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GEORGIA’S PAROLE LAW
New Way of Reforming Criminals
Shows Progress of Penology.
PRISONERS-TO BE PARDONED
Those Evincing a Desire to Reform Will
Be Released and Offered Every In
ducement To Do So.
Atlanta, Ga. —Hereafter the inmate
of the Georgia pennentiary.who shows
a disposition to reform, will be offered
every inducement and encouragement
to do so.
Believing that better results in the
reformation of criminals will be se
cured by leleasing a good prisoner,
while holding over him the unexpired
term of his sentence, the legislature,
at the recent extra session, adopted
the parole bill offered by Mr. Persons
of Monroe.
A bill, which was the basis of the
present Georgia law, was introduced
at the extra session called to consider
the convict question. jt was unani
mously adopted. As soon pris
on commission can make the necessa
ry arrangements it will ibe put into
effect.
The daw opens the door of hope to
convicted criminals. It provides that
after serving the minimum sentence
fixed by law they may be sent out
among free men. After a year’s pro
mation and observance of the terms
of their parole, they will be granted
full pardons and restored to citizen
ship.
It places upon the prison commis
sion the duty of inquiring very care
fully into the record of any prisoner
before the commission of the crime ot
which convicted, and his record in
prison. If the whole board should be
come convinced that a man might
again become a useful and productive
member of society, they may grant
him a conditional pardon.
The prisoner must show' that he will
be given employment at honest labor,
and will have a good home, or, if un
able to work, that he will not become
an object of public charity. During
the term of his parole he must not
leave the state, but must make regular
reports to the commission.
If a man breaks the terms of his
parole, lie will be returned to prison,
and forced to serve the remainder of
the term for which he was originally
sentenced. An order by the commis
sion for the arrest of a paroled pris
oner becomes a legal warrant, and
must be enforced by any police officer.
Providing the prisoner justifies the
belief of the commission, he will, at
the end of twelve months, receive a
full pardon from the governor.
The law dees not apply to persons
convicted of treason, arson, rape or as
sault with intent to rape. It was the
intention of its author to have it ap
ply to those convicted of other crimes
which led to life sentences. In such
cases ten years was specified as the
minimum term of service.
There are now in the Georgia peni
tentiary 745 life-term men. There are
238 prisoners in for twenty years, 138
for fifteen years, 3C>l for ten years and
295 for five years.
While there are 17G men in the
Georgia penitentiary over 50 years of
age, the men who have spent the long
est time in prison are not the old
men. A great number of men who
were sent up in their eighteenth or
twentieth year have served twenty or
thirty years in the pen. The men of
GO, 70 and 80 years of age have, in
jnost instances, served much shorter
sentences.
Convinced that the men who have
served a life time of twenty or thirty
years for crimes committed In the
years of their youth deserve an op
portunity to make a new start in life,
MAIL CARRIER ABSCONDED.
Government Seizes Big Plantation to
Satisfy Claim.
Washington, Ga. —The plantation of
H. L. Aycock, a prominent farmer of
this county, has been levied on by a
United States deputy marshal to sat
isfy a claim which the government
has against Aycock as a result of a
bond forfeiture of $1,500. Four years
am> Aycock in connection with his
neighbor, W. G. Barrett, went on the
bond of A. H. Evans, a rural free
delivery mail carrier from Washington
to the little village of Peerman.
Evans carried the mail on this route
for some time, and then sub-let the
contract to a Mr. Beckwith. Beck
with became involved in some trouble
and ‘skipped the country.” Now the
government authorities have come
back on Aycock for the amount of
the original bond under which Evans
worked, as the bondsman of Beckwith
is now dead.
REPUBLICANS NAME ELECTORS.
Robert J. Lowry of Atlanta Heads the
List.
Atlanta, Ga—The republican state
campaign committee, Hon. Walter
Johnson, chairman, presiding, met
and named presidential electors of the
republican party for Georgia. The
electors are as follows: At large, Rob
ert J. Lowry of Atlanta and W. J.
