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10 (518) T H E I
They are charging God with treating them unjustly.
They are charging God with favortism,
for along writh their discontent at their own condition
there arises in their minds the picture of
the greater good fortuhe of others who are no
more deserving.
If such good brethren would withdraw their
gaze from the far horizon and fasten their attention
upon the field right at them; and if,
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things done poorly, they would do one thing well,
they would be surprised how richly God would
bless them and their labors and how much cooperation
they would find had always been lying
around ready for them to pick up, but they had
been too blind to see it.
CONTEMPT OF COURT.
We do not use the terra "contempt of court"
in the official, technical sense, but as expressing
that more vague, undefined, yet real attitude
towards our judiciary and legal process
in general which prevails among the masses
of the people. It is a fact which cannot he
denied or disguised that our courts do not command
the unqualified confidence of the people,
and judicial process and findings, so far from
satisfying them, in many cases, only exasperate.
The numerous disorders against courts
which the press heralds are simply distressing
symptoms. They show a diseased condition.
They are the anarchy fostered by injustice,
slowness of methods and processes, Ugal chicanery,
and the like, breaking out and defying
law. The remedy for the condition which produces
such acts is in lifting law and its processes,
and courts and their dealings, to a higher
plane, where they will hold the confidence
of the people and compel the awe and fear of
malefactors. The attempted dynamiting of a
New York judge, the horrible, bloody scenes
in TTillsville Vn the disnrdnrs in the verv
court itself in Jena, La., the threatenings and
anonymous letters received by court officials
in numerous parts of the land, and notably of
late in Chicago, are symptoms and results, the
symptoms of something wrong among the people,
the results of loose methods, halting justice,
legal evasions and delays.
Many cities in which there are scores of brutal
murders each twelve-month have not had a
legal execution in years. Commutations of penalties,
pardons, suspensions of judgment, constant
procrastination of trials for excuses utterly
trivial but all concocted in the interest
of the indicted, the literal wearing out of honest
litigants by subterfuges of counsel which
the courts permit, have undermined the people's
trust. The disorders of mob law, showing
itself particularly in the taking of the life of
alleged murderers and rapists, are the product
of the variability, weakness, delays, and uncertainty
of the law. Well informed people con
trast our courts and their processes with those
of England. Such delays of justice as we know
here are altogether unknown there. The law is
vigorously carried out, and its penalties rigorously
and promptly applied, with the result that
good men trust it and had men fear it. The
felon there is afraid of the law. The courts are
conducted there with a quiet and decorum and
dignity and impressiveness which command outward
respect, and their judgments are prompt
and strong, creating the most wholesome fear
of the penalties of the law. Except in the supreme
judicial tribunals of our country, and
these only because their proceedings are so dull
that the crowd avnids them th* r/vnrtc hnrn om
generally lacKing in quiet, orderliness, respect.
But it' is especially by the relaxing of strict
enforcement and the meting out of full penal
'RESBYTERIAN OF THE S(
ties for violated law, and by the delays of law
that the general "contempt of court" is fostered.
When society has enacted laws it expects its
officers to enforce them. The excuse of the latter
that public sentiment will not sustain them
is frivolous. These officers are not elected or
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enforce them. And, besides, the public sentiment
has made the laws and the executors of the laws
are not expected to pass upon a problematical
change or recession of that sentiment which the
law expresses. The law is public sentiment until
it is changed. It is for the officers to keep their
oaths and apply the laws. If the sentiment
which made it and of which it was the expression,
has changed, this will be the quickest way
of leading to legal steps to change that law.
But it is in the lightening of penalties also
that evil lies. The provision for a varying degree
of penalty is abused, and the minimum is
approached much more frequently than the maximum.
Money, influential friends, political relations
and power, family, social standing, and
maudlin sentimentality modify the sanctions of
the law, and the punishment of offenders is often
simply laughable. A felon is condemned in
the minimum of the provision and spends a year
or two at ease in comfortable quarters of a prison
more like a "shut in" guest, by "good behavior"
lessens by a large proportion the time
of his imprisonment, and just before his term
expires is "pardoned," so that his citizenship
may not be forfeited. And then after he is out
he is honored with special trusts. Not long ago
in one of o\ir large cities men who had been
found guilty of violating election laws were,
within a few months after their release from an
easy imprisonment, put in charge of elections
in some of the wards! The whole business is a
travesty upon law. It is no wonder that con
tempt for law and courts and officials is increasing,
and that anarchy is rapidly bred.
FAITH'S EXPRESSION IN SONG.
