The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1898-04-15

task. All were silent save one, a
young lawyer with BILE voice, that
could hardly be heard outside the bar,
pale and thin and awkward. II was
William II. Seward. who saw that the
prisoner was idiotic and irresponsible,
and ought to be put in an asylum, ra ther
than put to death, the heroic council
uttering these beautiful words:
~ speak now in the hearing of a
people who have prejudged prisoner
and condemned me for pleading in his
behalf. He is a convict, pauper, a
negro, without intellect, sense or emo
ton. My child with an affectionate
smile disarms my careworn face of Is
frown whenever 'oss my threshold.
The beggar in the street obliges me to
give because he says. God bless your
as pass My dog caresses me with
fondness II | will but smile on him.
My horse recognizes me when | fill his
manger. What reward, what graft
tude, what sympathy and affection
can expect here? There the prisoner
sits. Look at him. Look at the as
semblage around you. Listen to their
Unsurpassed censures and excited
fears, and tell me where among my
neighbors or my fellow-men, where,
even in his heart | can expect to find
a sentiment. a thought, not to say of
reward or of acknowledgment or even
of recognition. Gentlemen, you may
think of this evidence what you please,
bring in what verdict you can, but
asseverate before Heaven and you,
that, to the best of my knowledge and
belief, the prisoner at the bar does not
at 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 showed to all the sur
geons and to all the world that the
public were wrong, and william II.
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. Moth.
ing sublimer was ever seen in an Amer
lean court room than William II.
Seward, without reward, standing be-
tween the furious populace and the
loathsome imbecile. Substitution
What an eXalting principle, this
which leads one to suffer for anotherl
Nothing so lindles enthusiasm or
awakens eloquence, or chimes poetic
canto, or moves nations The prin-
ciple is the dominant one in our re-
ligion-Christ the martyr, Christ the
celestial hero, Christ the defender,
Christ the substitute. No new prin-
ciple, for ii was old as human nature;
but now on a grander, wider, higher.
deeper and more understanding
scale! The shepherd boy as a cham
pion for Israel with sling toppled
the giant of Philistine braggadocio
in the dust; but here is another Da-
vid. who, for all the armies of churches
militant and triumphant, hurls the
Goliah of perdition into defeat, the
crash of his brazen armor like an
explosion at He'll Gate. Abraham
had at Gods command agreed to sacri-
flee his son Isaac, and the same God.
just in time, had provided ram
of the thicket as n substitute; but
there is another Isaac bound to the
altar, and no hand arrests the sharp
edges of liberation and death, and the
universe shivers, and quakes, and re-
coils and groans at the horror. All
good men have for centuries been try
ing TO tell whom this substitute was
like, and every comparison, inspired
and uninspired, evangelistic, prophetic,
apostolic and human falls short, for
Christ was the great unlike. Adam, a
type of Christ, because he came di-
rectly from God; Noah type of Christ,
because he delivered his own family
from deluge; Melchisedec type of
Christ, because he had no prede-
cessor or successor; Joseph a type
of Christ, because he was cast out
by his brethren; Moses type of
Christ, because he was deliverer from
bondage; Josiah type of Christ, be.
cause he was conqueror; Samson IA
type of Christ, because of his strength
to Stay the lions and carry off the iron
gates of impossibility; Solomon IA type
of Christ, in the atiiuence of his do
minion; Jonah type of Christ, be-
cause of the stormy sea in which he
threw himself for the rescue of others;
but put together Adam, and Noah, and
Melchisedec, and Joseph, and Moses,
and Joshua, and Samson, and Solomon,
and Jonah, and they would not make
a fragment of a Christ, a quarter of a
Christ, the half of a Christ, or the mil
lionth part of Christ.
lie forsook a throne and sat down on
His own footstool. lie came from the
top of glory to the bottom of humilia-
ton, and changed a circumference
seraphic for circumference diabolic.
Once waited on by angels, now Kissed
at by brigands. From afar and, high
up He came down; past meteors
swifter than they; by starry thrones,
Himself more lustrious; past larger
worlds to smaller worlds; down stairs
of armament and from cloud to cloud,
and through tree tops and into the
cancels stall, to thrust His shoulder
under our burdens and take the lances
of pain through His vitals, and
wrapped Himself in all the agonies