of Christianity. Jesus then carried his principles tc the highest degree of perfection and purity. It was not simply a friend dying for a friend. It was a development of a higher principle. 'Greater love,' said Jesus, at the Last Supper, 'hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.' Human love may rise to that point. God commendeth his love toward us in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." 'Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.' What love! Who can measure its height, its depth, its length, or its breadth? Let us seek for an illustration. History furnishes nothing that equals the truth itself. We may refer to the hero, who mounts his steed, and buckles on his armor, and bleeds for his country. The world calls him great, as he goes forth amid the flourish of drums and trumpets, trampling upon the bodies of the slain and the wounded. Community throws up the splendid arch; it calls on music to praise his deeds, upon the statuary to imbed them in the marble, and upon the poet to portray them in letters of fire. But the hero died for fame, perchance for country. Jesus died for his enemies. Then, we turn from the bloody deeds of the earthly hero. Behold the mother, bending over the couch of her sick child! She is there when the midnight taper burns dimly. She is there when the morning smiles. She is there when the sun pours down his noon-tide splendors. She is there, day after day, till death marks her for his victim, and she is conveyed to the house appointed for all living. She has fallen a sacrifice to her child. But Jesus died for his enemies. Amid the agonies of

his expiring hour, he exclaimed, 'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.'*

Yet we are told that Jesus said nothing against the law which demands 'life for life.' Go, ye advocates for blood! go, stand at the foot of that cross! Go, imbibe its spirit of forgiveness and forbearance! Go, while the blood flows fresh from the wounded Saviour! Go! and then take your fellow-man, one for whom Christ died; one, weak, helpless, tempted, frail, like yourself; one made in the image of God; go, and erect your scaffold; and, amid his shricks and groans, innocent though he may be, hurl him into the presence of his God!

But

*To show the power of the sufferings of Christ in reclaiming the vicious and degraded, we present the following touching incident: At Berlin,' says Rev. C. E. STOWE, 'I visited an establishment for the reformation of youthful offenders.' 'The children,' he says, 'received into this institution are often of the very worst and most hopeless character. Not only are their minds most thoroughly depraved, but their very senses and bodily organization seem to partake in the viciousness and degradation of their hearts.' 'An ordinary man,' he adds, 'might suppose that the task of restoring such poor creatures to decency and good morals was entirely hopeless.' not so; the superintendent 'took hold with the firm hope that the moral power of the word of God was competent to such a task.' 'On one occasion,' we are informed, when every other means seemed to fail, he collected the children together, and read to them, in the words of the New Testament, the simple narrative of the sufferings and death of Christ, with some remarks on the design and object of his mission into this world. The effect was wonderful. They burst into tears of contrition, and during the whole of that term, from June till October, the influence of this scene was visible in all their conduct. The idea that takes so strong a hold when the character of Christ is exhibited to such poor creatures, is, that they are objects of affection; miserable, wicked, despised as they are, yet Christ, the Son of God, loved them, and loved them enough to suffer and to die for them-and still loves them. The thought that they can yet be loved, melts the heart, and gives them hope, and is a strong incentive to reformation.'

ESSAY V.

OBJECTIONS.

Innovation-Claims of antiquity—Christ-Cheever's view of Cain— Inhuman to abolish the law-Violence upon a maniac-The law a restraint upon the imprisoned-Conversation in a prison-Saves life-Expediency-Death of Christ-Experimenting-AnecdoteIncident among the Hottentots—All sympathy for the criminalExample of Jesus-Adulteress-Suicide of Colt-Criminals beyond moral influences—Washingtonian movement.

'Pertness and ignorance may ask a question in three lines which it will cost learning and ingenuity thirty pages to answer. When this is done, the same question shall be triumphantly asked again the next year, as if nothing had ever been written upon the subject.'

BISHOP HORNE.

OBJECTIONS have always been made to every reform. Human progress is very slow. Long-established laws and customs, however absurd and barbarous, are not easily changed. And he who ventures beyond the prejudices of his age must endure persecution, perhaps even to martyrdom. We expect reproach; but that shall not turn us aside from laboring for humanity. Our efforts may have a very limited influence; but if we reach a single mind, dry up a single tear, modify even one unjust law, or soften a single heart, something will be gained.

There is an unfairness in the objections that are urged against this reform. It is common to present highly colored pictures of atrocious crimes. We are referred to the unnatural wretch who has assassinated

his father; or the incarnate fiend who has set fire at midnight to the habitation of his enemy, and gloated over the destruction of a whole family. We are asked if such men should be allowed to enjoy the boon of life, of which they have pitilessly deprived the innocent and the virtuous.

But will the execution of the offender restore the murdered man to life? Will it again gather around him his ruined home, his massacred wife and children? The objection is based on vengeance. It was an admirable maxim of Bentham, 'Never do evil solely on the ground that it is deserved.' Unless some good purpose is gained, we have no right to inflict evil on the offender. We have shown that the existing law is subversive of all the ends of punishment.

Some persons seem to have a sort of morbid dread of the consequences that might ensue if Capital Punishment were abolished. They imagine that it is the only sure protection for their lives and their possessions. They seem to think the very foundations of society would be broken up. Such persons should remember that those countries have always been the most luxuriant in crime where blood has been spilled with the greatest freedom. We have shown the insecurity of property by the petitions of the bankers in England, who found the law so inefficacious that they prayed for its abolishment.* And such persons should remember that even after the experiment has been tried, society may go back and try again the efficacy of the scaffold. All we ask is the experiment. The friends of Capital Punishment have had their

*Part I., Essay III., p. 38.

turn for centuries. We beg of them to let us try ours at least for a few years.

We

I. The proposed reform is an innovation. This objection has been urged in every age. We freely admit that every innovation is not an improvement, though every improvement is an innovation. have no respect for antiquity when it conflicts with humanity. If general usage be a test, no improvement will ever be made. We may plead antiquity for every execution for heresy or witchcraft. On this ground, the most cruel tortures, and even human sacrifices, may be justified. But do those who urge this objection respect antiquity when it conflicts with a favorite theory? Christianity itself is the greatest innovation the world has ever seen. Jesus himself was an innovator. He invaded long-established customs. He came to invade a whole dispensation of rites and ceremonies. He came to establish sentiments that will eventually overthrow every idolatrous temple. He said, 'I am come to send fire on the earth, and what will I, if it be already kindled?' This fire is still burning, and will continue till every species of violence is removed from the earth, till every passion is subdued, till the kingdoms of this world. become the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ.'

But if the objector still urges antiquity, we would go with him to the most antiquated case on record, to the very first murderer! Was there a gibbet erected for him? The very first law in existence, respecting murder, was to preserve the life of the murderer himself! Surely, antiquity is in our favor. We know that the Rev. Mr. Cheever urges that this was an experiment on the part of the Deity; that, in consequence of the divine lenity, in the case of Cain, the