The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1897-01-29
A SERMON FOR THE TIMES.
Dir. Hawthorne talks About "ThrOW-
ing Stones From Glass Houses"
Great COmmerci al Wreckers, Who Com
bine Their Capital to Depress Mar
kets are Monumental Thieves.
From the Nashville Sun. |


would stand in some social center,
where Partisan ideas, sentiments
and fashions prevail, and say, Be-
hold yOnder houses of uncleanliness
and shame, and let him who is with
out sin cast the first stone at it, 1t
is humiliating to know that there
are men and women around us who
are too prudish to countenance the
erection of home, in their COM
munity, for the reformation of har-
lots, but whose sensibilities are not
disturbed by the sentiments and
customs which promote the growth
of harlotry and all of the attendant
denominations. Y .lNtE. +.
''It these Pharisees had gone out
and caught thief-caught him in
the very act of stealing some mans
property-and brought him to Jesus,
saying, Master, here is q thief whom
we caught in the act of taking
another mans property, what shall
be done with him?' L imagine that
he would have made the same reply
that he gave them in the case of the
unclean woman, Let him that is
without sin cast the first stone at
him.
IF we apply the law, Thou shalt
not steal, rs interpreted by Christ
and his apostles, how few men
among us could honestly say, Il have
never violated that commandment.
When Paul eXhorts the Romans to
be honest in the sight of God and
men, he is simply interpreting and
enforcing the old law, which said,
Thou shalt not steal
In the New Testament honesty
means honorable, but in the ethical
code of modern business circles ii
means simply conformity to the let
ter of bargain. To be honest in
the truest and noblest sense is to be
true to the largest spirit of social
duty. The honest man regards an
unwritten obligation as just as
sacred and binding as the one that
is written, signed, sealed and de.
livered. He is just as careful to pay
a debt of 10 cents as one of thous-
and dollars.
II have a tract of land on which
my neighbOr discovers a rich vein Of
gold. Knowing me to be- ignorant
of the real value of the property, he
makes me an offer for it, which ]
accept. For thousand dollars he
gets from me something which he
knows to be worth hundred thous
and dollars. In this transaction
while he violates no law of the State
he transgresses the divine code
which says, Thou shalt not steal
and provide things honest in the
sight of God Under the laws o
the State he is not chargeable will
theft. But according to the law o
God, as understood and accepted by
honest men, he is not less a THE
than those who run away with the
contents of bank vault.
A man makes piece of counter
: felt money and buys something will
it, or he signs the name of SOM
) merchant to a note which he after
, ward gets discounted in bank. |
> that man thief? Yes. What is /
that makes him a thief in the eye
2 of the law? 1t is the fact that n
got another mans property wlthou
paying anything for it. Apply tn
same principal to other transaction
anu Nbu viii COuNlCb JHONS''"N'S
men whom no court has ever IN
dicted. According to this principl
. every gambler is a thief; every selle
of fraudulent goods is a thief; ever
corporation that gives a fictlclou
value to its stock is cOmbinatlo
of thieves. The great commercial
wreckers who combine their capita
to depress markets and to get othe
I mems property for half its value ar
} monumental thieves. Every torl
i of deception by which men get tn
4 advantage of each other in bushes
g is theft. The most persistent an
remorseless thieves are not in tn
J, convict camp, but in mansions
e where they are clothed in purpl
n and fare sumptuously every day.
: all the men who have dealt fradu
1 lently with their fellow men wer
S put into the chain gang tomorrow
5 it would make gaps in commercial
5 political and religious circles to
Il fearful to contemplate. 1t woul
n wipe out Wall street. 1t would al
: nihilale the grain and whisky ring
1t would shut up half of the broker
age offices and suspend more tina
" half of the water-wOrks cOmpanie
j. 1t would cancel IA majority of stree
$ paving contracts, utterly disOrganiz
d the plumbing business, thin tn
n ranks of the real estate agent
II paralyZe gas-light companies, an
/ so reduce the representation in Coz
a gress that no quorum could be oil
: tanned until after the next election
# So an application of the moral la
= would empty many a church pc
IS and remove from his sacred otiiC
l. many man who is attempting {
h perform the solemn functions of I'll
z. Christian ministry.
"When we look upon a man COZ
victed of embeZzlement or forger
and about to be confined to felon
80 cell, we cannot afford to spurn hi
!. and anathemize him because h
Il crime is the product of influence
e which pervade the commerce.
q. world, and for which every one of |
!. is in some degree responsible. Trie
= by Gods standard of honesty, whic
3, regards what is in the heart as we
d as what appears in the life, tn;
q man is not more criminal tina
n thousands who stand high comme
cially, socially and religiously.