Massee of Macon; first district. Hen
ry Blun, Sr., Savannah; second dis
trict, J. L. Phillips, Thomasville ;
third district, L. S. Osborne, Fitzger
ald; fourth district, Henry O. Lovvorn,
Carrollton; fifth district, Fulton Col
ville, Atlanta; sixth district, Roswell
H. Drake, Griffin; seventh district,
John J. Duane, Dalton; eighth district,
A. L. Brooks, Athens; ninth district,
J. R. Allen, Talking Rock; temh dis
trict, Joe Smith, Augusta; eleventh
district, C. P. Goodyear, Brunswick.
THROUGHOUT THE STATE.
Andrew Thomason, a farmer, 50
years of age, of Newton
en miles south of Alpharetta,
himself to the rafters i"n a cotton gin.
Mr. Thomason is survived bv_a
and seven children. Thomason
had always been regarded as an in
dustrious farmer of good habits, but
lately he had been ill and except for
this no reason is known for the act.
The registration books, which have
<closed for the fall eletcion, show that
there are 3,5C5 voters registered in
Oglethorpe county. Of that number
all are white but two hundred and fif
ty. The indications are that there
will be a big vote polled in that coun
ty at the state election on November
G. The registration is about the same
as last year.
Rewards have been offered by Gov
ernor Smith for the capture and con
viction of Corn and John Miller, who
are charged with having murdered W.
E. Keaton on August 25. It is claim
ed the Miller brothers entered the
field where Keaton was at work and
deliberately shot him down. There is
$125 offered in each case. Other re
wards have been offered for the cap
ture and conviction of Ben W’hitehead
and Arlington Lewis, who are wanted
for murder in Lee county.
It is announced that Chatham coun
ty will be ready to take its full quota
of felony convicts next spring, when
the time comes to apportion them to
the different counties throughout the
state. When Governor Smith inquir
ed some weeks ago how many con
victs of this kind Chatham could work
he was told that fifty would be taken.
If the county is to get one hundred,
however, that many will be employ
ed.
The 4-year-old son of Mr. William
Wilkins, while playing in a pile of
cotton on the farm of Mr. A. J. Nully,
near Pine Log, was smothered to
death. It appears that he had dug a
deep hole in the cotton and had fallen
into it head first. He had been dead
some time when found.
A meeting of the Farmers’ union of
Spalding county was held at the court
house in Griffin at which strong res
olutions were passed condemning the
action of the night riders in Law
renceville, Ga., and other places. J.
T. Biles is president of the Spalding
union, T. P. Nichols is vice president
and R. H. E. Ellis secretary and treas
urer, and they all signed the resolu
tions adopted.
At a meeting of the citizens of Bue
na Vista $50,000 was raised to build
a railroad from that city to Mauks,
the additional capital, SIOO,OOO, to be
furnished by out of town capitalists.
Mauks is a thriving little town on the
Atlanta, Birmingham and Atlantic
railroad about fifteen miles from Tal
botton and about thirty-five miles
from Montezuma. The road will be
about seventeen or eighteen miles
long. A surveying corps has been
ordered to begin work at once.
A list of the presidential electors
representing the national prohibition
/party in the state of Georgia has been
tiled with the state department by W.
G. William, state chairman. They are:
At large, W. S. Witham, Atlanta, and
L. N. Stanfill, Hahira; first district,
Joseph N. Gary, Swainsboro; second
district, Dr. L. B. Bouchelle, Thomas
ville; third district, Judson Cheves,
Montezuma; fourth district, Leon
Smith, LaGrange; fifth district,Dr. J.
L. D. Hillyer, Decatur; sixth district,
\V. w. Milam, Stockbridge; seventh
district, G. W. Fleetwood, Rome;
eighth district, O. L. Teasley, Bow
man; tenth district, W. J. Wren,
Wrens; eleventh district. Herbert
Murphrey, Waynesboro.
It is reported that Governor Smith
is looking for farm lands in various
parts of the state for the purpose of
securing sites for new stockades and
prison farms authorized under the con
vict bill which has just passed. The
governor has begun his investigation
at this time in order that the convicts
may be put to work making crops
immediately after they are released
by private lessees at the termination
of the present leases on March 31,
1909. They will then be able to make
a crop next year. Of course the build
ings and quarters for the men must
be erected in the meantime.
