Year: 1859




By REV. L. B. WALswoRTH.


"lf man smite another with an instrument
of iron so that he die. he is n Murderer the
murderer shall surely be put to death. And
II he smite him with throwing stone where
with he may die he is a murderer, the mur-
derer shall surely be put to death. Or if he
smite him with an hard weapon Of wood
wherewith he may die and he die, he is a
murderer, the murderer shall surely be put to
DEATH"


am, perhaps, as reluctant as any person
who stands in a sacred desk to bring the ex-
citing subjects of the day into the pulpit
Those VINO have heard me in this place for
the more than six years | have heen in ii.
will Lear me witness that have. in the midst
of the great popular excitements through
which we have pissed during that long pc
riod, presented to you here only those themes
which have as | have thought, b1en best
adapted to your religious progress and i'm
provement. have pursued this course. not
because have not tried to keep myself in
formed on the various matters of current in
terest, nor because | have not had an indie
pendent and decided opinion of my own on
those matters which in other places have
freely and unhesitating,y express d, but be-
ShuSe uhNt 6u Ltlub lllOSU oI bUOSG mat
ters which so often stir up the public mind in
tempests of excited feeling, had better be left
to the secular press to discussions on the
street and to places of public gathering.


This morning, however, | SO far depart
from my usual custom as to make the great
event of the past week, an occasion for the
subject which shall present to your atten-
tion. Two men who have filled two Of the
highest offices in the gift of this Common.
wealth nave by false sense Of honor, been
dawn to the field OF personal conflict, and one
of them, as the result now lies cold in death.
Without entering, at all, into the eXcitements
which have filled so many minds or taking
any part In the controversy which has been
awakened by the melancholy event to which
l allude, and which is no doubt only the be
ginning of what will end in still more disas
tous results to the fame and higher prosperi-
ties of our State, deem the present suita-
ole occasion to call your attention to the bar
barous and bloody custom of settling disputes
and avenging ones honor by resort to the
duel


dwell upon this theme now, because there
may be some who will hear at this time what
at other times they cannot be nade to bear.
| dwell upon it now because with the pait full
results of this cruel custom, SO fresh in our
minds, we may perchance have awakened in
our bosoms sense of the personal response
bility we each one have in putting down
practice so aOhoTent to the la ws Of God and
man.


The passage which have taken as text. is
one among the many which we find in the
Bible In which we get glimpse OF the worth
aad sncreduess which God would have at
tached to man as a man. These words were
nit In,
Y ears ago. They were written at a time
when men were regarded hy those in power,
as but little more than beasts of burden or
beasts of prey, Humqn lives were valued
only as they were of use, their imperious mas
ters, in their devastating wars, or to building
pyramids or cities as majestic records of their
reign. No worth attached to man because
he was a man. nor as one who had II great
and solemn mission to meet himself personal
1y on the earth. In the midst of this dcrrad. |
ing despotism that had been spread over all
nations the voice of God, is heard ringing
out clear as in the text, in an endeavor tn
reseai man with the image in which he had
been made and awaken him to a conscious
sense of his intrinsic dignity and worth To
do this his life h IRE is made a halowed thing.
guarded with all the awe and solemnitv
which the highest Divine sanction can throw
around it. The gift of life how God pro-
tects it and what muttelings of his vengeance
roll against the hand that ever dares in law.
less violence to lift itself against it. And
yet high as the barriers are which God has
attempted to place areund human life, how
eften are those walls sealed, but in no way
that IS more abhorrent to every instinct of |
a truly noGle nature, and more opposed toal |
of the purposes ard laws Of God than by
what we call the Code of Honor BY this |
we mean a system which allows an attack |
upon human life under the cover of an hon
orable act and justii 9 it on the same ground |
that we justify self fence against attacks
of premeditated violence. 1t sets up a Gus
tom that pUblic opinion in many places sane
items, and in sustaining which it tramples |
rutllessly under foot all laws human aud Di |
vine THAI In ANY way may he in conflict with /
it. 1t stands indeed, above all law and bids |
defiance to all authority whick in any way
may interfere with the stern purposes which |
it has in view. This Code starts out with |
principle which it calls honor, but it is an
honor in which there is no endesvor to have |
a conscience void of offence towards God and |
man--no attachment ts truth or justice, or
right, or a standing up for what is regarded !
as an enactment Of human law, but rather Il
cold and stern upholding of those unnatural
rules which those who adhere to the Code
have established, and the intercourse which |
they have among themselves as men. 1t |
makes a man an offender for word, and for |
a word, too, spoken in the eXasperations of
passion and the eXctements OF debate. For |
these uNguarded words, by this Code, no
atonement can be made but by the loss Of /
precious life. 1t knows no forgiveness and |
has no mercy 1t is fiendish and bloody 1t |
is fu of suspicion easily hurt, always vul. |
nerable, ever open to insult and resents the
slightest injury by a call to the field of deadly |
conflict where no satisfaction can be had hut |
by the fullest exposure Of limb an Of life. - !
It pauses not dinarily in its gloomy inquest
till gaping wounds stare open to the sun md |
vital blood has been dawn. 1t takes ont of
Gods hand the vengeance which He says be
longs alone to film. 1t is therefore an insalt |
to cur civilization. a mockery Of human pro
gress, and ruthless defiance of every prin- |
ciple of religion and Of morality. l. Among |
the many reasons which go to make this |
Code of Honor so cold blooded and afro
cious, these to my mind are the more appar |
,ent- One is because Of the false STANDARD Of
Aonor Which 1t sets up among men There is |
,srth thing as true honor. and to maintain |
it a man should be willing to sacrifice every |
thing he has, even life itself. The elements |
of this kind of honor, however, are justice
and an answering obedience to law. 1t has
all of those noble qualities which we may |
conceive of as most nearly allying one, in his |
moral character, to God. 1t has integrity, |
uprightness, purity and truth. 1t eutivates
all that can give worth to domestic social or
public life 1t makes him who has it, 70 on