The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-10-27
REV. j. CUMMING SMITHS SERMON
In Observing Prison Sunday He Talks
on "Ultimate RefOrme."

The Rev. J. Cunning Smiths Prison Sun
day sermon theme yesterday morning was
Ultimate Reforms" His text was from
Matthew XIV, SO: II was in prison and we
came unto me-" He said Remove one
cover on the sidewalk and you find a pas
sage way to your private cellar. Remove
another and at once you open the way to
the vast and intricate sewage system under
the city. Touch some questions and you
feel they are local and personal; touch
others even so slightly and at once you
dart down into regions of strength and
complicate mystery. They are as far reach
ing as the subterranean avenues of the
catacombs, in whose labyrinthine mazes it
Is easy to be lost. The entire problem of
punishment touches live issues that stretch
away into the infinite of insoluble mys-
terry. 1t is unwise to dance boldly the
edges of precipices.
Some encouraging facts, however, come
from the side of historical development.
The evolution of public thought on the
penal side of law has been marked, indeed.
At one period law-keeping society had
nothing but the Scowl of contempt and the
voice Of defamation for the unruly and
riotous part Wretches were thrust in
rayless dungeons. pestiferous and foul in
the extreme. The most nauseous food was
forced on them. Sickness and disease were
ignored in the jails and cells. The day OF
patton. Then, when bare backs bled with
the counted stripes. when sulen or scream
ing wretches underwent their brutal tor
lures, the plea was that they had forfeited
the right TO be treated as humans because
they had outraged the laws of the com
munity. They were ciphers, nondescripts
convicts. Then, further back. the argu.
of thunderous penalties. the god of the
middle ages, who was a mixture of pagan
and Christian conceptions. thought proper
the organ of God had an equal right tC
torment prisoners.
A SECOND PERIOD.
Then came a second period. The gen
eral conscience. benumbed and hard
ened in previous periods, began to see tha
vindictiveness was not defensible; tha
malice and vengeance In Furnishing crimi
nails only made them worse; and then Their,
set in the idea Of calm, mathematical jus
tice. Punishment was due sin. but sir
must be graded. Hence sprang a Brazil
ian forest of legal niceties Forensic dis
tinctions multiplied to disturb even tn
astutest court. Everything in law becam
clear-cut as a crystal and keen as a razo
edge. Then the conscience, again awak
to the fact that this cold surgical metho,
was intrinsically as inhuman as the olde
method of penalty infiamed by vengeance
Criminals are not brutes. They have tn
power Oh flslnS again. Iney must be re
| formed and not ill-treated. Even a sever
and military precision Of penalty involve,
| inherent contradictions Sinners are ou
brothers. Sinners are sons OF God even 1
| they are smeared I'm vice The genius O
/ the gospel Is that human nature has tn
power OF retrievaL This Is Fundamental
and the administration OF courts must har
monte with this deeper fact
| so the c2ange came as the change 70
| the better thought always comes. Tn
| brotherhood OF man as Jesus revealed
must determine all methods of managin
| human nature Technical distinctions be
tween law and love are valid only 10