Christ no more meant to abolish the law of force
than did Moses in the Sixth Commandment ;* and that,
too, in the face of the most express declarations re-
corded at the same time and emanating from the same
source.
THE ANCIENT STATUTE.
It is said that the example of the death penalty is
bad. God made the death penalty, it is contended, for
a ferocious and barbarous people. This is not true.
On the contrary, the statute was first universal, for all
men and all time. Later it was for a learned, a gentle,
and a chosen people. Did God establish the death
penalty, if it corrupts the public, as is maintained, in
order to make his people more revengeful and vindi«-



*The CathollcB make this the Fifth CommandmeBt



A DHTBNSE OP CAPITAL-PUNISHMENT lOT

tive, mora pasBionate and brutal, to drive them to com-
mit the very crime of murder he was trying to pre-
vent t No; but that law calls out the stem feeling of
right, the deep and tender emotions, and elevates hu-
manily to a higher standard. This ultimate penalty
often subdues the criminal himself, the wicked and
abandoned wretch on whom all other means would
have been powerless.
[The author here digresses to say that he once met
a murderer who confessed to him that he had slain his
favorite brother and sister in order to obtain a possible
$500, by arsenic. The murderer was duly convicted,
confessed also, and was hanged. He asked the author
to witness his death, but the invitation was declined.
