The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-08-17
A SATURDAY SERMON.

The voice of thy. brothers blood crieth
unto me from the ground.-Genesis 4:1o.
After Judus Iscariot had betrayed to
death his best friend, the Savior Of
men. his anguish knew no bounds, and
he went and hanged himself.
Perhaps John w. Reeves, of Boulder,
Colo, realizes to a degree this week
something of the anguish of Judas.
Reeves is the railroad striker who set
fire to a caboose in Boulder for the
purpose Of burning two "scabs," which
resulted in a dynamite explosion that
wrecked the town, killing two innocent
men and injuring others. Now Reeves
is undergoing untold mental suffering.
Listen to him:
Il set fire to the caboose in an at
tempt to burn up two scabs 1 thought
were sleeping there.
want no trial: want no protection;
want no attorney. but I want you to
take me out and hang me.
i dream can see it all over again.
1 leap from my bed at that explosion
that sounds over and over again to me,
and before can wake 1 seem to be
lodging the bones of mangled men fly
ing in all directions about me- I want
to tell all-everything. I must tell or
1 will die from the fearful scenes that
haunt me. alone am guilty!
Harry Pool, the striking switchman
IN Boulder, begged me not to do what I
went to him and told him would do
He said 1t would hurt the cause, and
that they would stand for no violence.
o. God, why didn't 1 do as he begged |
me to do!
Richard woodward got on his knees |
and begged me not to burn up the |
works, but I cursed him and went on! |
Drink whisky, all that is my ruin. |
My mother will die when she hears of |
this, and my father will be crushed I'M
der the blow. I was drunk when did |
IT, want no lawyer, for I am guilty,
and let me die early"
What anguish can equal that of an
aroused conscience? What is more
terrible than a state of mind that will
welcome death to escape from the
memory of murdered men?
Yet does death give relief from a
haunting conscience? Does the muir
1erer, who, like Judas, fees into an
'ther world to escape the tortures of
memory, find peace in death and the
grave? Does not the soul that is so
scared with sin against Its Maker
ma hatred of its felIowmen that it
VIII commit murder-does not such a
soul bear Into the Hereafter the
burden of its guilt, unless the hatred
md sin are blotted out before the soul
goes before it's Creator?
In the presence of such anguish of
mind and soul as John W. Reeves is
death is as nothing. Men
Usually regard death as the most ter
IDLE thing in the world, but it is not.
soul suffering the torments of hell
because of some sin. welcomes death
n the hope that 1t will escape into
oblivion. Could anything be as ter
ible as that?
Ever since Cain slew Abel the muir I
Ierer has been haunted by the mem l
ry OF his victim-some perhaps more
han others-but Providence has SO !
rGained. THE voice of thy brothers
lood cryeth unto me from the
God told Cain. 1t is true /
hat some murderers are apparently J
o f1endish that they have no con-
ciences to torment them, yet faith in I
ternal justice compels the belief that
UGH souls must sometime be pun '
shed. c
Although John w. Reeves was
RACED by drink, and although he did
ot intend to Stay the men whose
cath he caused, his punishment has
lready begun and it is the most ter
ible that can be imagined. Perhaps r
e may expiate his crime while yet on
arth and go forth into the Hereafter 7
t peace with his Maker and his own
Conscience. In mercy let US hope so, t
ut Justice demands payment in some
orm.