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About Harrison press-journal. (Harrison, Nebraska) 1899-1905 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 5, 1899)
RIGHT AND JUSTICE Rev. William T. Brown, pastor of the Plymouth chureh of Rochester, N. T., preached the following sermon: John xlz. 10: Pilate therefore tilth unto Jesus, speakest thou not unto me? Knowest thou not that I have power to release thee and have power to crucify thee? In Pilate'a official palace at Jerusa lem nearly nineteen hundred years ago. was enacted a scene in the drama of history which discloses with mar velous clearness the tragedy which Is perpetually taking place In this world of ours. In that Judgment hall In far away Palestine are outlined with per fect accuracy the forces which are per petually arrayed against each other. The issue drawn In that room between the two men who stood there face to face is the only moral Issue that this world ever knew or ever can know. These two men are the representatives and embodiment of the two perpetually hostile forces in this world of mankind. One of these men was Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea, official represent ative of Tiberius Caesar. The other was Jesus of Nazareth, a prophet with hardly a following a preacher without a church, a man without a country, the discredited and despised apostle of the gospel of love. Pilate and Jesus! These are the two central figures In that his toric picture which time nor change can ever erase from human memory. Who are these two men, and what do they represent? What is the na ture of the Issue which was there so clearly drawn? What do we know about this historic scene? BRUTE FORCE. We know that' Pilate Is an official of the Roman government. We know that Jesus is a prisoner on trial before the tribunal of that government. We know that no document exists today which substantiates or suggests any charge against that Galilean prophet which can make him a criminal. We know that this scene contains not even a hint of Justice. The prisoner at the bar is guilty of no crime. The Judge on that throne does not In the remotest way suggest a suspicion of Justice. Pi late represents Just one thing, and only one. And that Is bald, brutal force. No matter what his personal qualities may have been. They do not figure. He is an official. He la nothing but the pro jection of Caesar's personality and power. He embodies the existing gov ernment. He Is the Incarnation of a morally colorless power. It Is of no consequence that the Roman tribunals sometimes administered Justice. His tory bears me out In saying that they did so only when Justice would answer the purpose of Caesar better than In justice. Pilate on the throne of Judg ment Is the embodiment of Caesarlsm of blind, brutal force. That is exactly what the words of Pilate, addressed to that silent, worn-out man before hlni, men. "Speakest thou not to me? Knowest thou not that I have power to release thee, and have power to crucify thee?" That Is the deliverance of absolute power. That Is the lan guage of Inexorable fate. He has not a suggestion of Justice. Justice has no place in the picture. Back of Pilate, back of his words and his will, back of the man and the of fice Is a military force which holds the world In a vice-like grip. No other mili tary power exists that will venture to dispute that dominion. Pilate knows what he Is talking about. He Is abso- i lutely secure In his position and he doesn't propose to waste any words. He Is not there to weigh arguments or measure principles with that man. That is not a court of JuHtlce. In the mind Of Pilate and of that which Pilate rep resents the prisoner at the bar Is noth ing. It doesn't matter to Pilate who tie Is or what he Is. This lone Nazarene Is only one man against a vast empire. That empire can stamp out his life, as a man crushes an Insect under his foot Jesus of Nazareth has no claim to consideration at the hands of that huge engine of physical might. He lives only by the sufferance of Rome. Bays Pilate: "I have power to set you free, and I have power to kill you. . Ton s' titfrlv helple In my hands. I can do as I please with you. Tou are In ine presence of omnipotence. Tour only hope of living on this earth lies In your gaining the goo will of Caesar. In the hands of Caesar hangs your destiny." POWER OF LOVE. And what of the man on trial there? Does he stand for anything worth thinking about? Does he represent anything that Is entitled to your consid eration or mine? I care not what you think of any or all the sayings ascrib ed to him In these four gospels. I care not what your opinion be as to the superstitions which have so easily grown up in the minds of men and women concernlg him. I challenge the world to find any moral fault In that man. Every generation from that day to this has echoed the reputed words of Pilate: "I find no fault In him." That verdict stands. Perhaps he was not