Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1897-07-14
REV. DR.. TALMAGE
Tho R9ineat 0lvsno,s S~nlnv
.01neouoA.

- 09toooe 0eV100fO 30DInv
.011eoOo0.
He Praises Lawyers. nnd Declares That q
he Were On Trial For His Life H
Would Prefer q Jury OF Barrister,
Rather Than One Of Clergymen.
TEXT: Bring Zenas the lawyer" Titu.
ill.,, 13.
The profession of the law is here intro
duced. and within two days In the Capital
City BOB young men Joined it, and at this
season In various parts of the land otheI
hundreds are taking their diplomas for ths,
iliustrious profession, and is 1t not appro-
pirate 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 lawYS-?
We all admire the heroic and rigorous
side OF Paufs nature, as when he stands
;oOlly deliberate on the deck Of the corn
ship while the jack tars of the Mediter-
ranean are covering In the cyclone; as
when he stands undaunted amid the
marbles of the palace before thick necked
Nero, surrounded with his twelve cruel
ictors; as when We find him earning his
livelihood with his own needle, sewing
laircloth and preaching the gospel in the
!nterstices; as when we find him able to
lake the thirty mine lashes every stroke of
which fetched the blood, yet continuing in
MS missiOn!Sy work; as when we find him
.egardless Of the consequence to himself.
delivering a temperance lecture to Feliz,
:he Government inebriate. But sometimes
We catch s. glimpse of the mild and genial
side of Paul's nature. 1t seems that he had
friend who was barrister by profession.
His name was Zenas, and he wanted to see
him. Perhaps he had formed the acauaint-
ince of this lawyer in the courtroom. Per-
haps sometimes, when he wanted to ask
some question In regard to Roman law, he
went to this Zenas the lawyer. At any rate,
he had warm attachment for the man,
and he provides for his comfortable escort
and entertainment as he writes to Titus
Bring Zenas the lawyer"
This man of my text belonged to a pro-
fession in which are many ardent suppor-
ters OF Christ and the gospel, among them
blackstone, the great commentator on Eng
lish law, and Wilberforce, the emancipator,
and the late Benjamin F. Butler, attorney
general Of New York, and the late Charles
Chauncey, the leader Of the Philadelphia
bar, and Chief Justices Marshall and Ten
terden and Campbell and Sir Thomas More.
who died for the truth on the scaffold, say
ing to his aghast executioner: 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 made by tongue OF barrister
have been pleas in behalf of the Bible and
Christianity, as when Daniel Webster stood
In the Supreme Court at Washington plead
ng in the famous Girard will case, de-
bouncing any attempt to educate the peO-
pie without giving them at the same time
moral sentiment as low, ribald and vulgar
1eism and infidelity;" as when Samuel L.
Southard, of New Jersey, the leader of the
.orum in his day. stood on the platform at
Princeton m a I'D =
ing the literary excellency Of the Scrip
:ures; as when Edmund Burke, in the fam
ous trial of Warren Hastings, not only in
behalf of the English government, but In
behalf Of elevated morals, closed his speech
ia the midst of the most august assemblage
ever gathered in Westminster hall by say
ing: Il impeach Warren Hastings In the
name of the House of Commons, whose
national character he has dishonored; l
mpeach him in the name Ct the people of
India, whose rights and liberties he has
,ubverted; 1 impeach him in the name Of
human nature, which he has disgraced.
In the name Of both sexes, and Of every
situation in the world, 1 impeach Warren
Hastings
Yet, notwithstanding all the pleas which
hat profession has made in behalf Of God
and the church and the gospel and the
tights of man, there has come down
the kcutTbtlOuS among many DeO-
pie an absurd and wicked prejudice against
t. So long ago as in the time of Oliver
Cromwell 1t 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 epitaph
Tor one Of them in these words:
God works wonders now and then.
Here lies lawyer, an honest man!
Two huud rod y-ars 400 N fraof;S. ,,,a a.
sued with the title, I'D oomsday Approach
ing With Thunder and Lightning for Law
yers. A prominent clergyman of the last
century wrote in regard to that profession
these words: There is among US a society Of
men bred up from their youth in the art of
words multiplied for the purpose, that
white is black and black Is white. For ex-
ample: If my neighbOr has q mind to my
cow, he hires Il lawyer to prove that
he ought to have my COW from me. / must
hire another lawyer to defend my right, it
being against all rules of law that a man
should speak for himself. In pleading they
10 not dwell upon the merits of the cause,
but upon circumstances, foreign thereto.
For instance, they do not take the shortest
methods 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
like. After that they adjourn the cause
come to an issue. This society likewise has
peculiar cant or jargon of their own, In
which all their laws are written, and these
they take especial care to multiply where
by they have 50 cOnfOunded truth and false
hood that it will take twelve years to decide
whether the field left to me by my ances-
tors for six generations belongs to me or to
one 300 miles off,
L say these things to show you that there
has been prejudice going on down against
that profession from generation to genera
ton. | account for 1t on the ground that
they compel men to pay debts that they dc
not want to pay, and that they arrHign
criminals who want to escape the cOnse-
luences Of their crime and as long as that
Is so, and it always will be so, just so long
there will be classes of men who will affect
1t any rate to despise the legal profession
| know not how it Is in other countries but
[ have had long and wide acquaintance
with men of that profession. l have found
them in all my parishes. l tarried in one
Of their Offices for three years where there
came real estate lawyers, insurance lawyers
criminal lawyers, marine lawyers, and
have yet to find "a class of men more genial
0r more straightforward. There are in that
ocupation, as in all our occupations, meI
Utterly obnoxious to God and man, but IL
were on trial for my integrity or my life and
l wanted even handed justice administered
to me would rather have my case submit
ted to a jury of twelve lawyers than to g
jury of twelve clergymen. The legal pro
fession, believe, has less violence of preju
dice than is to be found in the sacred call
ing.
There is, however, no man who has more
temptations or graver responsibilities than
the barrister, and he who attempts to dis
charge the duties of his position with only
earthly resources is making a very grea
mistake. Witness the scores Of men wh(
have in that profession made eternal ship
wreck. Witness the men who, with tn,
law of the land under their arm, have VIC
lated every statute of the eternal God
Witness the men who have argued placidly
before earthly tribunals, who shall shive
is dismay before the Judge of quick ant
dead. Witness Lord Thuriow announcing
his loyalty to earthly government in tn
sentence, "IfI forget my earthly sovereign
may God forget mel" and yet STOPPING t.
unaccountabIe meannesses. Witness Lor
Coke, the learned and the reckless. Wit
ness Sir George Mackenzie, the execrate
of all Scotch Covenanters, so that until thi
day. in Gray Friars' churchyard, Edin
burgh, the children whistle through th
bars OF the tomb, crying:
Rloody Mackenzie, come out = you dat