Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1897-03-26


on him only Nv armsi constAhles Who
would volunteer 20 BE- his cpunsrE No
attorney wanted 20 sarriler his popularity
by such an Hnsr3teful ta-s. All were silent
save oue-a young lawyer with feeble voice
that could hardly be- heard outside the har,
pale and thin and awkward IL was William
H. seward. who saw that the prisoner was
id.Otic and irresponsible and ought 10 be lut
ia an asylum rather than put 20 death,
the heroic c3unse. uttcrIng these beautiful
words:
Il speak row in the hearing Of a people
who have prejudgai prisoner AMI con-
denled me for pleading ia his hahalL He
Is aconvlc', paupsr. nero, without INTEL
leci, sense or emotion. Ny child with an
aii-ctionate smile dis1rms my clrewOrn faHe
0f its trown whenever | cross my threshold.
The begsar in the stree, oblices me 20 give
because he says, God bess You" rs | p1-S
NJ dog caresseS me- with fOndneSs IL will
but smile on him. Ny horse recognizes me-
waeu flil his mauger. What rev ri. what
gTl.itude, what sympathy and atfe,-
tiol can | expect here? There the pris-
ouer sits. Look at him. Look at the assem-
baga around you. Listen 10 their i'll sup
p-ass "a ceusures ani their excited fears AMI
tell mo where among nv neighbOrs or my
fellow men. where even in his heart eau
expect to fluid Il sentiment. thought, not to
say OF reward or OF acknowledgment, or
even OF recognitiong Gentlemen. you may
think of this evidence what YOU please,
bring in what verdict You can. hut l assav-
crate before heaven and you that. TO the
best Of my knowledge AMI belief. the prls-
oner at the bar does not ut this moment
know why it is that my shadow falls on you
instead OF his own
The galiOws got its victim. but the post
mortem examination OF the poor creature
showed to all the surgeons and 10 all the
world that the public was wrong, that Will
lam II. Seward was right and that hard,
stony step OF obiOquy in the Auburn court
room was the iirst step OF the stairs OF fame
up which he went to the top, or to within
one step of the top. that last denied him
through ths trea.hery of American politics.
Nothing sublimer was ever seen in an Amer
lean courtroom than William II. Seward,
without reward, standing between the fury
OF the populace and the loathsone imbecile.
SubstitutioC
In the realm OF the foe arts there was as
remarkable an instance. brilliant but
unprecedented painter, Joseph William
Turner, was met by volley of abuse from
all the art galleries OF Europe. His PAINT
ingS which have since won the applause of
all civilized na,ions-"rhe Fifth Plague Of
Egypt" FISHERMEN on Les Shore In
Squally Weather, "Calais Pier" ''The Sun
Rising Through Mist" AM "Dido Building
Carthage were then targets for critics
to shoot at In defense of this out
raceously abuse man a young author OF
twenty-lour years, Just one wear out OF
college. came forth with his pen an
wrote the abest aud most famous essays
on art that the world ever saw or ever
will see-John Ruskin's Modern Pain
ters." For seventeen years this author
fought the battles of the maltreatei artist,
and after, in poverty and broken hearted
ness. the painter had died and the public
tried to undo their crueltles toward him by
giving him big funeral ana burial in st.
Pauis cath Adral. his oll-time friend took
out OF tin box 1900 pieces of paper con-
taiainc drawings by the Old painter. and
through many weary and uncompensated
months assorted and arranged them for pub.
liz observation. People say John Ruskin
in his old days Is cross. mlsalthropic and
morbid. Whatever he may do that he ought
not to do. aud whatever he may say that he
ought not TO say between now and his death
he will leave this world insolveut as far as
1t has any capacity to pay this authors pen
for its chivalrc and Christian defense OF a
poor painters pencil. John Ruskin for Will
lam Turner Blood for blood. Substitution,
What an eXiltng principle this which
leads one to suffer for ancther Nothing SO
kindle5 enthusiasm or awaEcns elOuuencr,
or chimes poetic cauto or moves nations
The principle is the dominant one in our re-
hgiOn-Christ the martyr, Christ the celes-
ttnl hero. Christ the defender, Christ the sub.
stitute. No new principle, for it was as old
rs human nature, but now on grander,
wider. higher deeper and more wOrld-re-
sounding scale. The shepherd boy as n
champion for Israel, with u sling toppled
the giant of Phtltstlne bragcadocio in the
dust, but here is another David who, for all
the armies OF churches militant and triumph
ant, hurls the Goliath of perditiOn into de-
feat, the crash of His bragen armor like an
explosion at He'll Gate. Abraham had nj
Gods command agreed TO sacrifice his son
Isaac. and The same God just in time had
provided a ram OF the thicket as a substitute
But here is another Isaac bound 10 the altar.
and no hand arrests the sharp edges Of LAGER
alton and death, and the universe shivers
and quakes and recOils and grOuus at the
horror.
All good men have for centuries been trv-
Ing to tell whom this substitute WAS Ike,
and every comparison, inspired AMI uuin-
sptrei, evaugelistic, prophetic, apostolic aul
human falls short, for Christ was the Great
Unlike. Adam type Of Christ, because re
came directly from God; Noah a type OF
Christ, because he delivere his own family
from the deluGe; Mechsedeca type of Christ,
because he had no pre- iecessor or successor;
Joseph n type of Christ. because he was
cast out by his brethren: Moses q type OF
Christ because he was deliverer from bond
age; Samson type OF Christ, because of his
strength to Stay the lions ana carry off the
iron gates OF imposSibiIity; solomon a type
OF Christ in the aflluence Of his dominion;
Jonah type of Christ, because OF the stormy
sea in which he threw himself for the rescue
OF others. But put together Adam and Noah
and Melchisedec and Joseph and Moses an
Joshua and Samson and Solomon and Jonah,
and they would not make fragment of
Christ, a quarter of o Christ, the half OF a
| Christ or the millionth part of Christ.
He forsook a throne and sat down on His
own foOtstOol. He came from the top of
glory to the bottom OF humiliation and
changed circumference seraphic for a
circumference dtabolic. Once waited on by
angels, now Kissed at by the brigands.
From afar and high up He came down. past
meteors swifter than they; by starry thrones,
Himself mers lustrous; past larger worlds to
smaller worlds; down stairs of ornaments,
and from cloud to cloud and through tree
tops and into the camels STALL to thrust His
shoulder under our burdens and take the
lances OF pain through His vitals, and
wrapped Himselfin all the agonies which we
deserve for our misdOings and stood on the
splitting decks of Il laundering vessel amid
the drenching surf of the sea and passed.
midnights on the mountains amid wild
beasts OF prey and stood Mt the point where
all earthly and Internal hostilities charged
on Him at once with their keen sabres--our
Substitute!
When did attorney ever endure so much
for pauper client or physician for the pa
tient in the lazaretto or mother for the child
in membranous Group, as Christ for u.s. as
Christ for you, as Christ for me? Shall any
man or woman or child i'll this audience who
has ever suffered for another find it hard to
understand this Christly suffering for us2
Shall those whose sYmpathies have been
wrung in behalf Of the unfortunate have no
appreciation of that one moment which was
lifted out of all the ages Of eternity as most
conspicuous, when Christ gathered up all
the sins of those to be redeemed under His