as scholarly as many of his contemporaries. Hlllll was far his su perior In Jewish learning. Socrates and Plato and Aristotle were Incomparably greater philosophers. Phllo of Alex andria, who lived through the same pe rl ad, far excelled him in speculative Wisdom. No one would think of com paring him In literary merit with the least of the Greek and Roman writers. And gaul of Tarsus has certainly far overshadowed him Intellectually In th great Institution that calls Itself after bis title. But the man who that day stood before Pilate for trial occupies a moral pre-eminence which no man has yet disputed. And we know what he stood for. We know the contrast which this picture present. We know that In that palace chamber brute force In the person of Caesar's representative stood hat day face to face with love In the arson of the Nazarene. That Is ex actly the meaning of that scene. Ivove was on trial before a morally colorless brute force, occupying the throne of judge. Brut force passing sentence on love, physical might Joining issues with lustiest That Is the essential and eter nal significance of Jesua before Pate. "I have power to let you live, and I have power l,y you"" was the rnes. Mgo which brute force that day deliv ered to love. And love that day by the mouth of Jesus-and eternally by the Up of undaunted Chrlsts of God de Clared and will ever declare, "You have no power at all. Tou are the very em bodiment of impotence. You cannot Union the hem of love'a garment. Tou are a shadow. You are a phantom. Tou are nothing. There Is no power In the universe but love. Love Is God, and beetde him there I none to dispute hie sway. Force Is Impotent against love. Might Is helpless against J"tl It can but elay Itself. Love hold the very constellations In Its hand. TRUTH CRUSH HD TO EARTH WILL RISE AGAIN. A few hour after that scene In Pi late's palace three crosses had been raised outside the city walla, and on tk middle one hung the mantled. Meeting body of the Kaaarene. And .f rf2Tii i .. Am Mlnnt cried r- Ca aaTwl j-u. It nssnsMC enw iwv UtttoMM. Hall U th Ttotor sad VS. BRUTE FORCE. king!" Bo said the contemporaries of Pilate and Jesus, so said the princes and mighty ones of all the succeeding centuries, and so say their idiotic pos terity today, in press and pulpit, in counting room and legislative hall. In Judicial court and in executive man sion. "All ball to victorious and con quering power! Cast your garlands at the feet of the man who wins! Let the homage of all men be paid to the strongest navy! Hats off to the most successful murderer! Nothing In the gift of the nation is good enough for the man who has slain his thousands!" I wonder If we really think that those men of that first century or their kin dred In any century since were right? World-wide power, impersonated by the Roman empire, said. "We have blotted this man from the earth. We have erased him from the slate. Might Is king. There Is no reality save power. The empire Is God. Its dominion la everlasting. Its law Is Inexorable. From Its decision there Is no appeal. A mere insect in a little corner of the earth has been trod upon. A fleck of foam o nthe current of Roman su premacy has disappeared. A flickering heresy has been snuffed out, never to glow again." Was that true? 1 appeal to history. Was there one smallest atom of truth In that verdict? What are the facts? ' If you will permit your minds to fol low the current of history from that day in Pilate's palace down through the next three centuries you will' find that the verdict of Caesarlsm was utterly false. You will find that the scene at Jerusalem was but the first one in a tragedy upon which the curtain never fell and never will fall until the vil lain is slain and the hero Is crowned. You will find that every Roman em peror that ascended the throne found himself face to face with the same en tity which Jesus stood for. You will find that from the day Jesus was cru cified straight onward to the day Con stantlne was crowned, almost exactly 300 years later, that great empire was engaged In one long massacre of men and women who held the name of Jesus in supreme reverence. You have In that history nothing clearer than the struggle of organized power against the rise and spread of rose sontlments for which the cruci fied Galilean was supposed to stand, v. aesarism still held the throne of pow er, but in every nook and corner of that vast empire the followers of the man who had bsen crucified multiplied by hundreds, by thousands, by millions. The religious idea which blossomed from the life and words of Jesus was the one thing that did grow during those three centuries. The power of the Caesars waned. The power of Jesus waxed stronger with every hour. It mattered not that Nero, and Domltlan, and Hadrian, and Trajan, and Serve rus, and Maximus, and Valerian, and rwocletlan, and even the great Marcus Aurellus put to death the Christians In droves as the enemies