The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-03-23
sACREDNEss OF HUMAN LIFE
An Able Sermon by DIR. Simms at the
Baptist Tabernacle.

That was a fine sermon of DIR. SlmmS
at the Baptist Tabernacle Sunday night
on The Sacredness of Human Life"
The text was from Matthew -, Hip:
How much then is Il man better than
Sheep
Among other things, DR.. Simms said :
THE most sacred of all things about us
is humanity. From Genesis to Revela
ton the Bible put the emphasis upon
human life. Beginning with the decla
ration that "whosoever sheds mans
blood, by man shall his blood be she'd"
ON to the institution of the holy Sabbath
which was for man, and to the sacred
altar, tabernacle, and temple, on to the
great eliminating act of the death and
resurrection of Jesus, the Bible empha-
sized human life as the most sacred
of all things.
God has taught Us 10 hold some things
as sacred. but above them all he puts
human life. This is seen by a look at the
Sabbath, a divinely hallowed day-and
yet Jesus iabored to teach men that hui
; man life was more sacred than it. To
mems narrow views the Sabbath was
paramount, but Jesus taught that the
sacredness of the day must yield before
suffering humanity.
Take the holy bread and see how
Jesus taught that there was no profona-
ton when David ate it as he fed from
Saul, because human life was involved
and before it all holy things must yield
THE temple was holy. and yet Jesus
declared that greater than the temple
was present in his person, as he stood
the representation OF humanity in its
holiness.
Again, one of the most sacred duties
in life is the burial of our dead, SO re-
garded in all ages and in all nations, and
yet Jesus taught the carrying of the life
giving word to men was a more sacred
duty. Let the dead burg the dead, but
go thou and preach the gospel
Men will stop business and look up
the house and go to mucai expense to at
tend to burial rites and yet to save a life
is more than the burial of all the kin a
man has.
''All things are sacred because of their
life. As 81 spiral stairway mounts step by
step to the summit, so all holy things
rise one above the other to the grand
climax of the sacredness of human life.
Now how do these ideas of Christ
fit into our views and practices. Many
of us are as far from the truth to-day
as was the jew with his cast iron theory.
With him all sacredness had gone to seed
III ceremonialism. The Sabbath was
more than life. A man with sore
throat might not gargle it with oil on
the Sabbath day. He might not take a
laxative drink unless he took it as a
beverage and not as a medicine After
wards this was pushed to the ridiculous
extreme of making it a violation Of the
Sabbath for man to kiss his wife or
carry a pocket handkerchief
I'VE are just as far from the truth
This generation has the emphasis of
sacredness on commercial interests. We
have made it a fetch more sacred than
human life. Armenia may bleed and her
people be butchered, but the great nations
of the earth are held in quiet submission
because commercial interests are invol-
we'd. Bondhoders must not suffer what
ever befalls humanity, and so with Cuba.
With orr nations heart ablafe with SYM
pathy, and all in expectation OF hand
of help being extended, the cold fact is
published to the world that our COM
mercial interests must be put above the
cry Of a suffering people.
The great reason why our railroads
know no Sabbath is because business
men demand a Sabbath train for mails |
and travel.
- Our manufacturing interests are be- |
ing lauded to the skies while the empha- |
sis upon human life is growing less each |
day
What if the hours of working day |
are too long for the boys and girls that |
are sucked into them. What if men and |
women do wear out by the thousand I'M |
der this strain of II to IS hours of work |
that is nothing in comparison with a
good dividend upon your stock.
No wonder murders have increased in |
a decade from little over one thousand |
to more than ten thousand This gene
ration has taken heavens emphasis from
humanity and placed it upon dividends !