The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1897-07-07

DR.. Tslmase's sermon Sunday had spe
cial interest for lawyers, anG all Whe eHPecs |
to be lawyers, and all who are the irienHS %
LAWYERS. His text was Titus III, -, 'brihs
Zenas the lawyer.
The profession OF the IaW Is mere !H'!o,
6uced, and within TWO days IN the Capltal
City sos young men joined it, ana at thlS
season in various parts OF the land osher
hundreds are taking their diplomas Tor that
illustrious profession. and is It not approprl-
ate that address such young men from
moral and religious standpoint, as upon
them are now rolling the responsibilities OF
that calling represented in the text by Zenas
the lawyer.
We all admire the heroic AID rigorous
side Of Paufs nature, as when he stands
coolly deliberate on the deck Of the corn
ship while the jack ters Of the MedIterran-
can are covering Pin the cyclone; as when ne
stands undaunted amid the marbles OF the
palace before thick necked Nero, surround
ed with his II cruel lictcrs: as when we IND
him earning his livelihood with his own nee
die, sewing haircloth and preaching the gos-
pei in the interstices; as when We find him
able to take the SO lashes. every stroke OF
which fetched the blood, yet continuing IN
his missionary work; as when We tlnd him,
regardless of the consequence to himself, oe-
iTerine temperance lecture to Felix, the
government inebriate But sometimes we
catch glimpse Of the mild and genial sioe
of Psuls nature. It seems that he had
friend 1Lo was a barrister by profession.
His name was ZensS, and he wanted TO see
him, Perhaps he had formed the acQuaint-
ance OF this lawyer in the courtroom Per
hsps sometimes when he wanted 10 ask some
Question in regard TO Roman law ne went to
this Zenas the lawyer. At any rate he had
warm sttschment for the man, and he pro-
vides for his comfortable escort and enter
tainnent as he writes 10 Titus, Bring Zenas
the lawyer.
This man of ny text belonged TO pro-
fession in which are many ardent supporters
of Christ and the gospel, among them Black
stone, the great commentator on English
law, and Wilberforce, the enancipator, and
the late Benjamin F. Butler, attorney gener-
al of New York, and the late Charles Cnaun-
cey, the leader of the Philadelphia bar, and
Chef Justices Marshall and Tenterden and
Campbell and Sir Thomas Moore, who died
for the truth on the scafold, saying to his
agbsst e1ecutioner: Pluck up courage,
man, and do your duty. My neck is very
short. Be careful, therefore, and do not
strike awry.'
Among the mightiest pleas that ever have
been l.cde By tongue of barrister have been
pless in beLalf Of the Bible and Christianity,
SIS when DAME, Webster stood in the supreme
court at Washington pleading in the famous
Girard will case denouncing any attempt 10
educate the people without giving them al
the same time moral sentiments as Glow, RI
bald and vulgar deism and infdelity; as
when Samuel L. Southland of New jersey,
the leader of the forum in his day, stood on
the platform at Princeton college commence
ment advocating the literary excelleney OF
the Scriptures; as when Edmund Burke, IN
the famous trial of Warren Hastings, not
only in behalf of the English government,
but in behalf of elevated morals, closed his
speech in the midst Of the most august as
semblage ever gathered in Westminster hall
by saying: 'sI inpesch Warren Hastings II
the name Of the house of commons, whose
national character he has dishonered; I'M
peach him in the name Of the people ef In
dis, whose rights and liberties he has sub
verted; impeach him in tue name Of human
nature, which he hes disgrsced. In the
name of both sexes, and Of every rank, and
of every station, and o. every situation IN
the world. I impeach Warren Hastings.
Yet, notwithstanding all the pleas which
that profession has made in behalf Of God,
and the church, and the gospel, and the
rights of maa, there has come down through
the generations among many people an sb-
surd and wicked prejudice against it. So
long sgo as in the time Of Oliver Cromwell
that lawyers might not enter the parliament
house as members, and they were called
sssons of Zeruirh." The learned DR.. john
son wrote an epitaph for one of them In
these words:
God works wonders now and then.
Here Les lawyer, an honest man
Two hundred years ago treatise was IS
sued with the title, :'Doomsday Approaching
With Thunder and Lightning For Lawyers.
a prominent clergyman of the last century
wrote in regard TO that profession these
words ''There is society Of men among
US bred up from their youth in the art OF
proving, according as they are paid, by
words multiplied for the purpose that white
Is black and black is white. For example,
if my naighbor has mind to my COW, he
hires q lawyer TO prove that he ough: to
have my cow from me. l must hire another
lawyer to defend my right, it being against
all rules of law that q man should speak for
himself IN pleading they do not dwell
upon the merits Of the cause, but upon cir
cumstsnces foreign thereto. For instance,
they do not take the shortest method TO
know what title my adversary has to my
COW, but whether the cow be red or black,
her horns long or short, or the ike. After
that they adjourn the cause from time TO
time and in 90 years they come TO an issue.
This society likewise has a peculiar cant or
iarso1 of their own, in which all their laws
are written, and these they take especial
care to multiply, whereby they have so con-
founded truth and falsehood that II will take
l2 years to decide whether the field left to
me nY my ancestors for six generations be-
longs t. me or to one 500 miles of.
say these things to show you that there
has been prejudice going On down against
that profession from generation to genera
ton. I account for it on the ground that
thew compel men TO pay debts that they do
not pay, and that they arraign criminals
who want to escape the consequences of their
crime, and as long as that is so, and it al
ways viii be so, just so long there will be
classes of men who will affect at any rate 10
despise the legal profession. ! know not
how it is in other countries, but have had
long and wide acquaintance with men Of that
profession-I have found them in all my
parishes, tarried in one Of their Offices for
three years, where there came real estate
lawyers, insurance lawyers, criminal law
years, marine lawyers-and have yet to
find class Of men more genial or more
straightforward. There are in that occupa-
ton, as in all our occupations, men utterly
Cd 4 I,,-, r--nr
on trial for my integrity or my life, and l
wanted even handed justice administered to
me, would rather have my case submitted
to q jury Of y lawyers than to a jury Of y
elergynen. The legal profession, believe,
has less violence Of prejudice than is to be
found in the sacred calling.