The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1915-09-23
Wayside MeditatiOns
By "Optno"
Lazarus, Come Forth
Lazarus, Come Forth!

prison is 80 far advanced in moral
putrefaction that it were an ill-ad-
vised act to open the doors of the
prison tomb and bid the social and
political corpse come forth.
Just what the nature of Lazarus
illness was we do not know, nor is
it imperative that we should know;
the argumentative analogy is neither
enhanced nor detracted from be-
cause of our lack of knowledge on
that score.
We, you and /, have contracted
moral disease; we have been taken
i'll in more or less virulent form.
This moral illness has terminated
in living death; and society at the
hands of her undertaken, (The
Law, has buried us in the State
Sepulchre.
Lazarus illness may have been
contracted thru contagion by hav-
ing come in contact with persons
who were already diseased, just as
individuals of the present day be-
come morally contaminated thru
association with those already NOR
ally diseased. Hence, much care
should be exercised in the choice of
companions. Again, Lazarus ILL.,
ness may have been the result of
hereditary weakness and suscepti-
bility to disease; just as the out
break of moral disease in our case
may have been the natural sequence
of inherited evil transmitted to us
by some one or more of our fore
bears. We, as individuals, are best
able to define the cause which had
it's elimination in moral disease and
quasi-death. We know whether it
has been evil associates and morally
unwholesome surroundings that has
infected us witt the virus of moral
disease, or whether we have had
healthful and wholesome surround
ings; have moved in good society
with no necessity for DETECTION from
the safe and sane path of moral rec
titude; and yet Notwithstanding all
the advantages and honors that
have been ours, we have committed
errors which we are utterly unable
to account for on any other hypoth-
esis than that of inherited moral
disease. This does not necessarily
imply that we inherited moral per-
versity directly from our father or
mother, but rather we might trace
1t back thru many generations, and,
as we have stated in former article
the propensity to evil may have
increased in potency until finally it
broke out in virulent form in your
case, or mine.
Whatever the cause has been the
result is the same; we are socially
and politically, dead men. We are
as a stencil in the nostrils of society.
We are as putrefying sore on the
body polite. We are as a noise
some pestilence segregated from the
ordinary walks of life for the pro-
lection of society.
] Messiah stood beside the sepul-
chre wherein lay the body of Laz-
arus, and enunciated the command:
Lazarus, come FORTH" And he
that was dead came forth"
Messiah, here represents indls-
putable authority and power; auth
ority to command, and power to ex-
ecute. In our particular and Pc
culiar case there are four specific
powers vested with authority to is
sue the command: Lazarus come
forth" These are: The Board of
Pardons, The Parole Board, the
termination of the maximum SEN
tence, and death. This last, needs
no consideration in this article, for
by it's very nature it has no bearing
on the question at issue.
When the members of the first, or
second bodies enumerated above are