The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-12-21
DISRESPBCF FOR LAW.
TENDENCY ARRATGNED BY PAS
 TOR OF CENTER CHURCH.

| Says Letter Not Spirit of Law ts Ob-
 servea-AIIfaneo of Puritan and
 BIacHTeg fin Arguments.
 Rev. Dr. Newman Smyth addressed | the congregation of Center church yes | terday, his text being: And if also
 man contend in the games, he is not crowned, except he have contended law fulIy.'' He deprecated the tendency among men to disregard the spirit of | laws, human and divine, and live mere | ly within the letter. Dr. Snyth said, in l part:
 This text, as I was thinking of exist l ing conditions, stopped me like voice;
 it came as a Thus saith the Lord for men to-day. Above their competition | and strife, go, nail that word to your pulpit masthead in the midst of a. city!
 do not propose to judge facts by it. Our Master said of the inheritance, I
 am not judge; carry your question of I the inheritance to the proper tribunal where facts may be sifted. But I do
 propose to apply this text as standard 1 of men's reasonings, habits, judgments. ! A good warning for the clergyman to
 Keep in mind in the pulpit is Savonero-
 las word: Thou knoWest, O people
 mine, that cannot enter into state af- 1 fairs; purify thy soul; and if in such a ] disposition of mind thou reforfnest the
 city. tien people of Florence, thou i shalt have inaugurated a reform for all ] Italy
 ! t' Except he have contended lawful
 .344 t,E., ! 1y.' A revival of law is demanded in
 this land. Our Puritan forefathers did
 not have houses fitted up with all the
 modern improvements; but they had
 law in their families They did not
 have streets paved with asphalt, and l lighted by contract; but in the darkest
 places they had law. They did not
 have city halls, with various excellent
 departments. they did not have large
 libraries of Jurisprudence; but in their town meeting in John Newman's barn
 they had law, and they had law in Coy
 ernor Eaton's summary court. But do !. we have law? do not refer to any
 merely passing epidemic of laWlessness;
 but in the tone; and temper, in the con-
 versations and methods of men, do we
 have reverence for law? We do not
 have law, if a people politely takes off
 it's hat to the ten commandments, and
 pauses on intent on it's own pleasures,
 Iusts. adulteries and thefts, each class
 seeking to take for itself the greatest
 possible share of the. benefits of eivili-
 zation." .Ls '.s. A.. ......
 Dr. slnyth spoke of the moral revival now demanded, under three feads--the : keeping up of moral standards; the
 clearing up of moral perceptions, and
 the braeing up of moral sentiment. ] Touching these, lie said. There are
 many difficulties and temptations in our
 complicated affairs which lead us to
 lower our moral standards. Our condi-
 ton, social, industrial, political, is de-
 scribed by verse in an old Hebrew
 Psalm: Thou hast made us drink the
 wine of staggering. We have now
 much of that moral staggering But in ] such a time this word was spoken: ; Thou hast given to them that fear Thee banner to be displayed because of truth In much of the conversation and reasoning of men about current 1 events that banner seems to be raised only to half f~mast. 1t is tfailed i'll the dust when men talk as though achieve melt is the thing to be won, without
 too scruplous regard to the means; as though success once gained is enough to drown iii oblivion the ways iff which ] it was gained. The wine of staggering goes to the head when men justify any thing on the principle that might makes right There is another old text for us:
 'Yer that prepare table for Fortune,
 and that fill up mingled wine to Des- tiny.' Men are playing their business, their politics, at that table of Fortune; success there is becoming our national idol. But what will happen to men or l to a country that plays at that table2 l T will destine you to the sword, and ye shall all bow down to the slaughter That has happened to many fortunes. Men who have mingled that wine to destiny have been slaughtered in Wall street. The shores of American history are strewn with the wrecks of the for tunes and the bleaching bones of the men who have deserted the moral law and noeled at honor. May our eoun- try never stake it's honor at that table of Fortune, and it's pride be bowed | down to the slaughter!
 'Tohn Randolph said of the alliance between Adams and Clay that it was l 'an alliance between the Puritan and the blackleg,' His remark brought on a duel, therefore, in repeating it; will I apply it not to persons; but to argu- 1 nleTlts There are prevalent habits of | talking which remind one who listens Of the alliance of the Puritan and the blaekleg. If men of power or property l assume the right to gain and to keep anything they can, by means not liter- ally criminal, but regardless of whether they are honorable or not, that alliance l between right and wrong is struck. The most dangerous anarchism is not the blatant and violent ararchism-that is merely a matter for the police. The worst anarchism is that subtle and in- sidious disrespect for law which men show. in measures and combinations which will not bear the light; 1t is the anarchism of the reasoning that what we must have we may get; that the benefits to be secured justify the means. When such reasoning and judgments are used for the sake of promoting large interests by gentlemen of the ave- nres in our large cities we cannot be