Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1922-02-06
Points to Corruption From
Union of Dissolute and
Fceblc-Minded.
CHRISTIAN RELIGION !;
ONE OF FRIENDSHIP
Points to Vicious Criminal
System Which Makes No Ef.
fort at Reformation.

Rev. II. ID. C. Machlachlan. d. D..
pastor OF Seventh Street Christian
church, preached last night ON The
Bishop OF D."
Ills sermon. in part, follows:
somewhere I'm the work Of cyorv
constructive artist whose subject 10
man. you Will catch him at work IN
his ideai-some one form or character
over which his hand lingcrs moro
lovingly than on the rest. For
Shakespeare, there is Henry w; for
Rohcrn Browning. Pompilia; for
Walter Scott, Jennie Deans: for
Charles Dickens. Sidney Carton: for
Richard wagner. Persifal: for Soph-
ceres. Antigone; for Euripides, Alces-
It's: for Tcnnyson. Sir Gallahad: for
Victor Hugo, the Bishop OF D
in Les Miserablcs"-a masterpIece
within masterpiece.
Model Is NnmiStnknblc.
Nowhere in literature is there a
more convincing study Of the sacri-
icia' Character as the real re-
demptivc force In human life. what
Francis dAssissi Is to church history,
the bishop is to Christian literature.
Hugo would not indeed identify the
Bishop with Christ: he Is too good an
artist to put Christ Himself on tho
stage. Yet the model is unmistak-
able. The Bishop is Hugo's tribute
to perfection OF which tho best
copy must follow afar off.
1t Is only within the last half
century that the Christian conscience
has awakened to the social impli-
cations OF the gospel and is begin
ming ~ trace back the sins OF the
Individual to the seed-bed In the ig-
1 n it,.
the greed. the prejudice organized
In our social habits and institutions.
1t is well known, e. g., that tho
average criminal intelligence is low.
but we are only beginning to rea-
lie that something is wrong with
the society that permits SO many OF
its wards to grow up in the ignorance
which prcdisposes to crime.
Society Held To blame.
We, are told that perhaps seventy
five per cent OF the N1aEdalene class
are OF low-g rade mortality; but It
Is the feeble mil ded. the drunken
and the dissolute that beget the
feeble minded, and hence IL Is So
ciety itself with its miserably loose
marriage laws that is the real source
of it's own corruption. The first Of
tender is thrown into jail and comes
out hardened. embittercd. less So
cially competent than when he went
in.
Who Is responsible? In part. no
doubt, the man himself; but in far
larger part the vicious criminal sys-
tenn that permits our jails and peni-
tentiaries TO be merely punitive in
stitutions with all sorts of dehuman-
ring accomplishments, instead of re-
FORM schools in which punishment is
correlated with sincere effort to
educate the inmates to better things
ard turn them out equipped to take
their place as useful members Of
the social organism
Nothing Needed More,
pray YOU" said old Tir. Thomas
More What other thing do we do
man make criminals and then punish
them?"
Ana the sum OF the matter is, Chris
liahlty is the religion of friendsbjn
Is there anything we need more? n
was when ihc-Bishop called him
brother" that the light began to dawn
on Jean Naijean's soul. 1 have rec
entry been reading book called
Men Who Came Back" containing
me ilfe-story of a number OF neonIo
VINO having broken tho laws OF Cod
ana man. finally made good" And
ihough the details differ widely. there
Is one common feature in al, ,hasa
StoricS-a friend