The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1920-12-31
PARDON

for the purpose of giving our under
standing of its application to all the
sinful inhabitants of the earth.
But we refrained from doing so while
the Mendenhall case was pending for
fear that it might have been construed
as applying particularly to his case
and written in his behalf.
We have been taught to believe al
most from infancy that pardon was
one of the strong pillars of the Chris
tan religion. That it is its ultima
thule.
Since our earliest recollection we
have heard sung in the churches:
AS long as the lamp holds out to burn,
The vilest sinner may return
Not only the sin of bowling down
before idols and worshipping false
gods, and the sin of unbelief, but
moral and statutory sins, the sins
against the commandments Numbered
from Sinai.
Those sins beginning with; Thou
shalt not
And we still hear, preached from the
pulpits:
Though thy sins be as scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow; though
they be red like crimson, they shall
| be as WOOL"
We have heard no one in the pulpit
or in the press oppose this doctrine.
If this be true, and it is true, why
is it when our pardoning board, COM
posed of the governor of the state, the
the treasurer, the attorney general,
and the commissioner of agriculture,
| supposed to be men of probity and
honor, after carefully going oyer the
testimony and in certain cases extend
ing clemency, be so severely criticised
and especially by some of those loud
est in chanting the hymns above re-
ferred to?
When these public servants occupy
ing those important stations, are con-
vinced that certain ones convicted or
crime, have made sufficient atone
ment, have undergone sufficient
punishment and degradation for their
misdeeds, and are not only judged to
be safe to mingle with their follows in
the outside world, but because Of their
thorough repentance and reformation
will illustrate in their lives a story
that will be helpful to humanity, why
inveigh against the pardoning board
for exercising this fundamental creed
of the Christian religion?
What example have we to go by?
Permit us to name a few.
Cain was the first child born of wo-
man into this world In fit Of
jealousy and anger he slew his broth
er Abel
How was he punished? He was not
beheaded. He was not guilotined
He was not hanged. He was not cleo
trocuted. A brand was put upon him.
DR.. Richard Watson, most emin-
ent theologian, says that its object
was not to aggravate but to mitigate
his punishment. He says that it init
mates that Cain had manifested repent
ance and the reward of repentance,
as we all know, is clemency.
We might mention Moses as being
the next great example. In fact his
lustration of atonement and pardon is
perhaps the greatest in history
He was selected to lead the children
of Israel out of the land of bondage.
In his wanderings in the wilderness,
having crossed the Red sea On foot
dry shod, he was led by a. pillow of
cloud by day" and pillow of fire by
night" and his great army of fugitive
people were fed on mamma direct from
heaven God appeared to him in a.
burning bush and it was to him the
tables of stone, containing the divine
decalogue, were delivered.
What had Moses been? What crime
had he committed?
The story goes that when he look
ed this way and that way" and saw no
one looking, he "slew the Egyptian
and-hid him in the sand"
His hands were stained with the
blood of fellow creature, yet he was
forgiven and became wonderful in
strument in the hands of his Creator
as the greatest law giver of the ages.
Abraham was a dissembler and
Jacob, by craftiness, cheated his elder
brother of his birthright
And what about David?
God took him to his bosom and