St. Tammany farmer., 1901-08-17
viii rise up and extirpate shese evils

will rise up and extirpate 5hese evils
upon society know not, nor whether
He will do it by fire or hurricane or
earthquake; but q holy God I do not
think will stand it much longer. be-
lieve the thunderbolts are kissing hot
and that when God comes to chastise
the community for these sins, against
which He has uttered Himself moro
bitterly than against any other, the
fate of Sodom and Gomorrah will be
tolerable as compared with the fate
of our modern society, which knew
better, but did worse.
We want about 10000 pulpits in
America to thunder: "All adulterers
and whoremongers shall have their
place in the hell that burncth with fire
and birthstone, which is the second
DEATH" It is hell on earth and hell
forever. We have got to understand
that iniquity on Columbia heights or
Fifth avenue OF Beacon hill is as
damnable in the sight of God as it is
in the slums. Whether it las canopied
couch of eiderdown or dwells amid
the putridity of low tenement house.
God is after it in His vengeance. Yet
the pulpit Of the Christiar church has
been SO cowed down on this subject
that it hardly dares speak, and men
are almost apologetic when they read
| the Ten Commandments,
Then look at the fascinations
around assassination. There are in
all communities men who have taken
the lives of others unlawfully, not as
executioners of the law, and they
go scot free. You say they had their
provocations. God gave life, and He
also has right to take it., and He
may take it by visitation Of Providence
or by an executioner of the law, who
is His messenger But when man
assumes that Divine prerogative he
touches the lowest depth of crime.
Society is alert for certain kinds OF
murder. If a citizen going along the
road at night is waylaid sand slain by
robber, we all want the villain ar
rested and executed. For all CARROT
ing, for all beating out of life by a
club or an ak or a slungshot, the law
has quick spring and heavy stroke;
but you know that when men get at
fluent and high position and they
avenge their wrongs by taking tho
lives of others, great sympathy is ex-
cited, lawyers plead, ladies weep,
judge halts, jury is bribed and the man
goes free. If the verdict happen to DO
against him, new trial is called on
through some technicality, and they
adjourn for witnesses that never come,
and adjourn and adjourn until tho
community has forgotten all about it.
and then the prison door opens and
the murderer goes free.
Now, if capital punishment be right,
derer go with the life of the vulgar
assassin. Let us have 1to partiality OF
gallows, no aristocracy of electrocu-
| ton chair. Do not let US float back
to barbarism, when every man was his
own judge, jury and executioner, and
that man had the supremacy who had
/ the sharpest knife and the strongest
arm and the quickest step and the
stealthiest revenge. He who willfully
and in hatred takes the life of another
is murderer, I care not what the
provocation or the circumstances. He
may be cleared by an enthusiastic
courtroom, he may be sent by the gov
ernment of the United States as min
lister to some foreign court, or mod
ern literature may polish the crime un-
til it looks like heroism; but in the
/ - ;c or1 <h n
Judgment day will so reveal it.
There are hundreds of young men
who have good blood. Shall I ask thres
or four plain questions? Are your
habits as good as when you left your
fathers house? Have you pool ticket
in your pocket? Have you fraudu.
lent document? Have you been exper-
imenting to see how accurate an imi.
tation you could make of your EN-
ployer's signature? Oh, you have good
blood. Remember your father's
prayers. Remember your mother'z
example. Turn not in an evil way
Have you been going astray? Come
back. Have you ventrred out too far
At Brighton Beach or Long Branch
you have seen men go down into the
surf to bathe, and they waded out
farther and farther, and you got anx'
ious about them. You said: ''I won.
der if they can swim?" And you then
stood and shouted: "Come back! Come
back! You will be drowned" They
waved their hand back, saying: Nc
danger" They kept on wading deeper
down and farther ont from shore, un.
til after awhile great wave with q
strong undertow took them out, their
corpses the next day washed on the
beach. So see men wading down into
sin farther and farther, and I call tc
them: "Come back! Come back! You
will be lost! You will be lost!" They
wave their hand back, saying: "Ne
danger; no DANGER. Deeper down
and deeper down, until after awhile
a wave sweeps them off forever. Oh
come back! The one farthest away
may come.
"oh," you say, "you don't know
where I came from; you don't know
what my history has been; you don't
know what iniquity I have plotted.
have gone through the whole cata