parent, also, why the New Testament writers make so much of love. Certainly the New Testament is a great poem of the heart. Certainly Christianity is the poetry of the heart of God.

By the light of reason the impurities of the human heart may be brought into view. By the light of reason men may discover the obstructions on the track of the celestial railroad. Reason is the headlight of the locomotive; but the power that impels the ponderous engine forward toward the City of God, or backward toward the City of Destruction, proceeds from the heart. Jesus taught by parables. He was a most convincing reasoner. By the three-deep phalanx of syllogism (Aristotlian logic) Paul was aided in his successful warfare against Judaism and Paganism. But all-conquering love was ever foremost in the battle line, clad in armor more invulnerable and bearing a shield more resplendent than the hero of the Iliad-the invincible Achilles bore-and to love belongs the palm of victory. Within the Christian's heart dwell the trinity of virtues, Faith, Hope and Love, but the greatest of these is love.

I must further emphasize the thought that the blessedness of the religion of Jesus comes to none but the good; that the "divine physician" gives no opiates; but he "heals the sick." And his blessedness is the supreme joy of moral, spiritual, and I may add, physical healthfulness. He anticipates a "new earth in which dwelleth righteousness" a new order of healthful souls under the dominion of love; and in his sublime beatitudes, he addresses this audience of heavenlyminded persons-the truly beatified-"the poor in spirit," "they that mourn," "the meek," "they that hunger and thirst after righteousness," "the merciful," "the pure in heart," "the peacemakers," "the persecuted for righteousness' sake," and "the falsely accused" for the sake of Jesus in a word, true Christians. Now, if you say, there are few of these to-day, I will reply that the world will yet be fully peopled by them. Such must be the effect of the leaven of his love; such, the growth of the grain of mustard seed. Then will all men "see God," for "He shall dwell with them, and be their God, and they shall be His people."

III. Seeing God.

The ancients long anterior to the Christian Era, believed it possible for the impure soul to become pure. Buddha says: "Let man blow off the impurities of his soul as the smith blows off the impurities of silver, one by one, little by little." A modern apostle of liberty and truth, Theodore Parker, has said:

"The world is close to the body; God closer to the soul, not only without, but within, for the all-pervading current flows into each. The clear sky bends over each man, little or great. Let him uncover his head. There is nothing between him and infinite space. So, the ocean of God encircles all men. Uncover thy soul of its sensuality, selfishness, sin, there is nothing between it and God, who flows into the man as light into the air. Certainly, as the open eye drinks in the light, do the "pure in heart see God."

Let us accept, then, the truths that sages and philosophers, poets and prophets of old and of modern times, have bequeathed us, separating the chaff from the wheat-proving all things, hold fast that which is good. Christianity is leaving off, as an old, worn-out garment, the superstitions that enshrouded it in the past-the sectarian narrowness and persecuting bigotry, as well. Soon there will be but one church-the universal Brotherhood and Sisterhood. Love is the fulfilling of the law. It is all-conquering. The ice-floes of barbarism— cruelty and war-will melt under its benign rays, that shall beam with a superior brightness after awhile, when the clouds of ignorance shall have rolled entirely away.

"Forthwith our air

Cleared of the rack that hung on it before

Glitters; and with its beauties all unveiled

The firmament looks forth serene and smiles,"

Then in our evening canopy will that most resplendent star that Dante beheld in Paradise appear:

"O grace, unenvying of thy boon that gavest
Boldness to fix so earnestly my ken

On the everlasting splendor, that I looked

While sight was unconsumed, and in that depth

Saw in one volume clasped, (of love) whate'er

The unverse unfolds; all properties

Of substance and of accident beheld

Compounded, yet one individual light the

The whole."

III. CRIMES AND CRIMINALS.

Respectfully Inscribed To All Legislators The World Over.
(Spoken at Humboldt, Iowa, October 17, 1875.)

"Neither do I condemn thee; go and sin no more.-John viii.11,

I. Guardianship.

Just how far has community a right to inflict punishment or pain upon individuals for crime? I undertake to say, and to defend the idea, that no man, no set of men, no state, no power on earth has a right to even pluck a hair from a living man's head in the way of hurting him for his acts. It is not right to punish men for crime, in the sense that we commonly understand the word punishment. When I say that I belive it is not right, I mean that it is wrong and, in my opinion, contrary to good policy and a violation of natural right to fine a man, taking from him his earnings, or to inflict upon him pain for violating law; and I give as my authority for so saying and so believing, the words of Jesus, "Neither do I condemn thee; go and sin no more."

