The San Francisco call., 1898-01-10
Rev. J. A. CruZan Draws a Moral From the
 Execution.
Declares That the GallOwS Is One of Gods Awful
 Teachers.
Emphasizes the Eternal Law Ina "The Wages of Sin Is
 Death"

BERKELEY, Jan. 9.-Rev. J. A. Cru gan of the North Berkeley Congrega- tional Church preached this etening on The Shadow of the Gallows." He pictured dramatically the various 1 scenes of the Durrant case, the mur ders, the trial, the imprisonment and the execution.
 The preacher chose for his text Job iv:S: Even as I have seen, they that l blow iniquity and SOW wickedness shall reap the same" He spoke in part as ! follows:
 The black shadow of the gallows rests upon our fair commonwealth. The awful i horrors which desecrated Emmanuel ! Church; the terrible trials; the battle in the courts to evade the death penalty the final act last Friday, when the stern hand of the law sent d young man, just r on the threshold of life, into eternity these terrible facts are burned into our memories. We cannot forget them if We would.
 Horrible as it all was and is, the gall lows is one of Gods teachers. 1 judge no man. With malice toward none, and with charity for all," l would have you sit for a little time tonight under the shadow of the gallows," and with hushed hearts listen while this grim mes senger speaks.
 The first lesson this horrible teacher ] utters is old and threadbare-that sin, 1 all sin, is fraught with peril. Had the 1 crowds which packed the courtroom dur ing the trials and that crowd in the San Quentin death chamber been keen-eyed, | they could have seen written on the walls over the jury box and on the cross i beam of the gallows the words, "The | wages of sin is death," written by the same hand which penned the phrase on Belshazzar's banquet hail. Young people 1 are in danger of forgetting this old, awful. truth. They see men plungng into sin, but no evil consequences fol- low. On the other hand, these men seem to enjoy life in an animal sort of way. But suddenly sin, which seemed so harm less, shocks the world with an awful crime and turns upon the wrong-doer. There, in the dead face of the victim, in the suspense of the terrible trial. in the long, dreary imprisonment, on the cross beam of the gallows,, the dullest eyed sin is death.
 The .gallows teaches also the lesson that sin is a traitor Be sure your sin keenest detective is sin itself. No trans sFession can be so securely hidden that the guilty man can be absolutely safe from discovery. No eye, save the mur- derer S, saw those terrible tragedies; the secret was hidden in the vast silence oi the church. And yet how swiftly, surely unerringly the net was drawn around the murderer and twelve men without hesitancy said Thou art the manv'
 The gallows teaches also the truth that the only safety is to resist sin in its beginning. The world is startled from
 
 the Emmanuel Church horror. That full sized crime did not spring up like Jonah's horrible final fruit on the gallows takes years for its growth and maturity In its seeding days the sin might have been uprooted, but grown to maturity, in its fall it crushes two lives and builds the gallows from which soul is hurled into eternity.
 ''The way of the transgressor is hard ] is another truth taught by the gallows This old truth had become blunted Our young people had seen the transgressor whose name in California is legion clothed in broadcloth and farng sumptu- ously- They had heard the rustic of her silks along the streets They had over heard the transgressors bacchanaliar orgies, had seen him snap his fingers al courts and go unwhipped of justice. Nc wonder that our young people began tc , doubt Gods word, and to think that times had changed since Solomon's day } had become easy. Then God rewrote that old truth between the lines in the countless columns of the daily press, ir the testimony of the witnesses, in the verdict of the jury, in the wearing. agon- ! izing suspense, and at last on the walls of the death chamber. The way of tho i transgressor is hard. Truth is eternal 1 It does not change.
 There was not a step of all that hor. 5 rible way from the belfry of Emmanue Church to the trap of the San Quentin gallows that was easy. The way of al 3 sin is hard. The goal is retribution. Le 1 us all beware of the sin of self-righteous 7 ness. The sin that puts a rope around 2 , mans neck is not the only sin to he feared. Gods thoughts are not as man. thoughts.
 man may never violate a law of tn, land and yet be held by sin. Dives wa such man. He was not a sinner a. men count There are no crimes laid al . his door. For aught we know he was , one of Jerusalems Four Hundred. Ru he lived a selfish, unloving life. Tn, spirit of sin transfused him and becam, his life. Though he broke no law ths loving Christ lifts the curtain of eternitN and we see him among the lost Sin. no | necessarily murder but sin all scn is in, great enemy and soui-destroyer