Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1907-05-16
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"a SERMON %24$
(lM!',MHtNDEeSeNN
49,.
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-
ition to recognize the inalienable
right of all men to life is not widely
recognized in our day, in view of the
T professed love of our forefathers and
us for God and the Christ. With no
circumlocution and no wavering of
the voice, Moses speaks out for God
principle that the modern world,
! as the nations of all ages have done,
disregards. To be sure the civiliza-
ton of to-day is better in general
than the manner of life thousands of
years ago. We do not kill our neigh
bors out in the open to gain our
food. 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
| ical disability in babe to-day merits
! more our sympathy than slaughter.
/ Gradually we are coming to recog-
| niZe the rights and privileges Of the
| children who are yet unborn. Ven
| dettas are unpopular, and the mere
threat to kill is, very properly, suffi-
| cient to put man under bonds to
keep the peace. Nowhere is the
murderer safe from the clutches OF
outraged law. Does he slay his vic
tim here, then whittier shall he fee? s?
| tut do {h0 To-
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
few far-seeing souls declare that
even the State has no business to ex-
act an eye for an eye, life for q
life, and they say that society has nc
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 thi:
commandment is greater to-day thar
ever before, but it is not yet wha
it should be.
To kill a man is to deprive him O.
life. But the process may be varied
and the length of time consumed
in sitting the light of life may b.
greater or less, according to thu
means employed. '"Thou shalt no
kill" says the commandment, ant
instinctively we picture the quarrel
the hot fight, the hand quick to slay
''Thou shalt not kill" and we se'
the gun, the axe, the poison, th'
bludgeon "Thou shalt not kill,
and the vision of sharp, keen con
} f1ict, man to man, or of the silent
sudden blow flashes into the mind
| fe ~,
to some scene in life. To these tn
law refers! But is this all? Is i
always the axe or the poison or tn
gun that fells a soul into eternity
,, Must the murderer be the man witt
: the instrument of immediate death
} Are the murders which are the re
: suit of overt crime the only killing
, that take place? I think not. Sloy
work is not SO fast, but it is just a
sure. The breaking Of human hear
by ill-treatment, either in word o
! act, is murder, though the paper
; never hear of it. Constant abus
; may end life, though the body sno,
| | never a scar.
The man who hounds his fami1
!, to an early grave with physica
abuse is a murderer. The smoot
and careless youth who breaks hi
mothers heart is no less guilty tha
: the man who brains me with a mau
The scurrilous and unscrupulou
writer's who hold honest men up t
obliquy and shatter sensitive soul
till the hand of death draws them OF
into the other life, are guilty of
3 mortal crime. The man who grind
: the men who labor till they welcom
e death with JOY is soiled with bloot
l I1l> -
! eyed men who use their reputabl
names to float financial schemes an
then ruin those who, trusting then
have put their all into thei. Aecpin'
are guilty of robbery least n al
The record of the starved, the brol
! en-hearted, the insane, the suicide
!, is hut the cnrollarY of their gree