The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-09-29
DEATH PENALTY
 HELD STAIRWAY TO CIVILIZATION
Dr. George Stuart Speaks On Execution Of
 Criminals

civilization; and it is through fear oi the death penalty that the level of the present day civilization may be raised declared Rev. George Stuart in his Sun day night sermon at the First Method ist church on "ShaIl Criminals bt ExecutedT'
 Dr. Stuart took as his text tht seventeenth and eighteenth verses oi Matthew "; portion of Christ's ser mon on the Mount, Think not that come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am not come to destroy but to fulfill -nUryerfiy I say unto you till Heaven and earth shall pass, one iot or one little shall in no wise pass from the law, till Ill be fulfilled.
 s.. sentencs Explicit
 ..No sentence could be more explicit than this one of Chirst's," Dr.. Stuart said, in referring to the text ot the beginnig of his sermon. Christ salo that he came not to destroy the law but to fulfill 1t. Filling thing full is not destroying it, it is completing it.
 "He emphatically says, Not one joi or little shall pasF from the law as long as the world stands. Now to show in the Sermon on the Mount that he had reference to the whole Jewish law, He takes up three of the Ten Commandments and two of the Mosiae laws not contained in the Ten Com mandments, showing by these five H. lustfations that He intends to cover the whole law. ;,
 sThe First Commandment He takes up as an illustration is concerned with murder. 'Ye have heard it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill and whosoeyer killa shall be in danger of the judgment, but say unto you whosoever is angry with his brother without cause, shall be in danger Of the judgment.
 Christ is teaching that as civiliza- ton is progressive. we climb step by ytep from legalized bondage to civilized freedom. The laws by which we ascend ran no more be destrayed that the stair way leading from a lower to higher plane.
 May Not Ned Stairway
 s'When anyone has reached the higher plane, he may nosleAger need the stair way, but as long aa there is human being. on earth on the lower plane the stairway must remath.
 sTo understand The Christian law. { we must in some degree understand .the purpose of the Maw-giver, The Bible dearly taught us that at time when there was no highly civilized tribe or 5. nation on earth, God undertook to pro- nf .xxyni ievelop a civilized nation of the highest type. 5s
 "He selected Abraham and his family. Out of this family slowly developed tribe and out of this. tribe developed h nation. He began with a savage with the prospective ending in civilian ton. A savage is legally on the same level ,asa brute. If there are five briltes with dens s5Iear each other and one of the fife secures a body desired by of the. remaining four, of any possess the physical strength he will attack the one with the boody and if necessary destroy him and take the boody.
 "If there are five savage tribes living .near each other, they will pursue the same course.
 ts Inrc0 frOGectlVo Laws
 '@The first protective law. therefor In attempting to bring savages to civi- lization must be Thou shalt not kilP. There are three protective laws in the ,Decalogue, namely; Thou shalt not EilI,' Thou shalt not commit adultry,' and Thou shalt noE steal These three laws guarantee life, home and property. This constitutes the first step from sayagery to civilization, and while na- tions are savage, the protective laws must exist
 "But when they are thoroughly. civl- lized. after the manner of the Christian c;vilization, which Christ set forth, men will not desire to take his brothers life. his brothers wife or his brothers s nroperty., But as long as there are un- civilized men on earth who will at tempt to take his brothers life, his brothers wife or his brothers property, not one jot or title of this law can mass away. -ts hlf
 When this law is fulfilled, that civilization will have been reached which is contemplated in Christ's gospel,
 "Now if any man thinks we have reached the period of Christian civiliza- ton where there are mo uncivilized people, let hinsread the criminal records of each weeka and contemplate the tragedies as heistaland savage as the attack of the lion upon the lamb.
 Crime Demands Seventy
 'fWhen a woman poisons an innocent husband and her paramoor poisons an innocet wife, who has been true and faithful, in order that they might ac- complish their desires with each other {; when a man trAnping along the high way. shall beg' hailed by a passerby, kindly asked to take seat in his auto mobile, and enj jag his hospitality for the day and murder him in the evening, taking his automobile and personal pro perty; when, the axman shall enter a stare with his deadly weapon concealed, finding the tired merchant and his wife counting the small sales of the day, knocks them in the head, leaving them brainlcss on the floor and carries away their little caslIdrawer when hundreds of cases like thRse fill the columns of our press day by day, how can society be protected without laws as severe inseffect as the crime?
 "Nothing holds the better class of citizens, rich or poor, ignorant or learn ed, from the vicious alass except the strong arm of the law and the uplifted hammer of execution.
 "The reason 4Swild animal flees from the face of asfnan in the forest or the jungle is beca1se he fears for his life. The only way God could bring a nation from savagery to civilization was to- put at the door of every crime the strong arm of execution.
 ''In the old Mosaic law, all the crimes that tended to destroy the march to higher civilization were punishable by death. An eye for an eye and tooth for a toothf, was the servere law