of mankind. CRUSADE THAT FAILED. The crusade of extermination was doomed to failure. The whole army of the empire was not large enough to crush out that growing multitude of men and women who Is some meas ure reproduced the life and spirit of Jesus. They did not resort to arms. They did not even resist arrest. They resisted nothing. They were the very incarnation of physical weakness, even when they had grown to be the largest sect In the empire. They knew no weapon but love. They had no defense but Justice. And the day came when brute force had to give up the strug gle, when Caesar had to make terms with Jesus, when physical might could no longer hold Its throne, except by al liance with the eternal power of love. Caesarlsm could not crush out Chris tianity as represented In the high moral Ideals of those early centuries. And we know today how blind, ana foolish, and false, was the creed of Cae sarlsm. Find me one man who knows the name of Tiberius Caesar, and ror that one and for every other one I will find you 1.000 men who know far bet ter the name of Jesus. Find me one man who has ever read the writings of the first Caesar, and I will find you 10,000 who are far more familiar with the reputed words of the Nazarene. Kind me one man who cares anything about any or all of the Caesars, and I will find vou 1.000.000 who proiess 10 worship the man whom Pilate crucified. We should not know even the name of Pilate today but for the fact that he was the xecutloner of Jesus, ine em pire of the Caesars came under the do minion of the men wno reverea jenu as a god, and the monuments of her greatness have been bullded Into the walls of churches wnere ne is wui- shlped. RADICAL REFORMER. Think once more of that scene In Pi late's palace. What is the charge : What Is the prisoner's plea? And what Is the verdlet of the Judge? The estab lished order Is the plaintiff In that atrial, and It Is also th Judge. And the Indictment which it brings aganlst the prisoner, is that the course ne is pur suing, the Ideals he cherishes, the teaching to whicn ne nas given ut terance are fatal to the existence of that order. No matter whether they are true or not. That Is not admitted Into ihA rase. The man Is adjudged worthy of death because the triumph of hia teachings and the adoption or nis ure mean the overthrow of the established order. He hae Insisted that there Is but one law of life, the law of love. He has declared hat no other law la tol erable. He hae abolished class dlstlnc lions. He has Insisted that eveey man la a brother and every woman a sis ter. He has told men that they are to call no man master on the earth, that no man may Justly lord It over hia Minw mm the nations do. He haa dared to challenge the Justice of force. He hae dared to analyze me rono of acquiring property. He has cnea out against the seinsn ncn anu w ful He hae befriended and cast In his lot with the poor. He has sown the seeds of .discontent among the masses. He hae so stirred the minds of his Galilean countrymen, that they have even attempted to make him their leader In a violent revolution. His . h moat revolutionary the world ever received. No matter what the basis of those teacnings is. -ter how righteous or humane hia prln. elples They cannot be tolerated by the existing order. They are Inoonalat ent with Ita every Institution. Slavery cannot breathe In the atmosphere of those principles. Tyranny Is doomed and damned by them. They are the very antithesis of the powers of the empire. That man must die. To these charges there could be but one Plea on the part of the prison8""; Such had been his teachings. He had put hltneelf squarely and absolutely upon the platform of love as unlver sal law. Anything elee Is lawlessness, rorce le a synonym for evIU Only Jus tloa can have any authority. Force can accomplish nothing but Its own tin rniv imr of men lore between man and man the recognition of the famllyhood of the world can survive. Only that haa an authority over tha oensoieooe or oooduet of men. "ery wtley shall b esalted, tad every hill shall be brought low," he had said. Ne human Institution of whatever sort that does not rest squarely on justice, that la not the blossom of love, can live. WILL NOT LISTEN TO REASON. Caesarlsm could listen to no argu ment. It never does. It did not nor doee It ever consent to the arbitra ment of reason and conscience. Its ap peal la perpetually to the arbitrament of hard, cold, soulless might. And it crushed the Christ beneath its heel. But what has It proved? Haa It proved that Caesar was right and Jesua was wrong? Haa It proved that force Is the God of the universe, and love Is senseles folly? I will tell you what It has proved in that contest and In every other to any man with a vestige of conscience In blm. It has proved that brute force Is everywhere and always embodied lawlessness. In carnate murder, and the very anti thesis of God. This brief glance at the scene en acted In