The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1897-07-08
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
discourse to Young Men About to.
Embrace the Law.
The Lawyer AS q Christian-His Relation
to His Clients-Forms of Tempta-
ton to Which He Is Is
p~ecially Subject.

Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage addresses
the following discourse especially to
Young men who expect to adopt the
law as a profession and to all who are
friends of lawyers. 1t is based on the
text:
Bring zenas, the lawyer. i'll. IL
The profession of the law is here in
troluced, and within two days in the
capital city 303 young men joined it,
and at this season in various parts Of
the land other hundreds are taking
their diplomas for that illustrious pro-
f%ession, and is it not appropriate that |
address such young men from a 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 and rigor-
Gus side of Paul's nature, as when he
stands coolly deliberate on the deck of
the corn ship while the jack tars of
the Mediterranean are covering in the
cyclone; as when he stands ~undaunted
amid the marbles Of the palace, before
thick-necked Nero, surrounded with
his 10 cruel ~lictors; as when we find
him earning his livelihood with his
needle, sewing h%aircloth, and
preaching the Gospel in the interstices;
as when we find him able to take the
80 lashes, every stroke of which fetched
the blood, yet continuing in his
missionary work, as when we
find him, regardless of the con-
sequence to himself, delivering
a temperance lecture to Felix, the
government inebriate. But some
times we catch a glimpse of the mild
and genial side of Paul's nature. 1t
seems that he had a friend who was Il
barrister by profession. His name was
Zenas, and he wanted to see him. Per-
haps he had formed the acquaintance
of this lawyer IN the courtroom. Per
haps, sometimes, when he wanteui to
ask some question in regard to Roman
law he went to this Zenas, the lawyer.
at any rate, he had a warm attach
ment for the man, and he provides for
his comfortable escort and entertain
ment as he writes to Titus: Bring
Zenas, the lawyer"
This man of my text belonged to a
profession in which are many ardent
supporters of Christ and the Gospel.
Among them Blackstone, the great
commentator on English law; and Will
berforce, the emancipation; and the late
benjamin Il. Butler, attorney general
of New York; and the late Charles
Chauncey. the leader of the Philadel-
phia bar; and Chief Justices Marshall
and Tenterden and Campbell, and Sir
Thomas More, who died for the truth
on the scatfold, saying to his aghast
executioner: ''Pluck up courage, man,
and do your duty; my neck is very
short. be careful, therefore, and do no
strike awry.'
Among the mightiest pleas that ever
have been made by tongue of BARNS
ter have been pleas in behalf OF the
Bible and Christianity-as when Dan
iel Webster stood in the supreme court
at Washington, pleading in the famous
Girard will case, ~denouncing any at
tempt to educate the people without
giving them at the same time moral
sentiment, as low, ribald and vulgar
deism and intidelity' as when Samuel
l.. Southland, of New Jersey, the leader
of the forum in his day, stood on the
platform at Princeton commence
ment, advocating the literary ex-
cellency of the Scriptures; as when
Edmund Burke, in the famous trial Of
Warren Hastings, not only in behalf
of the English government, but in be-
half of elevated morals, closed his
speech in the midst of the most august
assemblage ever gathered in Westmin-
ster hall by saying: Il impeach War
rem Hastings in the lame of the house
of commons, whose national character
he has dishored; | impeach him in the
name of the people of India, whose
rights and liberties he has subverted;
/ ilnpeach him in the name of human
nature, which he has disgraced; in the
name of both sexes, and of every rank,
and of every station, and of every stu
alton in the world, l impeach Warren
Hastings" "
Yet, Notwithstanding all the pleas
which that profession has made in be-
half of God, and the church, and the
Gospel, and the rights of man, there
has come down through the genera
tons among many people an absurd
and wicked prejudice against it. So
long ago as in the time of Oliver Crom-
well, it wasdecided that lawyers might
not enter the parliament house as
members, and they were called Sons
of Zeruiah." The learned DR.. John
son wrote an epitaph for one of them
in these words:
God works wonders now and then,
Here lies a lawyer, an honest man.
Two hundred years ago a treatise
was issued with the title, "Doomsday
Approaching with Thunder and Light
ming for Lawyers A prominent
clergyman Of the last century wrote in
regard to that profession these words:
There is a 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 neighbor has a mind
to my COW, he hires a lawyer to prove
that he ought to have my COW from
me. Unjust hire another lawyer to de-
fend my right,it being against all rules
oflaw that a man should speak for him
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