilead on the east side. were the cities named
by Moses and Joshua.-Some of these cities
are in ruins; some have become SO completely
obliterated that their sites even cannot now be
certainly determined. -But the principle un-
derying the six old cities of refuge is imperisha
ble.-The author of the Letter to the Hebrews
(6:lS) speaks of Christ and his revelation of i'm
mortality for the Christian as kindred to the old
cities Of refuge. He and his fellow believers,
hard beset in an unfriendy world, were as those
who have fed for refuge; but their refuge is
not in any visible cty-iti rather, as the epistle
writer says, in the hope set before us; the hope
which, he says. anchors the heart in this stormy
world.--Christ is more completely refuge for
US than the cities of refuge were for the Jewstf
old. He is the refuge from actual proved guilt:
that is. the Father of whom Jesus teaches us,
while just to punish sins, is also mercifu to for
give the sins which are cast out by true repent
ance. Christ. like the cities of old, is an AP-
POINTED refuge; a SECURE refuge; LASTING
refuge; an ACCESSIBLE refuge; an UNIVERSAL
refuge-f0r Moses, we recall, made all strangers
beneficiaries of the cities of refuge of DID,
There were of old, let us be reminded. cities of
refuge on both sides of the river Jordan. So
the Divine Mercy will be refuge from sin on
both sides of the Jordan of death,