The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1906-11-09
q he PULPIT.
A SCHOLARLY SUNDAY SERMON By
REV. l. w. HENDERSON.
Subject: The Eighth Commandment.

on the theme, The Eighth Com
mandment," the Rev. |. w. Hender-
son, pastor, took as his text Ex. 20:
/ 10: Thou shalt not steal" He said
in the course OF his sermon:
I Ibis is a call for simple honesty,
! and the need for clear and fearless
! thought and utterance is both I'M
/ perative and apparent as we apply
/ this eighth commandment TO the So
| cial life and communal conditions OF
| to-day.
The common Interpretation Of
what it means 10 steal is quite ele-
mentary. In the public estimation
stealing, very largely, is a form OF
open and specific disobedience 10 Law
which will likely land the evil dOer
in behind the bars. II is not my pur-
pose 10 say or TO imply that the aver
age individual conscience does not
recognize he obligations and the va
lidity OF that moral law which over
laps our penal code. But TO a large
extent the robber, i'm the public mind,
is the man who forces locks; who
spends his evenings at his neighbor's
safes with dynamite and jimmy; who
misapplies 10 his own uses our sill
yer, our clothes, or our money. Ask
a man, Who is a thief? and the like
lihood is that often, though not al
ways, he will run the list of those
who bear the insignia and the dis
honor of that self-seeking fraternity
whose members live by their wits.
But are the men and women who de-
clare open war upon society and who
adhere to the principle that the world
owes them living the only ones who
steal? Is it the man who picks your
pocket or the man who steals your
savings, by needless mismanagement
Of that fortune you gave into his
trust, who robs you of most? Who Is
the most dangerous criminal, the sec
ond story burglar or the man who,
under the guise OF a conservative
'financier, wrecks your home and
takes your all? Who best merits
prison clothes, the man who steals to
save his family from starvation's
grimmest death, or the millionaire OF
Wall street who initiates values that
he knows can never last? Who most
deserves the scorn OF honest men. the
man who cracks a safe or the phil
anthropic plutocrat who made his
wealth at the price Of human blood?
The consensus among those whom
the lesson hardest hits is that rob-
berry is all right SO long as you steal
enough. Only the small burglar is
to wear stripes. The sin of stealing
is in being caught, and its worst dis
grace is not to be deft enough to bag
everything in sight.
Stealing is wrong and it should be
punished no matter by whom or how
it may be committed. The Member
of Congress who violates the law and
robs his country for his private gain
deserves the limit of the penalty.
The moneyed man who wrecks cor
poration to satisfy personal spite or
secret grudge, should wear the irons
together with that other OF his COM
pany who represents as real IN
vestment proposition property tina;
is chiefly air, paper and water. The
business man who underpayS his
labor and hugs the lions share Of
the profits to himself. with no con-
Germ or care for the toilers who made
possible his material success, is Il
thief. The rich man who raises
prices and lowers wages, without
right or need, to such an extent that
poor men have no decent chance TO
live, steals more than money.
Thou shalt not steal, says the
commandment. and TO my minds eye
there comes the vision of that cotton
mill in the sunny southland. | hear
the whirr or wheels, the rattle of
the loom, the roar Of leather belts,
the shouting OF the mill boss; and
there, in among that hustle and clat-
ter and Ceaseless racket, | see mere
children watching wheels, instead OF
birds; tending cotton when they
should be at their books; growing
old and blunted in body, mind and
spirit, when they should be learning
lessons in Gods wonderful out-of-
doors. Mere children driven into
slavery by the laziness of lying par
ents or the greed OF northern capital.
And what you may see in the cotton
mills Of Dixie, you may see In the
glass works of New Jersey, the mines
of Pennsylvania, or in the sweat
shops of New York. Is such stealing
wise?
The amount of wholesale and un-
7 strained robbery that takes place
In our public life is enormous. 1t
would seem that the sense of honesty
is on the decline did we not know
better The caliber of the con-
sciences OF n host OF men who admin
lister the affairs of the plain people is
not very large. Dishonesty Is
strangely. even vet, with many lead
ers in our political life. a synonym
for assured success. Thou shalt not
steal" is left out Of their moral code
70 be honest, to be square, is, with
them. to be marked for defeat
When we read in our daily papers or
the shameless frauds perpetrated
unon the Government by corpora
tions. by and with the consent OF
those who make and those who ad-
minister our laws: when we learn
from time to time that hosts Of men
and women are ruined by get-rich-
quick syndicates: when we find daily
instances Of wholesale defalcations
nv men OF trust and repute and form
or seeming probity; when we see the
EXPRESSED will OF the sovereign ctti-
zenshipof self-Eoverning communities
made the football Of political bri-
cands. and whole States beneath the
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