The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1897-04-07

ing wrath Of the community could be KEEP
off him only by armed constables- Who
= would volunteer 70 be his counsel? Nc
attorney wanted to sacrifice his popularity
by such an ungrateful task. All were silent
save one-a young lawyer with feeble voice
that could hardly be heard outside the bar
pale and thin and awkward. 1t was William
b. Seward. who saw that the prisoner WAS
idotic and irresponsible and ought to be put
in an asylum rather than put to death.
the heroic counsel uttering these beautiful
words:
II speak now in the hearing OF people
who have prejudged prisoner and con-
demned me for pleading in his behalf. he
Is convict. pau ner, a negro, without INTEL
lect, sense or emotion. My child with an
affectionate smile disarms my careworn face
OF its frown whenever cross my threshold.
The besgar in the street obliges me to give
because he says, God bless your as I pass.
Ny dog, caresses me with 'ondness il I will
but smile on him. My horse recognizes me
when fll his manger. What reward, what
gratitude, what sympathy and affec-
ton can 7 expect here2 There the pris'
oner sits. Look at him. Look at the assem-
blage around you. Listen to their i'll sup
pressed censures and their excited fears and
tell me where among my neighDors or my
fellow men, where even in his heart can
expect to find sentiment, thought, not to
even Of recognition2 Gentlemen, you may
think Of this evidence what you pleases
bring in what verdict you can, but assev-
crate before heaven and you that. to the
best Of my knowledge and belief, the pris-
oner at the bar does not ct this moment
know why It is that my shadow falls on you
instead of his own"
The gallows got its victim, but the post
mortem examination of the poor creature
| oh r,aIf fn oil hn nd Sn al
world that the pubic was wrong, that Will
lam b. Seward was right and that hard,
stony step Of obloquy In the Auburn court
room was the first step Of the stairs Of fame
up which he went to the top, or to within
one step OF the top, that last denied him
through the treachery of American politics.
Nothing sublimer was ever ssen in an Amer
lean courtroom than William H. Seward,
without reward, standing between the fury
OF the populace and the loathsome imbecile.
Substitution!
In the realm of the fine arts there was as
remarkable an instance. A brilliant but
| bypercriticsed painter, Joseph William
Turner, was met by volley of abuse from
all the art galleries Of Europe. His paint
ings which have since won the applause OF
all civilized nations-''The Fifth Plague Of
Egypt" Fishermen on a Lee Shore In
Saually Weather" "Calais Pier" "The Sun
|
Carthage" then targets for critics
to shoot at. In defense OF this out.
raceously abused man a young author OF
| twenty-four years, Just one year out OF
| college, came forth with his pen and
wrote the ablest and most famous essays
on art that the world ever saw or ever
will see-John Ruskin's 'Modern Pain
ters." For seventeen years this author
fought the battles Of the maltreated artist,
and after, in poverty and broken hearted
ness, the painter had died and the public
tried to undo their cruelties toward him by
giving him big funeral and burial in st.
Paul's cathedral. his old-tirne friend took
out of tin box $4,000 pieces OF paper con-
tanning drawings by the old painter, and
through many weary and uncompensated
months assorted and arranged them for pub
lie observation. People say John Rusktn
in his old days ls cross, misa2thropic and
morbid. Whatever he may do that he ought
not to do, aud whatever he may say that he
he will leave this world insolvent as far as
1t has any capacity to pay this authors pen
| for its chivalric and Christian defense Of
| poor painters pencil John Ruskip for WILL
lam Turner. Blood for blood. Substitution!
What an exalting principle this which
leads one to suffer for another! Nothing 50
kindles enthusiasm or awakons eloquence,
or chimes poetic canto or moves nations.
| The principle Is the dominant one In our re-
hgion-Christ the martyr, Christ the celes-
tial hero, Christ the defender, Christ the SUBJ
as human nature, but now on grander,
wider. higher, deeper and more world-re-
sounding scale. The shepherd boy as a
| champion for Israel, with sling toppled
the giant Of Philistlne braggadooio In the
dust, but here Is another David, who, for all
the armies OF churches militant and triumph
ant, hurls the Goliath Of perdition into de-
feat, the crash OF His brazen armor like an
explosion at He'll Gate. Abraham had at
| Gods command agreed TO sacrifice his son
Isaac and the same God just In time had
provided ram of the thicket as a substitute
But here Is another Isaac bound TO the altar,
and no hand arrests the sharp edges OF LAGER.
alton and death, and the universe shiverS
and quakes and recoils and groans at the
horror.
Ali good men have for centuries been try
ing to tell whom this substitute was like,
and every comp mparision, inspired and unin-
spired, evangelstic, prophetic, apostolic and
human falls short, for Christ was the Great
Unlike. Adam II type Of Christ, because be
came directly from God; Noah type OF
Christ. because he delivered his own family
from the deluge; Melchisedeca type OF Christ,
| because he had no predecessor or successor;
Joseph a type OF Christ, because he was
cast out by his brethren; Moses type OF
Christ, because he was deliverer from bond
age; Samson q type OF Christ, because OF his
strength to slay the lions and carry of the
iron gates of impossibility; solomon type
OF Christ In the affluence OF his domintoni
Jonah type Of Christ. because OF the stormy
sea In which he threw himself Tor the rescue
of others. But put together Adam and Noah
and Meichisedec and Joseph and Moses and
Joshua and Samson and Solomon and Jonah,
aud they would not make fragment OF
Christ, quarter Of a Christ, the half OF
Christ or the millonth part OF Christ.
He forsook throne and sat down on His
| own footstooL He came from the top OF
glory to the bottom of humiliation and
changed a circumference seraphic for
| circumference diabolic. Once waitei on by
angels, now Kissed at by the brigands.
From afar and high up He came down; past
meteors swfter than they; by starry thrones,
Himself mere lustrous; past larger worlds to
smaller worlds; down stairs OF ornaments.
and from cloud to cloud and through tree
tops aud into the camels stall, TO thrust His
| shoulder under our burdens ami take the
! lances Of pain through His vitals, and
wrapped Himself in oil the agonies which we
| deserve for our misdoings and stool on the
splitting decks of laundering vessel amid
| the drenching surf Of the sea and passed
| nidnights on the mountains amid Wild
beasts of prey and stool at the point where
all earthly and Internal hostilities charged
| on Him at once with their keen sabreS-our
| Substitute!