The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1914-02-27
Law and Its Penalty.

ems man at the bottom Of his moral
nature; grace at the top. Law utters
its eternal mandate, Thou shalt not
go farther down." Grace calls to his
higher nature in hopeful accents, Set
your affections on things above. Sin
is lawlessness; Righteousness is the exer-
else of grace. Lawlessness leads to suf-
iering; grace to happiness. Law is as
eternal as God; grace as boundless as
His infnitude. All law, in the last
analysis, ema1ates from God; grace is
His glorious alternative, freely, lovingly,
offered to the children of men. Wrong
can never by any legislative act become
right. Even God cannot convert wrong
into right. All that is right may be
prostituted into wrong. Conduct is rep
rehensible when it violates law, and
praiseworthy when it answers the call
Of grace to seek the things which are
above. Legislation is lawful only when
it seeks to prevent crime; it is always
unlawful when it seeks to legalize crime.
Law has two aspects-one to prevent
crime, the other to protect society.
Thou shalt not STEAL" because il one
steals he becomes thief, and by steal
ing deprives his fellow man of that
which is his own. Woe unto him
that giveth his neighbor drink. that
puttest the bottle to him and makest
him drunk also that thou mayest look
on their nakedness!' because drunkard-
making is o vicious act and damaging
to society. All the legislation in the
world cannot make stealing right, nor
can it make the saloon business virtu-
Gus. Both are eternally wrong wrong
to human society; wrong il there were
no God. Law, to be effective, must
have penalty. The lawless cannot go
unpublished; indeed, they never do, for
a lawless act brings its own punishment
in the moral injury which it inaicts on
the perpetrator thereof. The man who
steals is thief; the drunkard hurts him
self morally, Intellectually and phys
ically. People refuse to believe liar
and he loses his character for truthful
ness. Lust brings social ostracism. Sin,
which is lawlessness, inflicts wound.
But there must be penalty which will
protect society; for society, which is
humanity in the aggregate, is worth
more than an individual. Hence, for
the protection of human society, there
are courts of justice, executors OF the
law, fines, jails, penitentiaries, and, in
extreme cases, the forfeiture of life
itself. In the finally OF government
hell is necessity. First, because ac-
cumulated vice in a conscious, reason
ing, remembering creature is hell; and,
secondly, because heaven must be pro-
tected from the venom OF the vicious.
II Gods government did not require
this it would be as ineffective in pro-
noting virtue and restraining crime as
the hymns Of the Veda. Law, to be
effective, must have penalty; and if
the execution of the law is put into the
hands of one charged with its execu-
ton, and he refuses or neglects to exc
cute the law and enforce its penalty, he
becomes criminal himself, because he
refuses or neglects to protect society
against the conduct OF the vicious.
This is always true, and everywhere
true, whether the fault is with the grand
jury, the judge, the prosecuting attor-
ney, the sheriff, the mayor, the police,
humanity or God. The violation Of law
must be punished, and is; il in no other
way, by the loss OF confidence which its
executor sustains in rejecting or neglect
ing to uphold its dignity and righteous
ness. 1t is not good plan to fall out
with one who disagrees with you. After
all women may have to vote to help
adjust some things. The hands that
rock the cradle must help rule the
world. s. f. w.