The power that sacred song lujs hid in the
crises of life is remarkable. The great hymns
of the aces have been the resort, the solace and
the medium of triumph to multitudes when life's
sun was just sinking from view and the eye of
the soul sought gleams of the light of another
world. The history of martyrdom is profusely
enriched with the story of the triumphs of faith
finding its final expression in the beautiful words
and inspiring notes of sacred song.
The incident told by survivors of the Titanic,
that as the ship was going down the band played
"Guide Me, Oh Thou Great Jehovah" and
"Nearer My God to Thee," is one of the most
thrilling and impressive ever told of the power
of truth in hymns of devotion. Similar incidents
are related. When the British ship, "The
London," went down in the Bay of Biscay in
186G the last thing heard was the passengers
singing "Bock of Ages." It is said that brave
General Stuart, who was mortally wounded in
the defense of Richmond, died with this hymn on
his lips. Jerome of Prague sung a well known
Latin hymn beginning, "Welcome Happy
Morninsr." on his wav to death at the stake
The hymn "Coronation" has always been a
favorite with Christian soldiers in battle and on
the march. Instances are mentioned in which
the stirring strains of this hymn have put new
life into dispirited regiments and swung them
back into line, turning defeat into victory.
Wesley's hymn, "Jesus Lover of My Soul," is
said to have been written immediately after a
narrow escape from shipwreck. This hymn was
a favorite in the Boxer uprising in China, many
Chinese Christians dying as martyrs with its
words en their lips. Beecher said, "I would
rather have written that hymn of Wesley's than
)DTH [ May 8, 1912
to have the fame of all the kings that ever ruled
on the earth."
A well known authority on sacred hymns says
that the four greatest hymns in any language
are: "Wondrous Cross," "Rock of Ages,"
"Jesus Lover of My Soul," and "Coronation."
"Wondrous Cross" was written by Isaac Watts,
an English Congregational minister, born in
1674. "Rock of Ages" was written by Au
gusius lopiany, a minister of the French Calviirists,
born in 1740. "Wesley, the author of
"Jesus Lover of My Soul," and one of the
founders of Methodism, was born in 1708.
"Coronation" was written by Edward Perronet,
who was associated with the Wesleys and was
born in 1726. It may be observed that the
writers of these four greatest hymns were all
dissenting or non-conformist ministers, thoroughly
evangelical in their faith.
"Pastor Russell," as he calls himself, who has
succeded to an unusual degree in thrusting himself
upon public notice, and who always manages
to do it in a way that pays handsomely, is going
the round just now, advertising himself by posters,
in the papers, and in other ways, as he proceeds.
The Watchman reports that the Brooklvn
Eagle Is playing a pointed joke on him. From
its account it seems that the eminent man left
full reports of his movements and addresses to be
delivered in certain places, these addresses to be
given to the daily press in America at proper
date, to appear as if by cable. "With considerable
enterprise the Eagle has secured papers
prom the points visited by Pastor Russell, and is
printing in parallel columns the reports of what
actually occurred alongside of the glowing accounts
supplied to American papers." We are
glad to assure all who are disposed to look upon
this as a reproach to the church that Mr. Russell
stands for himself alone, repudiating all the
churches, and is no more a reputable representative
of the churoh and of Christian thought and
propriety than any other individual who might,
for the lucre that is in it, march around the land
advertising himself and trying to pose as a great
teacher.
WHAT THE CHURCH PAPER MEANS.
The following may Sound very much like
"talking shop," but it is so good that we commend
it to all our readers, and to as many of
those who do not regularly read the church
papers as may chance to see it. It is from the
pen of Dr. Charles Parkhurst, and appears in
Zion's Herald: "A new horizon every week,
bringing into view the farthest skirmish line of
the great Captain's advancing army, bent on
world conquest; enlarging the range of one's intellectual
vision so that new and enlarged views
of the Gospel of Christ, new discoveries in
science, new achievements in art, new schemes
ior social amelioration, fresh plans for evangelistic
victory and the latest fact in educational
progress are made to pass in review; marshaling
in panoramic glimpses and in proper perspective
the events of the political world, the ideals of reformers,
the rivalries, successes, and failures of
financiers; and bringing one into sympathetic
touch with poet, essayist, 'orator, preacher,
scientist, sage as they utter their message?this
is what a religious paper of the right sort affords
its readers fifty-two times a year. This gift of
a new horizon, quickening the vision, teaching
the art of discrimination, and keeping the observer
in contact with the best men and the
most notable currents and happenings of his own
age, is a gift whose worth cannot be exaggerated.
The pastor who brings such a visitor into a
home for its regular weekly ministration?who
can measure the fruitfulness of his worksf"