Andrew Guyton, who for the past
twenty-two years has been in the pen
itentiary of Georgia serving a life
sentence for murder committed in De
catur county, has been pardoned by
Governor Smith.
The prison commission has receiv
ed notice that M. C. Clelehan, a con
vict employe at the Ashley-Price Lum
ber company in Coffee county, deliber
ately put his hand upon a circular
saw' and cut off four fingers. He had
been employed at the rather light
work of firing a boiler, and had left
his post and gone to the saw to delib
erately cripple himself in order to get
out of work.
Ginners in Gwinnett county met at
Lawrenceville. Only two gins in the
county reported that they had receiv
ed notices not to gin the new erop of
cotton. All the other gins are run
ning. Sugar Hill Farmers’ union pass
ed resolutions denouncing the threats
to burn and calling all the unions to
join them.
The citizens of Decatur, at an elec
tion authorized two bond issues of
$150,000 each, one to improve the wa
ter works system, the other to im
prove the public schools. The water
bonds carried by a vote of 134 to 6.
The schools bonds carried by a vote
of 129 to 10.
There are seven hundred and seven
names on the revised jury iist in Og
lethorpe. This is the largest list ever
in an Oglethorpe county jury box.
rThe"P7?/mr\
A SERMON '
JKC Jff .REsA- §
[t&V- /i£N DEIJSoN
"Why rail ye Me Lord, Lord, and
do not the things which I say?”—
Luke 0:40.
•;esus is either a force or a fraud.
His word is truth or it is nonsense.
His gospel is either the supreme phi
losophy of life or the quintessence
of silliness. He i 3 either to be fol
lowed or not to be followed. If He
is to lead we must do His will. He
is a captain whose commands are
commendable and practicable or an
untrustworthy leader to obey whom
is the sheerest senselessness. There
is no middle ground. Christ is a wise
man—the eternal wisdom of God—
or a fool; a visioned statesman or a
visionary; a religious leader beyond
compare, or the most illogical and
fantastic enthusiast who ever lived.
The church of the living Christ
through near 2 000 years has pro
claimed Him the incarnate mind of
God, the glorious embodiment of the
eternal wisdom, the suDernal leader,
the only true guide, the mentor of
the mind as the Saviour of the soul
of man. Saints have sung of His
beauty, philosophers have yielded
homage to the purity and profundity
of His thought, sages have reveled in
His wisdom, martyrs have died for
Him. We have declared Him Alpha
and Omega, the beginning and the
end, the ultimate both as to inception
and finality.
And yet we fail to practice His
truth, to apply His principles, to
obey His mandates, to trust His
word, to live the life that He counsels
as the only life that eternally is
worth the while. We elevate Him
upon a pedestal of dominating prom
inence, and then we laugh at Him.
We join His church, and then we
misrepresent Him. We swear fealty
under His control, and then we de
sert Him in every hour of the test.
And then we wonder why men of
the world have no use for eccleciasti
cism, though they cheer the Christ.
We are amazed at the paltriness of
the church’s grip as an organized in
stitution uDon humanity compared
with what it ought to be; while the
sweep of the influence of Jesus is be
coming universal. We are astounded
that in an age when the Lord of Life
receives greater homage than ever in
the reach of years, the church of the
Lord —the organized body that bears
His name—is being weighed in the
balance of intelligent criticism and
declared wanting.
3ut it is not strange. Too long
have yo.u cried, ‘‘Lord. Lord.” The
world demands performance as well
as protestations. It tires of the pla
titudinous. It expects men who pro
fess to love the good to he something
more than pious. For the piousness
of the day is almost synnoymous
with the most dangerous Impious
ness.
Bad men have a suspicion that bad
men will be bad. They expect good
men to be good. They detest pious
talk and a pious mien that gets no
further than words and looks. And
they are right.
Laodicean Christianity is as trait
orous as i’t is inefficient. It denies
that in which it professes to believe.
