The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1922-05-26

$1,000
the world to come will refine them as |
God has purified by fire, and that
out of the soil of punishment Will !
spring fair flower of penitence
and of faith and of purity. oh! L
wish to God l could believe that! l
wish it were true, but l am COM !,
PEELED to face the fact that the over T,
whelming majority of prisoners in
the penitentiaries and jails have been
in prisoned from one to six times
before.
l am compelled to face some facts.
l wish l didn't have to do it. l am
compelled to face the fact that an
attack of delirium tremens doesn't
have a curative effect on the man in
the grip of strong drink. No sooner
does he get over that than he will
ium tremens, and do the thing he
knows will give him second attack.
Now, isn't that a fact? All right!
Wants to Reply
To Liars
You are up against some things. l
want to show you that a lot of these
old liars have been leading you
wrong. That is what l want to do.
! am compelled to face the fact
that punishment, instead of uplift-
ing life, and sweetening it, and
verse, it degrades, brushes and en-
crushed, my friend, of all are the men
ment in our day for the reform of our
penal institutions and prisons is based
on the fact that our method of pun
ishing criminals with a straight
jacket and the thumb-screw and the
black cell and all that-we have been
turning them out on society at the
end of their terms a darn sight worse
than they were when they went in
there. That is what we have been
doing.
l say our method of Furnishing
them instead of sweetening and
changing, has. done the reverse. Now,
our universe is all one piece and the
law that operates in one realm oper-
ates in the other Therefore, if pun
ishment doesn't purify and change
and make better in this world, you
big idiot, on what ground do you
argue that punishment in the next
world would do what it doesn't do in
this one?
He'll is Not
A College
No! 1t is impossible for anybody
that can think straight or see straight,
/ to believe that punishment in the
next world would have a redemptive
and purifying effect upon the sins.
| He'll is not college where you enter
| the freshman class of SIN and degrad
alton, and graduate with wings in
your senior year And your whole
! life tends to harden as the years GO
| by and make more and more improba
Bile any new decision or venture on
your part.
Biology, with its laws of the de
fvitalizing of the unused organs, has
told you, if you have them and don't
use them, you lose them. That is
true mentally, spiritually, every way
Every time you do a thing, it is cas-
Ter for you to do that same thing the
next time, whether what you did was
right or wrong. That is what we cal
the accumulative force of habit al
through.
Dogs turn around before they liz
down because dogs did that years ago
So all of these things, folks, if | hat
no scripture to back it up, which
have, they'd plant no flap Of hope ove
the grave of the sinner. Y wish the,
did.
And every known law of our being
physical, mental and moral is a silen
preacher of the fact that the older WI
grow, the longer we live, the NOR,
difficult it will be for you to maxi
any radical decision or moral ven
f-,r l,aT &c ~
therefore, as we grow older, is easie
for the old people to be convertet
than the young? 1t is easier for tn,
young people to be converted and tn
older you grow, the less your chance
All right, that is true in this world
The older you grow in the next, tn
longer you will be there, and the olde
you grow the harder you will groy
here. That is right, and you know it
You are UP against it.
No Chance After
!, Death
The assurance of a chance to re
pent after death would remove one c
the greatest moral restraints of tn
human race. OH 1t may not
fair, my friend, and it may be tina
fact is not the highest motive to il
spire man to be decent. / am pc
fectly free to admit sir. it is fine
thing to be decent and honorable an
: Christian because it is right and b.
cause God wants you to be that wa!
:. than it is to be a Christian for fea
. you will go to hell if you don't.
: will admit it, but ! don't give
I rap what keeps you out of hell an
makes you a Christian, if it is b.
cause of your love for God and 20
want to do it because it is right an
honorable, or because you fear thu
I you will go to hell if you don't. So
d don't care what you do as long as yo
/ do it. That is scripturaI, too, just tn
r same.
:, Now, hell may deter as many pc
L pie from doing wrong as Gods 10y
may WOO. Don't everybody roper
because God loves them Not ever
i one of them that does. No, sir, b
s wait minute. | am not such a 70
as to shut my eyes to the fact tn;
S ii the spectre of fear, both temper
r and eternal, were removed, it wou
II mean the loosening of a hoard
d follies and passions and the floo
S gates of human iniquity would
n lifted and perfect panorama
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