When the divine law of Christian love has become crystallized in the laws of the land, it will be acknowledged that the chief blame rests on community for the crimes of individuals, and the community will then endeavor to prevent the recurrence of evil by doing now for the criminal (better late than never) what it had neglected to do for him in his boyhood—give him correct ideas by means of instruction in its schools. To do this the state must regard the criminal as a child. A man may be as robust as Goliath and as strong as Samson physically whose mind (and the mind is the man) is the same as the mind of a boy ten years old. When the individual fails as an individual and cannot, for want of moral culture and stamina, walk uprightly, he ought to be put under guardianship and kindly tutelage— be instructed in the way of uprightness. That is all the state has any right to do with the individual-to declare him legally a child unable to walk alone when he fails as a man. It has a right to appoint a guardian over him and to give him work to do; and it should give him full pay for doing it, that he may earn a living for himself and family. It has a right (duty rather) to place within his reach good books, and to give him kind and enlightened teachers who will impart to him correct ideas. The criminal laws of the land should have only one aim in so far as the criminal is concerned, viz: reformation, and this reformation can be brought about only by kindly treatment, and education of his moral nature.

CRIMES AND CRIMINALS.

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But may it not be objected that the "vicious and vagabond class" will voluntarily seek admission to these reform institutions on account of the comforts and conveniences afforded? I reply, that will be as I desire, for is it not better to have them come voluntarily than to have the expense put upon the State of their arrest, trial and the giving of rewards by the Governor for their apprehension, after they shall have committed some awful crime-driven to it by their surroundings -the want of fraternal regard and patronizing friendliness of the social arrangements of the community in which they are placed by circumstances beyond their control-forced into crime by the barbarism of the age. Those who cannot by their own effort find useful, pleasant, healthful and remunerative employment, should be given such employment by the state-the commonwealth taking care that no human energies be wasted, that no willing arm be idle; but all resources of mind and muscle be systematically called into use and put into action for the common good, by the co-operation of a Christian people working to the end of perfecting the social fabric.

When all men and all women feel toward the outcasts as Jesus felt towards them, we shall have infirmaries, reformatories, pleasant hospitals, retreats, homes for the erring, wherein they shall find sincere love. Then the sick will be healed, the blind brought to see, the deaf to hear, the lame to walk, the dead to live. Indeed the erring will be more tenderly cared for than the good; for "the whole need not a physician, but the sick," and "what man of you having a hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety-and-nine in the wilderness and go after that which is lost?" And it is important to ask how long he will go after the lost? The answer is "until he find it!" We shall be peculiarly solicitous that pleasant homes and remunerative employment be provided for the erring and sinful, that good influences be thrown around them and they reclaimed to virtue and to society, that the whole family of man may be happy, that none of our dear brothers and sisters may be wandering in darkness and the valley and shadow of death. We ought to run out after them and seek for them, as did the shepherd his lost lamb, not as individuals only, but as a state, and continue seeking until we find them. Our criminal code to-day is little more Christian than are the criminal laws of the Cannibal Islands. Our laws are not inspired by love of the sinner, but by hate. There is no effort to restore the lost sheep to its pasture, but to slay it. If mankind were as ready to act the part of Christians as they are to make professions of Christianity it would require no argumentation to secure the reforms here proposed.

II. The Divine in Man.

The state, I insist has no more right to take the life of a human being than I have, or to rob a man of his earnings than I have. The many have no rights that do not belong equally to the few. If we would have individuals quit murdering and robbing, the state must first cease to murder and rob. If one has no right to kill, the millions have no right to kill, and a right that does not exist cannot be delegated to a sheriff.

The individual flows along the prepared channel, that circumstances have dug for him, like water in a canal, and few souls are strong enough to break over the embankment and form a better channel for themselves, by force God given. Men are as weak, as a rule, in the direction of their passions, appetites and habits as new born babes. There is, however, a latent love of right in every immortal mind. That love of right is the divine spark of immortality itself. It is the neverdying man. It is all that is human. It is all that is divine. It is the essential being. All else is foreign. All else is capable of elimination. This is everlasting. It is derived from deity, and is as eternal as God

himself. To enkindle to a mighty flame this divine spark in every human breast is the object of christian effort for the redemption of the fallen in this world, and in the world to come.

I mean to say that the person is not greatly blamable, as a rule, for his life however bad that life; but the environment is mainly at fault. As with the growth of grain, so with the growth of the human mind. The best seed may produce a poor crop, if planted in bad soil, of a cold season and tillage neglected. Blame not the seed if the crop fail under these circumstances. But if the seed be fatally bad it is a defect of nature. So is inherited disease of mind and body, and not less inherited viciousness than inherited insanity or consumption to be pitied, and if possible cured, not punished. "Punitive justice," socalled, is barbarity. It is heathenish injustice.