Jerusalem nearly nineteen hundred years ago and Its sequences Is of little importance to you and me unless we discover that in that scene we have a glimpse of a conflict which is perpetually going on. We need to know that every human struggle haa been essentially this very same thing which stands out so clear In the pic ture of Pilate and Jesus. Only as we see the historical struggles of the world to be the measuring of strength between brute force and love can we have any adequate Idea of their mean ing. Only ao are we put in possession of a criterion with which to measure the moral significance of the phenom ena we see about us. Here are two dis tinct ways of looking at the world and life, two distinct Ideals, two dis tinct Judgments upon human action. They are the Ideal of Caesar and the ideal of Jesus. Caesarlsm declares that force Is the only God, power is a synonym for Justice. We have the power to enact our will. We will therefore enact that will. Justice la a name for that which power does or purposes to do. Caesarlsm In the first century said: "The Ideals taught by the Galilean are Inconsistent with the maintenance of the existing govern ment. If this man Is permitted to go on his way and teach what he does teach, the empire cannot stand. Cae sarlsm and the Ideals of Jesus cannot exist side by side in the same world. They are opposltes. The Ideals of Jesus are a menace to the ideals of Caesar. Jesus must die. Christianity must be exterminated." CAE9ARISM FAILS AGAIN. Caesarlsm again found Itself face to face with Jesus In the time of George the II. It Is declared that power is the only god, that all virtue Is embodied In obedience to the existing govern ment. It branded as rebels and traitors those men who presumed to dispute that dictum. It would not parley with any ene. No man had a right to ques tion its supremacy. To the handful of its subjects of these distant shores In whose souIb flamed the light of a Just- er ideal, It said, "There is nothing to be discussed between us. You have no rights which I am bound to respect. This is not a question for argument. It cannot be submitted to the arbitra ment of reason. Might makes right." And love, which is only another name for Justice, In the persons of our heroic fathers, declared that no such Idea Is tolerable. It denied that false doctrine, and declared that no authority Is tol erable save that which is founded upon Justice, that no government anywhere on this earth Is just save that which springs from the consent of the gov erned. And the tragedy of Calvary was re-enacted on these shores In 1776. Power sought to crush Justice. Brute force asserted Its title to sovereignty, and the cross of Christ was raised on every battlefield of the revolutionary war. And the sole claim of the fathers of this nation to Immortality lies In tht fact that they refused under any cir cumstances to accept that sovereignty. And In spite of the fact that there were hundreds of men In this country who held to the creed of force, who be lieved that might makes right Cae sarlsm again failed; for there were men here who were willing to die in aeiense of justice and liberty and equality. But the night of years again aisciosea here In our very midst the hideous monster we believed we had crushed In the war for Independence. We found ourselves saying in deeds and Insti tutions as well as In words, "The black man Is an Inferior. He Is made to serve. It Is right that the white man should be master, and the black man a servant. The white man belongs to the superior race. He Is the more Intelligent He has the power, let him use It He did use It. and slavery grew upon our soil. Utter weakness was on the side of the black. All the resources or govern ment, and all the results of culture were on the side of the white. But nower which does not rest on Justice and love Is a phantom. The demand for freedom and equality had but to be as serted to become resistless. CAESARISM AND THE PHILIP PINES. How Is it today? Do you need to have me Indicate how we are enacting the Pilate scene all over this earth? Dustrulse It or deny It as you will, tYtim implnan nation, the nation of Washington and Jefferson and Lincoln, of the Declaration of Independence and the proclamation or .