Page:SermonsFromTheLatins.djvu/411

 subject is  an  open  question,  so  that  a  brief  inquiry into the  merits  of  the  case  may  not  be  uninteresting.

Brethren, ours  is  preeminently  the  age  of  humanitarianism. As Christianity  grows  older,  man seems to  realize  more  and  more  the  nobility  of  his species, the  value  of  human  life,  and  his  duty  to  preserve it  at  any  cost. Hence these  mighty  efforts  in behalf  of  the  poor  and  the  afflicted. But some  are so irreverent  as  to  hint  that  philanthropy  is  being overdone; that  it  is  superseding  Christianity  and  all forms of  Theism;  or  at  least  that  it  is  inverting  the order of  the  two  great  commandments  on  which  depend the  whole  law  and  the  prophets. Its methods, too, say  they,  are  not  sufficiently  discriminating. God's poor,  as  is  fitting,  have  first  claim  to  its benevolence, but  not  infrequently  the  most  atrocious criminals — the  devil's  poor — are  treated  with mawkish sentimentality,  while  what  may  be  called  the poor devils — the  morally  mediocre,  such  as  the  outcast mother  with  her  nameless  babe  at  her  breast, or the  luckless  itinerant — seek  in  vain  the  food  and shelter which,  were  they  criminals,  they  could  easily command. However this  may  be,  it  is  surely  no  exaggeration to  say  that  the  attempt  to  wrest  the Scriptures into  conflict  with  the  law  of  capital  punishment is  an  effort  of  kindness  as  vain  as  it  is  misplaced. God said  to  Cain  (Gen.  iv.  10):  "The  voice of  thy  brother's  blood  crieth  to  Me  from  the  earth," and who  can  doubt  that  the  purpose  of  that  cry  was not leniency,  but  vengeance  on  the  guilty  fratricide? True, God  for  obvious  reasons  did  not  then  and  there