It betrays its Lord with a kiss. The
world has no use for it and we ought
to have none. A world that could
contemplate it with equanimity
wouldn’t be worth saving. What
shall we say of a church which too
largely practices it?
Too much have we cried, “Lord,
Lord.” Jesus says, ‘‘Ye are My
friends if ye do whatsoever I com
mand you.” Have we done His will?
Jesus says; ‘‘Love your enemies;
bless them that curse you; him that
taketh away thy cloak forbid not to
take thy coat also.” And Jesur. prac
ticed His proclamations. He was the
friend of God. He did the will of the
Father. They crucified Him. He be
sought forgiveness for His persecu
tors.
And yet in a land blessed as is
cffirs with the heritage of twenty cen
turies of Christian teaching, cultured
and controlled under the gospel of
Jesus, the best theory of peace that
we can practice is that which bids us
to be prepared for war. The very
church which sings the praises of the
prince of peace is strangely silent be
fore the militarism of our age. Pre
paredness for war has yet to be pro
ven a guarantee of peace. Indeed it
;has been quite otherwise. It is
neither effective nor necessary. It is
purely expedient *and never final in
theory or in practice. Jesus’ way is
a better way. If all the armaments
of the world were wrecked there
would be a surer guarantee of peace
than there is to-day and greater pros
perity.
Jesus’ theories have never had an
honest opportunity to prove their
worth. Those that have been tried,
however little, have revealed the wis
dom of the Lord. Where nations
have ceased to war and have brought
their difficulties to the bar of divine
ly guided counsel tliere have they
found the best results. The individ
ual who follows in the footsteps of
his Saviour and forgets injury, for
gives injustice, requites good for evil,
may seem impractical, but he is the
happiest as the most honored among
the sons of men. The man who sub
mits to persecution while his trust
remains in God may lose his head;
he will not lose his soul. External
forces cannot steal away that life
eternal which is the gift of God.
The church must either follow
Christ or it must cease to be. The
reason for its existence is resident in
its recognition of His authority. The
secret of its ancientpporerw r er lay in its
willingness to do His will. And as
the guiding spirit in a larger era
gives her visions of wider ministry
and impulse to a service the like of
which she has never known she must
move on with fidelity and fervor or
be discredited and disowned.
The church is not the kingdom
save as the church labors for the
consummation of the kingdom. It is
not an end in itself. It is a means to
the attainment of divine conclusions.
The trouble has been and is that we
have mistaken theology for Chris
tianity, the organization for the life,
the membership roll for the test of
membership. Quite otherwise is the
mind of Christ. The test of member
ship is not how warm we make seats,
or how loud we sing, or how vehe
mently we pray. The final testing is
the testing of service. Do you work
as you pray? Do you warm hearts
as well as benches? Do you make
souls to rejoice? Do you regard
yourself not as your brother’s keeper
so much as your brother’s brother?
Are you true to Christ? Have you
keenness to serve the King?
“Why call ye Me Lord, Lord, and
do not the things which I say?” The
question is as timely and applicable
as it was when it was propounded.
For there never has been a time when
the church more largely was cogniz
ant of the inoffectuainess of lip serv
ice and convinced of the need for re
sultful and helpful labor than she is
to-day.
file Protestant church is in danger
of becoming priest-ridden—the worst
that can fcefal the organization of the
church; ridden with a priesthood
shorn of compulsory authority and
in whom the authority of the Christ
is too nrecariouslv admitted to re
side. The laitv of Protastanism ara
too largely guilty of hiring m<m to
do their work for them—at salaries
on the average that are an insult to
the Lord whose work they send their
employes to do—rather than of call
! ing leaders whose business it shall
be to direct the energies, rebuke the
sins, vitalize the virtues, clarify the
thought, inspire the minds, Intensify
the spiritual conceptions and percep
tions of the sons of Cod who are
members of t.he church of Christ.
The church of Christ is full of, men
and women who have their names
upon its rolls for no better reason
than that it is oolitic or proper or
polite or profitable socially and com
mercially so to be enlisted. And the
consequence is that enthusiasm has
gone out of the most of the meetings
of the church, the gatherings for
prayer are generally so dry and cold
and uninteresting that they are a
distress to earnest pastors and a re
| flection not only upon the intelligence
and spiritual experience, but also
| upon the gratitude of the church.