-mancipation, m Bunker Hill and Gettysburg, of Faneull hall and of the immortal iioerxy oen ihim .tisin hv th will nf the nreaent administration declares the stupid and devilish creed that might makes right. No one imagines lor a mom em usi wc ahnuM Ka WHAinP this WIT Of brUtal conquest In the Philippines, If we did not know we nave me power io mv. Pilate'a worde to Jesus are on our Hps, and Caesar's will is our only law. We v..,.. mmiA tA man whn a vear aro called forth the plaudits of the world In their brave fight ror rreeaom, "we nave pow er to do with you as we will. You have .A ..hrtlA In thA mttpr. And If vou dare to assert your Inalienable right to life, liberty ana tne pursuit oi Happi ness, II you presume 10 appeal mm uiu fat nr in ih eternal Drlnelnler upon which this nation was founded, e, their sons, will slay me last man of you who resists our will." My friends most shameful and humiliating deeds that can ever blot the history or a pro fessed democracy. We do not rest our cause on Justice, but on force. There Is no Justice In It. There Is no honor In It We have disgraced our flag. It ceases to represent anything that commanaa a spark of patriotism or entnusiasm. save the patriotism of partisans and the enthusiasm of brutes, when It files above our soldiers engaged In killing people who are ngnting tor meir in alienable rights, for rights which we .unlu nUHirMl hv all that Is moat aaered In human history to main tain. I do not wonaer mat mis aamin Istratlon and Its supporters have dis owned the Declaration of Independ ence, as has been done over and over again In the meetings of present day to nes. And a dally press that would not know a moral principle if It saw It, takes the place of Pilate, and call, those men traitors whose only sin la their love of liberty and their desire to grant to others what they claim for themselves! NOTHING BUT BKUTB FORCm I want yeu, my friends, to realise what all this means and whither it Is leading us. We are resting our cause on force, and on nothing: under heaven but force. Net the force of reason or Justice, not upon the appeal which our action makes to humanity, but upon bare, brute force. That Is exactly the aum and subatace of the matter. We do not argue and we do not appeal to a sense, of right We shoot we kill, we crush. That is the only meaning our soldiers or officers or guns in the Phil ippines have. They stand for nothing but brute force. Spell it just as you like. Spell God out of It, as does the president and no end of clergymen and politicians and commercial buzzards, spell It with a capital G, and bow down before it It means nothing under heaven but brute force. And brute force means everywhere and always injus tice, robbery and murder. It doesn't mean anything else anywhere. If that Is your creed, I cannot go with you. We belong to altogether different worlds. I must decline to be counted In with any man who worships brute force. I acknowledge no God but love. I deny that brute force ever yet decid ed anything, except the mere question of physical strength. And its exercise can nowhere be Indulged In, without lasting moral Injury to the man or the nation which makes use of It We have perjured and polluted ourselves. And as surely as we had to pay the price of our wickedness In blood In the slavery struggle, so surely will we have to make similar payment In this business. Mr. Kipling was quite right when he said: "They shall Judge your God and you." They have already Judged the God of this nation, and for us to talk of sending missionaries to those Islands to Introduce Christianity is adding In sult to injury. We do not believe In Christianity. We have forfeited the right to be its apostle among the na tions of the world. I venture the pre diction now that not until a new dec laration of rights has given birth here to a new nation shall we know any peace. TRUSTS. But this policy of ours In relation to the Filipinos Is only a piece of our policy here. What this government means to the Filipinos It means to our people. Our policy here, as there. Is one of force. There is no question of Jus tice In our dealing with those who are asking for their rights in this country. There Is coming to be an almost univer sal cry among werkingmen for Jus tice. I dare say that It has not been met on that basis.Caesarlsm Is as truly enthroned In commerce here as It was in government In the Roman empire. Not justice, but brute force, is relied on to keep things as they are. Caesar ism in the first century knew that It could keep Its throne only by slaying men like Jesus. History repeats itself. Caesarlsm would now keep its throne Ay suppressing all who oppose it. t would smother the voice of protest. It would drown the voice of conscience, which cries out against the wickedness of Its deeds. It would silence every pa triot by calling him a traitor. It would close the malls to free citizens of this republic and menace them with trial for treason, which it dare not actually submit to a court. Think for a moment of the meaning of the great commercial combinations which are now arising so rapidly. They stand for nothing but force. They do not argue. They strike. They do not rest their cause on justice. They rest It on power. If I am not right, I am open to correction. They make no pretence of appealing to a sense of right. Conscience has nothing to do with them. They are the crea tions of human beings, but they are as remorseless as an earthquake. Through them one group of men are say ing to their fellows who happen to be the weaker, "We don't care whether your cause la Just or not That has nothing to do with the case. You are