You may make water rise to the clouds by application of heat, and you may make a saint of a Saul of Tarsus, if you change his heart by a proper presentation of divine truth and light. But how may Jesus reach him to convert him? and how may the divine brightness shine down upon him? Jesus may reach him through the mediation of kind words: "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" through the ministration of angels of mercy like Elizabeth Fry; and the light may shine down upon him from the countenances of brothers of men who have in them the mind that was in Jesus-of men who love their fellow-men-of christians indeed. It isn't the hailstorm or hurricane that makes the grass grow, the trees bud and blossom and bear fruit. It is the gentle rain and the mild and loving sunlight. Gentleness and love win the most obdurate to virtue, as the warm sunshine melts the mountains of ice and snow, and transforms nature making the birds sing and the heart of the husbandman glad. It is around the sun that worlds revolve, turning to it for light and heat; and around the Sun of Righteousness, the loving Jesus, mankind have gathered for eighteen hundred years with admiration, adoration and worship; and from him they may learn how to govern states and what words should be written in the text of all criminal codes of the nations, viz: "Neither do I condemn thee; go and sin no more."

III. Spirits in Prison.

It is the wrong that should be condemned and not the wrongdoer; it is the sin that should be attacked and not the sinner. To "take away the sin of the world," was the mission of Jesus. The sin of the world will be removed when we remove the cause of sin. When the world "shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the deep," the cause of sin will then have been removed. True "knowledge of the Lord" is the antidote of the poison of sin.

Vice is a monster of such hideous mien
That to be hated needs but to be seen."

Remove the scales from the sinner's eyes so that he may, like Saul, be brought to see and he will hate sin, as Paul hated it. The cause of sin is the want of moral growth and development. To cultivate the moral nature of man you must let the gentle showers of mercy fall upon him and the sunlight of love shine down upon him. You cannot convert a sinner and make him a saint by violent treatment. You peel all the bark off his moral nature by rough usage in jail and penitentiary, so that moral growth is thereafter impossible. You thus deaden the man morally, and make him dry up and wither like a girdled tree. The human soul is a tender plant that needs watering with gentleness and placing in the sunlight of love.

Let us take measures to lead the criminal to God-to waken in him hopes of the here and the hereafter, to put in him a new heart, a new

mind and new purposes. There are thousands of philanthropic men, and millions, I may truly say, of philanthropic women who would love to devote their lives to the work of lifting up the weak, of reforming the vicious by christian gentleness and love, if only encouraged to do so by the public authorities. I see the time near when our people shall have stepped upon the higher plane of enlightenment-when men shall no longer be looking after their own selfish interests and "happiness," but shall be studying how they may, at whatever cost of personal sacrifice and suffering, bring up those below them to the same plane of unselfish consecration to humanity as they themselves occupy. Society will then be a family of love. The widows and fatherless will no longer be in want; and the unfortunate and erring, the weak and despairing shall be given a work to do, being surrounded, not by cruel tormenters, but by angels of love and mercy. Give me a christian state and there is realized the New Jerusalem-Heaven come down to earth. My idea of heaven is of good angels constantly employed lifting up the lowly-a glorious school of righteousness in which the exalted spirits are instructing those below them-"preaching to the spirits in prison."

No one should embrace any cause for any motive except the good he may do; nor should he falter in his course for hope of reward or even the fear of death. Enlist to fight and suffer. That is Christianity -the Christian warfare. Let one embrace Christ for the sake of following him (as did the humble disciple Father Damien). I would rather be a water-bearer in perdition than to sit on a throne playing upon a golden harp in paradise.

It is a perversion of the Christian idea for one to seek happiness for himself. The thought uppermost with many, "How shall I win Heaven or how shall I escape Hell," is not a Christian aspiration. It is grounded in love of self-not in love of God or love of man. The Christian can only ask "How can I do the most good?" The true Christian's only motive to action is an uncontrollable desire and passion to relieve suffering, and to lift up the down-trodden. God is love and the Christian knows no motive but love.

The wand of love touching the heart of the so-called "depraved" will cause the bright waters of true repentance to gush out of it, as the glassy current gushed out of the rock in the wilderness when touched by the rod of Moses. The worst man's heart, if we could only see it, would prove to be, I think, almost an exact duplicate of the best man's heart-only its fountains of sweet waters would be seemingly dry.

Is there any danger of us becoming too kind to one another? of there arising too great love between man and man? of our doing too much for our suffering fellow-men? What if all men should embrace each other as brothers? What if all should say "We will no longer forge chains and fetters, no longer manufacture cannons, guns, swords and pistols-no longer build jails and penitentiaries; but we I will join to help and care for one another. We will build no more Monitors and Ironclads; but we will establish asylums for the unfortunate, we will take our erring brothers and erring sisters lovingly by the hand and say to them 'We do not condemn thee; go and sin no more.'"

When Elizabeth Fry entered Newgate the officers of the prison warned her that her life would be endangered; but her kindness and love won the love of the unfortunate ones.*

The district nurse in the purlieus of Whitechapel is a revered and privileged person. The roughs and sluggers of the foulest dens, hidden away in tortuous alleys and lanes yield to her goodness and devotion. Where the clergyman would be badly handled, where the policeman cannot go alone at night without endangering his life, the nurse on her mission of mercy can freely enter at all times; for the most degraded and