The reason for this is not far to
seek. The laity, and not infrequent
ly the clergy, have been so busy seek
ing material success that they have
had no time to serve the Lord after
the manner of the Master. The dol
lar has supplied so many wants that
men have ceased to feel the pressing
need for spiritual- supplies. It. has
been declared impossible for a nation
to believe Christ, disarm and be pre
served against the rapacious agres
sions of the armed. Business men
have declared it impossible to follow
Christ and succeed. The best we
have done, till very lately, in the
management of criminals has been
to .iail or execute them. The spirit
of the lex talionis—the lowest law of
Judaism—is rampant in the settle
ment of disputes between nations and
nations, society and its members, in
dividuals and their fellows. We have
forgotten the God of life in the ex
cellency of our livings. We have
prayed for reforms that we have
neither advanced, expected or de
sired. We have thanked God, for the
might of His power while fdarful to
trust His sufficiency against the on
slaught of Satan. We have talked
brotherhood and practiced an indi
vidualism that has brought sorrow
where there is no need for aught but
joy, and strife where co-operation
would more thoroughly fulfil the
plans of God, by and with the con
sent —tacit or active—of the church.
The situation cannot endure. The
church must reform or relinquish her
claim to primacy and to the privil
eges of leadership. Saying “Lord,
Lord,” will make her acceptable
neither to coming generations nor to
her bridegroom. Vain repetitions
are valueless to produce results. Ac
tion only is qualified to transmute
ideas into achievements. To do His
work we must do His will.
Jesus gives us a picture of the end
of the institution or the man guilty
of lip-service or of lukewarm adher
ence to the propagation of the truth.
“Not every one that saith unto Me,
Lord, Lord, shall enter into the king
dom of heaven, but he that doeth the
will of My Father.” He forecasts
the fate of those Insincere and paltry
Christians who stand before Jehovah
at the great assize.
It is to be hoped that Jesus’ pic
ture will not prove a photograph of
us. It is not necessary that it should.
We shall be recreant and without ex
cuse if it shall so prove to be. No
man and no church need call upon the
Lord in vain. He who hath called us
and upon whom we call is both will
ing and able to perform through us
effective service for the welfare and
the salvation of individuals and the
race. God summons us in Christ to
supreme labor. He provides contem
poraneously the power necessary to
succeed. He energizes and verifies
and inspires and enthuses every soul
and every society that with high de
sire and dedicated purpose calls upon
His name.
Not “Lord, Lord,” but “Lord, here
am I, send me.” “What wilt Thou
have me to do?”
Brooklyn, N. Y.
A man may be as broad as he is
long and then be narrow.
Some men are so dull that you
couldn't get a rise out of them with
an alarm clock.
Tht
& unftdii -
INTERNATIONAL T,F««nN COM
MENTS FOR OCTOBER 4.
Subject: David Brings the Ark to Je
rusalem, 2 Sam. 6—Golden Text,
Ps. 100:4—Commit Verse 12—
Read 1 Cliron. Chapters 13,15,16.
time.—l 04 5 B. C. PLACE.—
Klriath-learim.
EXPOSITION.—I. Bringing Up
God’s Ark in Man’s Way. 1-5. This is
one of the most solemn and searching
passages in the entire Bible. It
teaches a lesson needed to be learned
in our day. It shows us how neces
sary it is to serve God in God’s way.
David’s desire to bring up the ark of
God’s presence into his own city, the
very, centre of the national life, was
most commendable; but he should
have Inquired from God’s own book
the proper way in which to bring it
up. It was declared there with per
fect plainness (Nu. 4:5-12: 7:9).
