The Penn's Grove record., 1907-05-10
NUMBER A..
Subject: Murder.

Brooklyn, N. Y.-Preaching at the
irving Square Presbyterian Church
on the above theme, the pastor, Rev.
Ira Wemmell Henderson, took as his
text: Exodus 20:13, Thou shalt not
kill" He said:
The extent and force of the admon-
ltlon to recognize the inalienable
rlght OF all men to life is not widely
recognized in our day, in view of the
progressed love of our f~orefathers and
US for God and the Christ. With no
pronunciation and no wavering of
the voice, Moses speaks out for God
a principle that the modern world,
as the nations of all ages have done,
dlsregards. To be sure the civiliza-
tlon OF to-day IS better in general
than the manner Of life thousands OF
years ago. We do not kill our neigh
Dors out in the open to gain our
1000. The settlement of private
wrongs by wild Justice is, in this
country at least, limited largely to
the mountain whites. No man of
enlightenment grants the right of a
ruler anywhere to stamp out a HUI
man life arbitrarily as Of old. Phys
lcal disability in a babe to-day merits
more u sympathy than slaughter.
Gradually we are coming to recog-
n1ze the rights and privileges of the
children who + yet unborn. Ven
dettas are unpopular, and the mere
threat to kill is, very properly, suf1-
Gent to put a mar under bonds to
keep the peace. Nowhere is the
murderer safe from the clutches of
outraged law. Does he STAY his vic
tim here, then whittier shall he fee?
The minions who upholds the law
in Mohammedan Turkey will hound
him to the earth to return him to the
scene of his fortal sin in the borders
OF Christian America. Here and there
a few f~ar-seeing souls declare that
even the State has no business to ex-
act an eye for an eye, a life for a
life, and they say that society has no
more right to cut short a human
career than has that unit of society
the individual. Yes, the recognition
by the world of the wisdom Of this
commandment is greater to-day than
ever before, but 1t is not yet what
it should be.
To kill a mar is to deprive him of
life. But the process may be varied
and the length of time consumed
in sitting the light of life may be
greater or less, according to the
means employed. Thou shalt not
kill" says the commandment, and
instinctively we picture the quarrel,
the hot fight, the hand quick to STAY.
Thou shalt not KILL" and we see
the gun, the axe, the poison, the
bludgeon. Thou shalt not KILL"
and the vision of a sharp, keen con-
fict, man to man, or of the silent,
sudden blow flashes into the minds
view. Yes, each photograph is true
to some scene in life. To these the
law refers! But is this all? Is it
always the axe or the poison or the
gun that fells a soul into eternity?
MlSj the murderer be the man with
the instrument of immediate death?
Are the murders which are the re-
suit Of overt crime the only killings
that take place? I think not. Slow
work is not so fast, but it is just as
sure. The breaking of a human heart
By ill-treatment, either in word or
act, is murder, though the papers
hear of it. Constant abuse
may end a life, though the body show
a scar.
The man who hounds his family
to an early grave with physical
abuse is a murderer. The smooth
and careless youth who breaks his
mothers heart is no less guilty than
the man who brains me with a maui.
The scurrilous and INSCRIPTIONS
writer's who hold honest men up to
obliquy and shatter sensitive souls
till the hand of death draws them out
into the other life, are guilty of a
mortal crime. The man who grinds
the men who labor till they welcome
death with joy is soiled with blood.
The company of respectable and mon
eyed men who use their reputable
names to float financial schemes and
then ruin those who, trusting them,
have put their all into their keeping,
r guilty of robbery least of all.
The record of the starved, the brok-
en-hearted, the insane, the suicides,
is but the corollary of their greed.
The man who sells his neighbor
poison, be that poison arsenic or
whisky, is accessory before the fact
to a suicide. The employment of
children in factory and mining work
before their time is almost murder
in the first degree.
My friends, anything that tends to
destroy or prematurely to curtail
human life is a means to murder,
and the men who set into motion the
forces of unrighteousness that deal
and hasten death are criminals in
the sight of God, though the law may
eve touch them. Far be it from
me to say that many of the men who
commit these indirect murders have
any real intention to cause misery
or to commit crime. But the truth
is that they are none the less cul-
pable. The one thing that is needed
is a clear-cut vision of the meaning
of the commandment which frames
u text. The need is for sharp and
unmistakeable definition of what it
is to kill. The eyes of men must be
opened to their personal responsible
tty for the outcome OF their acts. A
new realization of the fullness of the
command of Christ must infll every
human heart. Moral laziness must
give the way to moral clarity of Wis
ion. Spiritual indifference must yield
the road to spiritual insight. The
Christ must come into all mems
hearts, not in small measure, but
with a fullness that shall leave no
room for unrighteousness. We must
train our minds to thoughtfulness
for others, and not to satisfaction of
self. The money in our purses ought
to burn our very souls if we see upon
it any tinge of blood. The health
and happiness of the man who tolls,
and bends a weary back that we may
live in luxury, must be our are. The
amelioration and betterment of the
life of all the world should be our
constant aim. AS Christian individ-
aals we should guard the life of
every human soul.
AS the right of the Individual to
Stay his brother is denied by the
commandment, so also implicitly the
right of society to take human life
is questioned. The murderer is an
enemy to society, and for the best
welfare of the many it is wisest to
keep him under guard. But the prin-
ciple Of the lex %talionis, the life ex-
acted for the life destroyed, is I'M
Christian, and in the light of the
teachings of Jesus is u~nwarranted.
The State lowers itself and commits
rasl sin when If wreakS tha Dena1tv