The semi-weekly messenger., 1901-07-23


amount OF stock she had, the number OF
shares. 1t is very short line in news
paper, but il Is a line Of agony long as
time; it is story long as eternity.
Now, do not come under the fascination
which induces men to employ trust funds
for purposes of their own speculation.
Cultivate old fashioned honesty. Remem-
Der the example Of Wellington, who,
when he was leading the British army
over the French frontier and his army
was very hungry and there was plenty
o. plEnder on the French frontier and
some of the men wanted to take it,
said: Soldiers, do not touch that. God
will take care of US. He will take care
of the English army. Plenty Of plunder.
know, all around, but do not take It."
He told the story afterward himself, how
that the French people brought to him
their valuables to keep-he supposed to
be their enemy-brought him their yalu-
ables to keep, and then, he said, at
time when the creditors Of the army were
calling for money and for pay al! the
time and they had so much all around
about, he did not feel it right for him to
take it or for the army to take it. An
author beautifully wrote in regard to it:
Nothing can be grander or more noble
and original than this admission. This
old soldier, after 80 years Of service, this
iron man and victorious general, estab-
lished in an enemy's country, at the head
of an immense army, is afraid of his cred
itors. This is q kind of fear that has
seldom troubled conquerors and yictors,
and doubt if the annals of war present
anything comparable to this sublime SIM
plicity."
Oh, that God would scatter these fas-
|cinations about fraud and let US all under
stand that if l steal from you one dollar
am q thief and if I steal from you
$500, 900 I am 100000 times more of a
thief
Dangers of Libertinism.
So there has been a great deal Of fasci-
nation thrown around libertinism. Soci-
ETY. is very severe upon the impurity that
turks around the alleys and low haunts
of the town. The law pursues it, smites
it, incarcerates it, tries to destroy it. You
know as well as l that society becomes
lenient in proportion as impurity becomes
affiuent or is in elevated circles, and
finally society is silent or disposed to pal
late. Where is the judge, the jury, the
police officer that dare arraign the
wealthy libertine? He walks the streets,
he rides the parks, he faunts his iniQuity
in the eyes Of the pure. The hag Of un-
cleanness looks out Of the tapestried win
dow. Where is the law that dares take
the brazen wretches and put their faces
in an iron frame Of q state prison
window?
Sometimes it seems to me as if society
were going back to the state Of morals
Of Herculaneum, when it sculptured its
vileness on pillars and temple wall and
nothing but the lava Of a burning noun
tain could hide the immensity Of crime.
At what time God will rise up and extir-
pate these evils upon society know not,
nor whether he will do it by fire or hurri-
cane or earthquake; but a holy God do
not think will stand it much longer. I
believe the thunderbolts are kissing hot
and that when God comes to chastise the
community for. these sins, against which
he has uttered himself more 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 Amer
lea to thunder, "All adulterers and who're
mongers shall have their place in the hell
that burneth with fire and birthstone,
which is the second death" 1t is hell on
earth and hell forever. We have got to
understand that iniquity on Columbia
heights or Fifth avenue or Beacon hill is
as damnable in the sight of God as it is
in the slums. Whether it has canoped
couch Of elder down or dwells amid the
putridity of low tenement house, God
is after it in his vengeance. Yet the pull
pit Of the Christian church has been so
cowed down on this subject that it hardly
daIes speak, and men are almost apollo
getic when they read the Ten Command
mentS.
The Sacrcdness of Life.
Then look at the fascinations thrown
around assassination. There are in all
communities men who have taken the
lives of others unlawfully. not as exc
cutioners of the law, and they 90 scot
free. You say they had their provoca-
tions. God gave life,' and he alone has a
right to take it, and he may take it by
visitation of providence or by an execu-
itioner Of the law, who is his messenger.
But when man assumes that divine pre-
rogative he touches the lowest depth of
lcrime.
Society Is alert for certain kinds of
murder. II citizen going along the road
lat night Is waylaid and slain by robber,
we all want the villain arrested and exc
lcuted. For all garroting, for all beating
Iout of life by a club or an ak or a slung-
shot. the law has quick spring and heavy
stroke; but you know that when men get
Iaf1uent and high position and they avenge
their wrongs by taking the lives Of others,
lgreat sympathy is excited, lawyers plead,
ladies weep. judge haits, jury is bribed
and the man goes free. If the verdict
happen to- be against him, new trial is
called on through some technicality, and
they adjourn for witnesses that never
come. and adjourn and adjourn until the
community has forgotten all about it, and
then the prison door opens and the mur.
lderer goes free.
Now. il capital punishment be right,
lsay let the life Of the polished murderer
go with Tie life Of the vulgar assassin
Let us have no partiality of gallows, nc
laristocracy of electrocution chair. Do not
llet US float back to barbarism. when every
man was his own judge, jury and execu
Itioner, and that man had the supremacy
IL A.,