The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1919-03-13
SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON
Especially Prepared For Readers Of
The Republican.
SUNDAY. MARCH

THE AGELESS PROBLEM.
The land has been won in fashion
for the book of Judges reveals the
patches of uncontrolled territory that
persisted in the land. But the invad-
ers were in the assendancy thru the
crushing defeats which Joshua had ad-
ministered to the various groups of
petty soVereIgns who had opposed him.
Then followed the outlining of the ter
rltorY to be occupied by the various
tribes. Our own colonial history is a
Vivid commentary upon conditions and
singularly enough there were thirteen
colonies and an equal number of tribes
the Levi was distributed among the
rest, Hostile Indians still defed the
settlers as in Israel's case. Lawless-
ness was settled by individual or local
action and Judge Lynch was the chief
presiding official. A rude sense Of JUS
tice guarded home and life but the pri-
vate punishment that might create the
family feud, still an institution in some
of our hills, was its executive. Relig-
ion was in both cases the underlying
basis upon which society builded itself
and in which were found the sanctions
for the attempts at order. Both march
ed out of their chaos into ordered gov
eminent and national power but neither
solved the ageless problem which is still
with US in such force that we are prob
ably the people having the highest per-
centage Of murders in the world. Ger
tainly single state furnishes more
than all England. Massachusetts
spends $3.50 for punishment for every
one that is used to cure the causes of
crime and she is probably our most
progressive ia social matters. That we
are realizing the seriousness of the sit
uaton promises much and the study
that is going on and the attempts at re-
lief being undertaken viii surely lead
to large advance. The League of Ne
tons is the latest example of a method
of doing away with international crime
and end an old era of blood revenge
that paralelled the individuals punish
ment in which he was judge, jury and
executioner all In one.
ISRAEL s ATTEMPTED CURE.
1t was a long step forward when the
people took out of the hands of the IN
dIvidnal the right to punish. The near
est klnsman OF the slain became the
ayenger and blood must be paid with
plood. PRIVATE passion does not geek
justice 80 the people declared that priv
klTlHS
refuge were provided so that the party
offending might nave some form of
trial before sentence should be passed.
The Elders listened to the plea of the
fugitive at the gate of the city and if If
appeared in that first examination that
heswas innocent of deliberate murder
then proceedings were STAYED bv his
admission within the walls. If he were
judged guilty the avenger did his will.
Then after the first heat of passion had
cooled trial that might be held in his
home town was given before the conpre-
CATION and if he were judged innocent
of any intentional wrong tho a man had
died at his hand he must be conducted
safely back to the City of Refuge where
he was a practical prisoner until the
day of death of the High Priest when
he would be free to go where he pleas
ed. Society had advanced to the DO
sltion that it must assume responsibility
for the securing of justice for every
member OF 1t that it was injured by
any failure of justice both in crime and
penalty. This was only a temporary
expedient for these cities disappear
from the later record under ordered
government.
The IMPERFECT POLICY.
The family was the unit of society
and it was the family that bore the
punishment instead of the individual.
Joshua condemned the children of
Achan to death for the theft of their
father. Even in the DAYS of Ahab the
family of Naboth suffered stoning for
the crime of one. Not until the DAYS
of Amasiah I'll Kings 14:6) was elem
ency shown the family of the condem-
ned criminal. And since these cities of
refuge were not prisons for the guilty
but asylums for the doors of accidental
wrong the family of the convicted per-
son must have been limited to resi-
dence also and had a share in the
grounds which lay in the suburbs so
that there was full productivity tho the
range of movement was restricted. If
they shared his guilt they shared equ-
ally his innocence tho bearing with him
the consequences of his act, Israel ex-
celled US in this for we Jail the bread
winner and make no provision for the
family but often visit the severer per.
atty both socially and economically upon
them He must now toll for the state at a
wage that makes him dangerous COM
petitor with open industry but none of
it goes to the family now lett social
outcasts without any income from the
old bread-earner. He should be paid
for his work living wage that should
go to the support of his home during
his incarceration. Virtually, this
Israelite was paroled prisoner with an
indeterminate sentence and we NAV
still learn something from these old
attempts to solve the problem at which
we still work
The BASIS OF THE LAW.
These cities were sacred places so
that not only were they in the custody
of the Levites but were sheltered by
the religious traditions that conferred
there. The entire scheme grew out of
the religious passion of the Hebrew ex-
pressing its humanitarian ideals. And
every advance since has been motived
by the same spirit fostered and increas-
ed by the teaching and life of our Lord.
His whole power was bent upon re-
moving crime by redeeming the crimi-
nal THE criminal is either born a
criminal or made criminal. He is en-
titled to our pity as man diseased or a
man deformed; in either case a man
needing to be cured" expresses the
Christly passion. And the record made
by many released Englishmsn upon