His neglect to consult and obey the
Word of God got David and others as
well into great trouble. Neglect, of
God’s Word bns gotten many a well
meaning man into great trouble, and
his friends also. The ark was- the
svmbol of Jehovah’s own holv and
glorious presence. Men must be
taught to treat it with the reverence
due to His great and holv Name. It
was “the ark of God which is called
hv the Name, even the name of the
Lord of hosts.” Th° ark was also a
remarkable tvne of Christ. Christ, is
Immanuel. God with us. and the ark
was the symbol o f God’s presence
with His neoplo. Moreover, in the
ark the law of God was perfectly
kept, and in Christ the law of God is
perfectlv kept. Further still, over
the perfectly kept law was the hlood
snrinkled mercy seat where God met.
His neonle ('Ey. 25:18-22). Tn Christ
we have our blood-sprinkled mercy
seat where Ocd meets and communes
with us. David had no intention of
1 not conferring dim honor on the ark
of God. He made great and costly
preparations. He “gathered together
all the chosen men of Israel, t.hirtv
thousand.” Tt is often said that it
does not make any difference ■what a
man believe* or does if lie is only sin
cere. David was perfectly sincere
hut he was wrong—and it made a
great deal of difference both to him
i and to TJzzah. Davifi was to blame
for his ignorance. He had the means
of enlightenment.. If men to-dav are
ignorant of what is in the Word of
God ant* suffer for it. it is their own
| fault. They cannot blame God for it,
though thev wouU often like to. The
j ark had been in K'rjath-jearim twen
ty years (1 Sam. 7:1). Men always
get into trouble when thev try to im
prove on God s wav. God had given
explicit command that Ihe sons of
Kohatb bear the ark unon thpir shoul
ders (Nu. 4:4-12; 7:9), and a new
cart, under the circumstances was no
better than an old cart. David had
really learned this "improved plao”
from the heathen fcf. 1 Sam. 6:7, S).
That is where all improvements upon
God's way come from.
11. God’s Judgment on DisolWFi.
ence and Irreverence, 0-9. David’s
folly was soon made manifest. He
had sown the seed of disobedience
and soon reaped a harvest of greater
disobedience and death. A cart drawn
bv oxen, even though it. was a new
cart, was no place for the ark: and
trouble soon comes: “the oxen stum
bled.” Of course they did, but what
had oxen to do with drawing God’s
ark? The place for that was upon
the shoulders of fit men. It was quite
natural for Uzzah to put forth his
hand to steady the ark, but it was al
together wrong. It was an act of ex
plicit disobedience to God, and of
irreverence. Even the sons of
Kohath, who were divinely appoint
ed to bear the ark, were not permitted
to touch the ark. or even to look at it
for a moment (Nu. 4:15. 19, 20, R.
V.). Those are very solemn words
With which the 7th verse opens. Ir
reverence towards God and His holy
name is an awful sin, and God in His
great mercy often deals very sternly
with it in order that we may know
how He regards it (cf. Lev. 24:11-16;
10:1-3; 1 Sam. 6:19). Even in the
Christian dispensation men are cut
off when they approach the table that
sets forth the solemn truth about
Christ’s atoning death in a thought
less way (1 Cor. 11:27-30). We do
uot need to suppose that Uzzah was
eternally lost. He simply suffered
temporal punishment for his sin, even
unto death (cf. 1 Cor. 11:30-32; 6-
5). David was displeased at God’s
judgment: he might much better have
been displeased with his own folly
that made that judgment necessary.
When he had taken time to think it
over he put the blame where it be
longed, on himself (1 Qhron. 15: Il
ls ). We are often tempted to be
displeased at God’s judgments when
a little honest reflection would show
us that we are to blame ourselves,
and that God’s judgment is only a
merciful way of bringing us to our
senses.
111. God Blesses the Home in
Which He Dwells, 10-12. We have
just seen God dealing in judgment,
and now we see Him dealing in mer
cy. A moment ago ail was death,
now all is blessing. Obed-edom was
only a heathen by descent, a Gittite
(cf. ch. 15:19), but he welcomed the
presence of God iu his home, and
God “blessed Obed-edom and all his
household.” Nothing else brings
such blessing to a, house as the pres
ence of God in it. That ark in his
home w as the symbol of Christ iu our
homes. W here He is there is biess
ic£ for all (cf. Acts 16:31).
