Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1897-07-02
PRAISE FOR THE BAR
A SERMON OF SPECIAL INTEREST TO
YOUNG LAWYERS.

! MASHlN6ION, June ~. - Dr. 1dl-
mages sermon today has a special in
terest for lawyers, and all who expect
to be lawyers, and all who are the
| friends Of lawyers. His text is Titus iii,
13, Bring Zenas the lawyer"
The profession Of the law is here in
troduced, 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 profession,
and is it not appropriate that l address
such young men from a moral and reli-
gious standpoint, as upon them are now
rolling the responsibilities of that call
ing represented in the text by Zenas the
lawyer?
We all admire the heroic and rigor-
ous side of Paul's nature, as when he
stands coolly deliberate on the deck of
the cornship while the jack tars of the
Mediterranean are covering in the cy-
clone as when he stands undaunted
amid the marbles Of the palace before
thick necked Nero, surrounded with his
~ cruel lictors; as when we find him
earning his livelihood with his own
needle, sewing haircloth 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
consequence TO himself, delivering
temperance lecture to Felix, the govern
ment inebriate. But sometimes we
catch a glimpse Of the mild and genial
side of Paul's nature. 1t seems that he
had a friend who was barrister by
profession. His rame was Zenas, and
he wanted TO see him. Perhaps he had
formed the acquaintance Of this lawyer
in the courtroom. Perhaps sometimes,
when he wanted to ask some question
in regard to Roman law, be went to
this Zenas the lawyer At any rate, he
bad a warm attachment for the man,
and be provides for his comfortable es-
cort and entertainment 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 Oh English law, and Viii
berforce, the emancipator, and the late
Benjamin I. Butler, attorney general
Of New York, and the late Charles
Chaunccy. 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 sca1old. saying to his aghast ex-
ecutioner: PLUCK up courage, man,
and do your duty. Ny neck is very
short. Be careful, therefore, and do not
strike awry."
Trial Of Hastings.
Among the mightiest pleas that ever
have been made by tongue Of barrister
have been pleas in behalf Of the Bible
and Christianity, as when Daniel Web
ster stood in 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 same time moral sentiment as
Glow, ribald and vulgar deism and in
fidelity" az when Samuel l.. Southard
Of New jersey, the leader Of the forum
in his day, stood on the platform at
Princeton college commencement adyo-
eating the literary exccllency Of the
Scriptures; as when Edmund Burke, IN
the famous trial Of Warren Hastings, not
only in behalf Of the English govern
ment, but in behalf Of elevated morals,
closed his speech in the midst Of the
most august assemblage ever gathered
in Westminster hall by saying: Il i'm
peach Warren Hastings IN the name OF
the house Of commons, whose national
character he has dishonored; l impeach
him in the name of the people Of India,
whose rights and liberties he has
subverted; l impeach him in the name
of human nature, which he has dis
praced. In the name Of both sexes, and
of every rank, and of every station, and
of every situation in the world, i'm
peach 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 generations
among many people an absurd and
wicked prejudice against 1t. so long
ago as i'm the time of Oliver Cromwell
it was decided that lawyers might not
enter the parliament house as members,
and they were called "sons Of Zeruiah.
The learned DR.. johnson wrote an epi-
taph for one of them in these words:
God works wonders now and then.
Here lies a lawyer, an honest mani
Two hundred years ago a treatise
was issued with the title, "Doomsday
Approaching With Thunder and Light
ming For Lawyers. A prominent cler-
gyman Of the last century wrote in re-
gard to that profession these words:
"There is n 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: II my neighbor has mind
TO my cow, he hires lawyer to prove
that he ought to have my COW from me.
| must hire another lawyer TO defend
nv right. it being 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 do not take the shortest
method to know what title my adver-
sary has to my cow, hut whether the
COW be red OF black, her horns long or
short or the like. After that they ad-
iourn the cause from time to time, and
in 20 years they come to an issue. This
society likewise has peculiar cant or
iargon of their own, in which all their
laws are written, and these they take
especial care to multiply, whereby they
have so COMPOUNDED truth and falsehood
that it will take IL years to decide
whether the field left to me by my an
cestors for six generations belongs to
me or to one 800 miles off. "