Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1897-07-03
PRAISE Fer THE BAR
A SERMON OF SPECIAL INTEREST TO
YOUNG LAWYERS

Ecv. Or. Tal.nagc Says If Ho Were on
Trial For His Life lie WonId Prefer n
Jury Of Lawyers to One OF Clergyman.
WASHINGTON, June 27. j Dr. Tai
IMAGES sermon today has special in
torest for lawyers, and all who expect
TO be lawyers, and all who are tho
fiendsof lawyers. F[is text is Titus iii,
l3, Bring zenas the lawyer u
The profession Of the law is here in.
troluced, and within two days in the
Capital City 303 young men joined it,
and ut this season i'll various parts of
the land other hundreds ire taking their
diplomas for that illustrious profession,
and is it not appropriate that address
such young men from Il moral and reli-
gious standpoint, rs upon them are now
rolling the responsibilities of that call
ing represented i'll the text by Zenas the
lawyer
We ~ admire the heroic and rigor-
Gus side CT Pauls nature, as when he
stands coolly deliberate OH the deck of
tie cornship while the jack tars Of the
Mediterranean are covering in the cy-
clone; as when he stands undaunted
amid Tie marbles of the palace before
thick nectcd Nero, surrounded with his
II cruel lictors; as whan we find him
earning his livelihood with his own
needle, sewing haircloth and preaching
the gospel III the interstices; lis when
we find him able to take the 80 lashes,
every stroke cf which fetched the blood,
vet continuing III his missionary work;
as when we find him, regardless of the
consequence to himself, delivering Il
tcmDerance lecture To Felix, the govern
nent ineEriate. But sometimes we
catch glimpse of tho mild and genial
side OF Paul's nature. 1t seems that he
bad Il friend who was barrister by
profession. His name was Zenas, and
he wanted TO see him. Perhaps lie had
formed the acquaintance of this lawyer
i'll the courtroom. Perhaps sometimes,
when nc wanted to asl; some question
in regard TO Roman law, he went to
this Zenas the lawyer At any rate, he
had warm attachment for the man,
ard he provides for his comfortable cs-
cort and entertainment M lie writes to
Titus, Bring zenas the lawyer. y
This man Of my text belonged to a
profession i'll which are many ardent
supporters Of Christ and the gospel,
amonc them Blackstone, the great
commentator Oh English law, and Will
berforce, the emancipation, and the late
Beniamin L. Butler, attorney general
of New York, and the late Charles
Chauncey, the leader of the Philadel-
phia bar, and Chief Justices Marshall
ard Tenterden and Campbell and Sir
Thomas More who died for the truth
on the scalIold, saying to his aghast ex-
ccutioner: "Flrcll up courage, man,
and DO your duty. My neck is very
short. BE careful, therefore, and donot
strike awry.
T-inl OF Hastings.
.4moAc tic mightiest pleas that ever
have been made By tongue of barristel
have been pleas III behalf of the Bible
and Christianity, us when Daniel Web
ster stcod III the supreme court at Wash
ington pleading in the famous Girard
will case, denouncing any attempt to
educate the people without giving them
at the ealne time moral sentiment as
Glow. rihald and vulgar Geism and i'll
fidelity" rs when Samuel l.. Southland
of New Jersey, the leader of the forum
in his day, stood on the platform at
Princeton college commencement adyo-
eating the literary excellency OF the
Scriptures; as when Edmund Burke, III
the famous trial Of Warren Hastings, not
only in>behalf Of the English govern
ment, but in behalf Of elevated morals,
closed his speech i'll the midst of the
most august assomblage ever gathered
i'll Westminster hall by saying: II I'M
peach Warren Hastings in the name OF
the house of commcns, whose national
character he has diahcnored: l impeach
him IN the nan!c of tie people OF India,
whose rights and liEelties be has
subvertcd; I irpcach him il the name
of human nature, which he has dis
craccd. In the name Of 10th sexes and
of every rank, and of every station, and
of every situation i'll tho world, i'm
peach Warren Hastings
Yet, Notwithstanding all the pleas
which that profession has made in be-
half of Ccd and the church and the
gospel and the rights of man, there
has come dGwn through the generations
among nary people an absurd and
wicked lrojrdioe against it. So long
ago as i'll The t:me Of Oliver Cromwc].
it was decided that lawyers might not
enter the parliament house as members,
and they were called "scns Of Zeruiah. "
The leaned Dir. johnson wrote an cpl
taph fer cIc CT them in these words:
God works wonders row and then.
Here lies Il lawyer, an honest mani
Two hundred years ago a treatise
was issued with the title, "Dcomsday
Approaching With Thunder and Light
mig For Lawyers. u A prominent cler-
gyman OF tie last century wrote in re-
gard TO that profession these words
"Thcre is IL society Of men among u:
bred Up from their youth i'll the art OF
proving, according as they are paid, by
words multiplied for the purpose, that
white is black and black is white. Fcl
example: IF my nei2htor has mind
to my COW, he hines lawyer to prove
that he ought to have MY COW from me.
l must hike another lawyer to defend
my right, it l:eirg against all rules Of
law that man should speak for him
self. In pleading they do not dwell upon
the merits of the cause, but upon cir
cumstances foreign thereto. For in
stance, they Go not take the shortest
method to know what title my adyer-
gary has to my COW, bat whether the
COW be red or black, her horns long OF
short or the like. After that they ad,
iourn the cause from time to time, ano
in 30 years they come to an issue. This
society likewise has peculiar cant OF
iargon Of their own, i'll which all thei1
laws are written, and these they take
especial cara 80 multiply, whereby they
have so coufoun1ed truth and falsehoo6