The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1906-11-01
lHE PULPIT.
4 SCHOLARLY SUNDAY SERMON BY
: REV. |. w. HENDERSON.
Subject: The Eighth Commandment.

Subject: The Eighth Commandment.
Brooklyn, N. Y.-Preaching at the
Irving Square Presbyterian Church
on the theme, "The Eighth Com
mandment," the Rev. 1. w. Hender-
son, pastor, took as his text Elk. 20:
Is: "Thou shalt not steal" He said
in the course of his sermon:
This is a call for simple honesty,
and the need for clear and fearless
thought and utterance is both 1m-
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 to steal is quite ele-
mentary. In the public estimation,
stealing, very largely, is a form OF
open and specific d:sobedience to law
which will likely land the evil doer
in behind the bars. It is not my pur-
pose to say or to imply that the aver
age individual conscience does not
recognize the obligations and the va
lfdity of that moral law which over
laps our penal"code. But to large
extent the robber, in the public mind,
is the man who forces locks; who
spends his evenings at his neighbor's
safes with dynamite and Jimmy, who
misapplies to 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
steal2 Is it the man who picks your
pocket or the man who steals your
savings, by needless mismanagemenr
OF that fortune you gave into his
trust, who robs you of most? Who is
the most dangerous criminal, the Sec
end story burglar or the man who,
under the guise OF conservative
4aflancier, wrecks your home and
takes your all? Who best merits
prison clothes, the man who steals to
save his family from starvation's S
grimmest death, lor 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
che lesson hardest hits is that rob-
berry is sall 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
spunshed no matter by whom tr how
it may be committed. The 4 ember
OF Cpngress who violates the law and
robs his country for his private gain
deserves the limit of the penalty
The moneyed man who wrecks cor
poraffon to satisfy personal spite or
secret grudge, should wear the irons
together with that other OF his COM
spany who represents. as a real In
syestment proposition a property that
SIS chiefly air, paper and water. The
business man who underpays his
Tabor and, hugs the lions share OF
the profits to himself, with no coz
Germ Or care for the toilers who made
possible his material success, is a
fanf. The rich man who raises
prices and lowers wages, without
gightSor need, to such an extent thar
door men have no decent chance to
live, steals more than money.
Thou shalt not steal" says the
and to my minds eye
there comes the vision of that cotton
MN in the sunny southland. I hear
the whirr of wheels, the rattle OF
tae ltsom, 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 ana
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 capltal.
And what you may see in the cotton
mills of Dixie, you may see in the
class works of New jersey, the mines
of Pennsylvania, or in the sweat
shops Of New York. Is such stealng
wise?
The amount of wholesale and un-
restrained 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 host of men who admin
lister the affairs of the plain people is
not very large. Dishonesty IS
strangely. even yet, with many lead
ers il our political life, synonym
for assured success. Thou shat not
steal is left out of their moral code.
TO be honest, to be square, is, with
them, to be marked for defeat:
When we read in ou- daily papers OF
the shameless frauds perpetrated
upon the Government by corpora
tfons. by and with. the consent OF