The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-06-28

the supreme court room Of the United
! Statse. on to the anniversary platform of
! the American Sunday School Union. its
| most powerful orator-deserves congratu-
| lation and encomum. o, men of the legal
! profession, let me beg of you to quit ask
| ing questions in regard to religion, and be-
| gin believing. The mighty men of your
| profession, Story and Kent and Mans
| field became Christians, not through their
heads, but through their hearts. Except
! We become as a little child We shall in no
wise enter the kingdom of God" If you
do not become a Christian, o man, of the
legal profession. until you can reason this
whole thing out in regard 10 God, and
Christ and the Immortality of the soul,
you will never become a Christian at all
Only believe. Bring Zenas the lawyer"
Another mighty temptation for the legal
profession is Sabbath breaking The
trial has been going on for ten or fifteen
days The evidence is all IN. 1t is Saturday
night. The judges gavel falls on the desk,
and he says: "Crier, adjourn the court
until 10 o'clock Monday morning." on
Monday morning the counsellor is to sum
up the case. Thousands of dollars, yea, the
reputation and life of his client may de-
pend upon the success of his plea. How
will he spend the intervening Sunday?
There is not one lawyer out of hundred
that can withstand the temptation to
break the Lords day under such circum-
stances. And yet, If he does. he hurts his
own soul What, my brother you cannot
do before y O'Clock Saturday night, or af-
ter y o'clock Sunday night, God does not
want you to do at all Besides that, you
want the twenty-four hours of Sabbath
rest to give you that electrical and mag
neuc force which will be worth more to
you before the jury than all the elabora-
ton of your case on the sacred day. My
intimate and lamented friend the late
Judge Nelson, in his interesting reminis-
cences of Rufus Choate, says that during
the last case that gentleman tried in New
York, the court adjourned from Friday
until Monday on account of the illness
of Mr.. Choate; but the chronicler says
that on the intervening Sabbath he saw
Mr.. Choate in the old Brick Church" lis
tening to the Rev. DR.. Gardiner Spring 1
do not know whether on the following day
Rufus Choate won his cause or lost 1T; but
! do know that his Sabbatie rest did not do
him any harm. Every lawyer is entitled
to one days rest out of seven. If he sur
renders that, he robs three-God, his own
soul. and his client. Lord Castle
reagh and Sir Thomas Rom
lily were the leaders of the bar in
their day. They both died suicides.
Wilberforce accounts for, their alteration
of intellect on the ground that they were
unintermittent in their work, and they
never rested on Sunday. Poor fellow!'
said Wilberforce in regard to Castlereagh,
Poor fellow! it was non-obServance of
the Sabbath" Chief Justice Hale says:
when do not properly keep the Lords
day, all the rest of the week is unhappy
and unsuccessful in my worldly employ
ment." l quote to-day from the highest
Statute Book in the universe: "Remem-
Der the Sabbath day to keep it holy"
The legal gentleman who breaks that
statute may seem for a. while to be adj
vantaged but in the long run, the men
who observe this law of God will have
larger retainers, vaster influence, greater
professional success than those men who
break the statute. Observance of the law
of God pays not only spiritually and eter-
nally, but it pays in hard dollars, or bank
bills.
Another powerful temptation of the le-
gal profession is to aI%icifial stimulus. No
one except those who have addressed au-
diences knows about the nervous exhaus-
ton that sometimes comes afterward. The
temptation to strong drink approaches the
legal profession at that very point. Then,
a trial is coming on. Through the i'll
ventilated court room. the barrister's
health has been depressed for days and
for weeks. He wants to rally his energy.
He is tempted to resort to artificial stimu-
lus. 1t is either to get himself up, or let
himself down, that this temptation comes
upon him. The flower of the American
bar, ruined in reputation and ruined in
estate, Sdlu IN MS last moments. ms 10
the end. l am dying on a borrowed bed,
covered with a borrowed sheet, in house
built by public charity. Bury me under
that tree in the middle of the field, that l
may not be crowded; l always have been
crowded"
Another powerful temptation of the
legal profession is to allow the absorbing
duties of the profession to shut out
thoughts of the great future. You know
very well that you who have so often tried
others, will after awhile be put on trial
yourselves. Death will serve on you
writ of ejectment, and you will be put off
these earthly premises On that day, all
the affairs of your life will be presented in
bill of particulars" No certiorari
from higher court, for this is the highest
court. The day when Lord Exeter was
| tried for high treason; the day when the
| House of Commons moved for the inn
parchment of Lord Lovat; the days when
| Charles / and Queen Caroline We're put
! upon trial; the day when Robert Emmett
was arraigned as an insurgent; the day
| when Blennerhasset was brought into the
courtroom because he had tried to over
| throw the United States government, and
| all the other great trials of the world are
| nothing compared with the great trial in
| which you and l shall appear summoned
| before the Judge of quick and dead. There
! Will be no pleading there 1.-THE statute of
| limitations" no turning states evil
! dence,' trying to get off ourselves, while
others suffer; no moving for a nonsuit"
| The case viii come on ineXorably, and we
shall be tried. You, my brother. who
have 50 often been advocate for others, will
/ then need an advocate for yourself
! Have you selected him? The Lord Chan
eellor of the Universe. II any man sin
we have an Advocate-Jesus Christ the
| righteous. IL Is uncertain when your case
viii be called on. BE We also ready"
Lord Ashburton and Mr. Wallace were
| leading barristers in their day. They died
! about the same time. A few months before
their decease they happened to be in the
/ same hotel In village, the one counsel CO.
! ing TO Devonshire, the other going to Lon
| don. They had both been seized upon by
a disease which they knew would be IA
tai. and they requested that they be car
ried into the same room and laid down
| on sofas side by side, that they might talk
| over old times and talk over the future.
| So they were carried In, and lying there
on opposite sofas. they talked over their
| old contests az the bar and then they
| talked of the future world upon which
| they must soon enter. IL was said 10 have