Show ADULT ent CUT ann AND ITS I 1 A SERMON A remarkable sermon was delivered by the rev bev charles B smyth a presbyterian by terian terlan minister in new york city on ri the loth dinst his text was the tenth verse of the twentieth chapter of leviticus and the man that commit teth adultery with another mans wife even he that commit teth adultery with his neighbors wife the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely burely surely burely be put to death 11 he opened his remarks re arks by saying that it is the gi great eat fault of the modern pul that they indulge in vague generalities but in his view the christianity ti not of modern speculating theologians olo gians not of bigoted sectarians sect arians but the christianity of christ himself this is what is needed in the pulpit in the pew in the courts of the church in her conventions conferences synods and councils to put life into a dead world and to make the church not a byword by word and a laughing stock but an oda object eeb universally ver sally admired and beloved thou not commit adultery rings through every avenue of the soui boul he said with the true ring of a precious coin that is not counterfeit and elicits at once the unanimous acclaim of all the faculties that such a command man d is right t right t in the th e very n nature atu re of things absolutely eternally unchangeably right brethren said ho he it is time for true modesty to take the place of the false modesty which by her prudery with cruel whip in ift hand band has hag driven virtue like an exile weeping from our land and peopled people U it largely wita wila Fourie rites and free lovers it is time for the pulpit to waken up on this question it must do so if our country is to ba be kept kept from a fate like that of sodo hodo sodom in and gomorrah the medical faculty are arousig arousing g themselves and crying to the clergy to come como and help them kletthe latter not hear bear their cry in vain nor refuse to hearken to the call of god delry cry aloud and spare not show my people their transgressions gres he then took the press to task for the doctrines which it in many instances disseminates and asked who can tell what the influence the reading of the ef fusions from the pens of men of loose monds morals has produced upon youthful minds minde he evidently does not favor the abolition of capital p nish niah ment for he said that men whose morals are bad are apt to favor such an abolition impunity for crime accords well with the freedom to commit crime the extensive prevalence of the crime of adultery he thought was plainly traceable to the freelove free love doctrine marriage by affinity and on this account a disregard of the sacred obligations of marriage by law had grown up the indiana method of settling questions arising out of the practice of this crime he was opposed to that method also was opposed to bommon common common sense this was w evident from the fact that even the nations of antiquity which were loose asto as to many points of morality were united in inflicting punishment upon all who were guilty of adultery to give our readers an idea of his line ine of reas reasoning onlo g on this point we quote from rom the report of the sermon as ic it appears in the new york kerald herald avimelech Abi melech threatened death to any anyo 0 the men who would thus insult the wife of isaae isaac judah condemned tamar to be burnt on the supposed evidence of her having committed this crime the egyptian law maimed for life both of ortho the offenders the Loc rians put out both odthe of the mans eyes the germans placed the woman denuded among her kindred shaved her head and caused her husband to beat her through the city the crowned the man with wool to shame him the camani obliged the woman to ride upon an ass naked and hooted at and forever after called her in scorn a rider upon in n ass even tho romans though very lax and though permitting the husband to divorce his wife at pleasure yet fortified ay statute so as ao recognized her as his wife and the jews punished with death both offenders this leads mo me to remark further that adultery with impunity ia is opposed to the tho law of god the doctrine that a man should shoula he allowed to violate the seventh commandment with impunity is absurd it is opposed to the instincts of human nature the offense offence is one that pierces the tho heart of the injured onu one with a poisoned arrow that sets his nerves on nire firo and consumes all ills his joys and h his hopes it wounds his braia brail and sends his reason reelie reeling ig it meets a sl spontaneous ungovernable instantaneous re resistance si stance which seeks the life of the offender mad or not mad now from the fact that god himself decreed death as the punishment punishment unish ment for adultery it follows that kath death is tho the natural and proper punishment for that crime and if it is so how comess comes it to pass pas s that nations under the sway of modern civilization professedly christian have not affixed that penalty to the of fence the reason which blackstone Blacks tone tono assigns for this deficiency in the laws of england maybe may be sufficient to ac account count for the same in all christian lands he says that it was left to the feeble coercion of the spiritual court according to the rules of the canon law a law which has treated even adultery itself with a great degree of tenderness and lenity owing perhaps to the constrained celibacy of its first compilers the temporal courts therefore take no cognizance of the crime of adultery otherwise than as a private injury i nj ury 1 by a law enacted during the commonwealth this crime was made capital but the same game authority says that at the restoration it was not thought proper to renew a law of such unfashionable rigor the court of charles II 11 it is well known to every reader of history was most profligate and such a law consequently conse bently would be by no means agreeable colaw to lawmakers law makers who were at the same time lawbreakers law breakers since no man who is compos mentis desires to be his own executioner cut ioner brethren it is time now that our law lawmakers mahers makers should open their eyes to the fa far fad ct that the judgments of god are true and rg righteous oteous and ad should attach the proper penalty to the violation of the tho seventh commandment the remembrance that so many men have in recent years fallen back upon pon their natural rights and avenged their air injured honor and ruined hopes and blighted lighted bliss with their own hand ani and been acquitted by honest juries appointed to try them on the charge of murder and that bat their verdicts have been approved by the people should make them understand that mere more pecuniary damages are no compensation pensa tion to to any man for the desolation which an artful seducer has made in his hitherto happy home I 1 we have our statute law and our common law but there is a higher law that rises rides above them all and that higher law is the law of god a law promulgated amidst the thunders and and other awe inspiring indications of the presence with it of our god who is a consuming fire to all workers of iniquity a law the utterance of which meets with a true and an exact echo in every manly heart and says the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put putt to 1 death it if such preaching as this were more general sun bori su aw n ri statement statements were svere sustained and enforced crime would receive ube use a severe check but who can get law break ers as mr smyth bays sais says bays to be lawmakers that is make laws jaws binding upon themselves this is well illustrated by the manner in which the proposition p i of mr fitch pitch of nevada was received by the house of representatives when he proposed to make the provisions of the cullom bill applicable to all the states and territories A OAKEY HALL the present mayor of new york has reason to congratulate himself on securing the good opinion and praise of the new york dberyl deeral that paper has been unsparing in its denunciation odthe of the manner in which affairs have been conducted in a municipal capacity in new york city but at last it can speak in terms of approbation of the course of the mayor who it says makes a fair beginning the mayorkas mayor has accepted the high trustee trust reposed in him as involving an honorable obligation to respect the political minority of hib his constituents so farat far oar at least as to reappoint a few of kis lis his political opponents whose past service to the public additionally deserve the recognition I 1 upon the general considerations which have guided the mayor in these appointments appoint mente the herald thinks they are arc surely calculated to give general satisfaction it lt is said that the new senator morgan 0 hamilton from texas never smoked a cigar took a drink or kissed a woman we predict he wiil will be like the new hired giri girl when asked if she had ever had any experienc experience 6 as a wet nurse she said she but th that a t s she be could soon learn ex new york has enough outcast children to make a procession in double nile file eleven miles long |