Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1898-11-21

They did not plot their crimes, they
fell through their very virtues. They
stole a morsel to apbease their hun
ger. The bIoodhounds of the law
captured them. A man, like Hutch
inson Or Letter commits grand larce-
ny upon the wheat bin Of the nation
and escapes with this eulogy: "What
splendid business abilities" Because
of social standing or great wealth, or
because we have friends at court to
shield US, does not make our guilt
the less.
Judge and jury, law and gospel are
all appealed to by selfish and inter
ested parties to screen men in their
sins and keep them from the peniten-
tiary.
For reasons, then, of common wrong
doing we should be charitable and
| helpful to the inmates of our prisons.
But for our different surroundings,
| better helps we sh ould be with them.
Putting ones self in close and loving
relation to the prisoners, is not let
| ting down of the standard of purity
and morality as some falsely believe
and argue.
It is simply the divine method of
! craftsmanship instead of the human.
Christ found the true philosophy of
saving men by" "eating and drinking
with them.''
There is more genuine theology in
such methods than in dozen theo-
logical seminaries.
Christ's whole grand scheme of re-
demptionis based upon this principle,
''bound with us"; coming down to the
level of our humanity with it's weak
nesses and imperfections, and thus to
lift US up. The world is coming to
see more and more that this is the
true philosophy Of the atonement.
Power and royalty and goodness
condescending to lower conditions
that there may be higher and univer-
sal life. This is the only power that
can lift up the race. Law and proph-
cts failed to make anything perfect.
Not until One came "bound with us"
by the same chain, did we see the
mighty possibilities of our souls. Liv-
ing our life by our sides, before our
eyes, then breaking all bands, ascend
ing above, ''leading captivity cap
tive"
Now, if we can put into onr states
manship, our reform movements, our
law and our gospel, this spirit and
this method, who shall doubt that the
problem of evil shall some day be
solved and all the world hold jubilee.
Show the criminal that you love him
as Christ loved you. Do not thank
God before him that you are SO much
whittier than he! All were midnight
blackness if justice and not mercy had
had full sweep over this sin cursed
earth.
What will love do? 1t will scale the
loftiest heights, descend to the lowest |
depths to find it's own. It will not only
reach out and down but it will go |
down and yoke itself with the lowly |
and outcast and toll with them. I
this: An idiotic, paralytic child that
could only lie PROSTATE on the floor
in a sort Of stupor, was restored to
physical and intellectual life by one
who loved it-in this way: the person
lay down upon the floor beside it day
after day and hour after hour, just ly-
ing there and gazing into the eyes of
the unfortunate. By and by the eyes
flashed an intelligent and loving light
never before seen; by and by its lips
and by and by it sat upright,
and in the end it walked and talked
like other people.
Detectives sometimes go into the
of criminals, into prison it
self and in that way reach the heart
of the individual, obtaining the Sc
crets desired.
Philanthropists and Christians have
gone into prisons as criminals, in or
der to reach the hearts of the inmates
and do them good.
Henry Clay Trumbull once preach
ed to the inmates of a prison, and in
MS sermon said: ssAll that makes the
difference between myself and you is
owing to the grace of God.o After
ward one of the prisoners sent for
nim and asked, "Did you mean what
you said about sympathizing with sus,
and that only thes shelp of God made
you differ from us?' Mr.. Trumbull
replied in the affirmative and the
prisoner then said, sI am here for
ife, but can stay here more content
adly now I know have brother out