not dealing with a soul when you deal with us. You are dealing with the in exorable and the Inevitable." And when some of us who believe In something better, who hold the faith of Jesus, the faith of brotherhood, that the world Is one family and has no law but love, that any substitute for that law is out lawry, no matter what high-sounding scientific title you apply to it when we presume to question the right of the system, when we say, "That Is a mat ter for all to solve together. These In stitutionswhatever they are affect us all. They concern the Interests of all. Cmoe, now, let us reason together. Let us open the books. Let us get to the bottom of things. Let us see what these Institutions rest upon. Let us find out whether they are right and Just." NONE OF OUR BUSINESS. When we make that proposal, what Is the anawer we receive? We are told that It Is no buslnes of ours. We are met with the answer of Pilate: "Knowest thou not that I have power to let you live and power to crush you?" We are told that there Is nothing to Investigate. We are met by the re sponse of blind, brute force. We are made to understand that our one chance to live on this earth depends upon our keeping silent on these ques tions. They are not to be discussed. The only thing we are permitted to do Is to get on the right side of this great machine. If we cannot do that we are ruthlessly crushed. Says the man who fears to have men know the origin of methods of the acumulatlon of prop erty: "If you speak of these things In the pulput, you must take the conse quences. I will not contribute to the support of any man who Insists upon applying the law and rule of love and brotherhood to all realms of human life. I will do what In me lies to si lence every such voice. I will Day my money to the man who keeps wen with in the lines of safety, who preaches the simple, old-fashioned gospel of a full and free salvation in the world to come. I will let that man live on this earth who wlil confine himself to the olory. who never says anything that could posslMy offend the conscience of any selfish man. But the man who In sists upon declaring plainly and clearly what he believes to be the truth of Ood, who Is Impelled to do so by no other motive than that of love of Jus tice and love of man and wo haa anything to say that stirs hope In the hearts of the hopeless and courage in the souls of the despairing, that man shall starve; he shall be crushed; he shall be branded as an anarchist or by any other name which will bring upon him the hatred of society. That man shall not live, If I can help It. There Is not room on this earth for the estab lished order, If such men are permitted to live." That is precisely what we are com ing to, and we are coming to It fast. It Is well that we should see It plainly and decide where we propose to stand. You and I, my brothers, are going to stand with Jesus, or we are going to stand with Caesar. But wherever we decide to stand, let us not lose sight of one thing. TRANSPARENT LIB. The creed of brute force Is a trans parent He. There does not exist a single Institution on this earth which can escape the olosest scrutiny of the eye of justloe. Justice 1 a solvent which nothlna- can resist. But it n dissolved empires, tad It will dissolve every government that is erected oa the basis ef force. It has dissolved superstitions, and It wll dissolve others, whether they are In the realm of religion or in the realm of industry and commerce. We cannot hide our selves, our property, our conduct our theories from the light of justice. We need to know that love alone is eter nal. We live in a shadow of a dream, lacking that knowledge. The Caesars are gone and their empire has melted away. The tyranny and despotism of the Stuarts and the Tudore and the George have vanished. The deeds of the nations today of England In Egypt and India and South Africa of Russia in Finland and China and Siberia of the United States in Cuba and the Philippines) are not to be dis missed with a word. They are going to be weighed In the balance. The ledger of retribution is not by any means made up. But they shall all pay to the last farthing. The mills of God grind alow, but they grind exceedingly small ; Though with patience he atanda wait ing, with exactness grinds he all. Spain, 400 years ago, was the foremost nation of the earth. Today she has fallen to the rank of a tenth-rate power. In the days of her pride, she brooked no protest. The house of Hapsburg appealed not to reason or justice or love or humanity, but always to brute force. She took the sword, and though she has waited long, she has well nigh perished by the sword. We boast of our Anglo-Saxon race, as If it were proof against the demoralizing Infection of dishonor and perfidy. Not only In the Philippines have we appealed to the sword, but also in the mines of Idaho and Colorado, of Illinois and Pennsylvania, and everywhere where men are demanding a living wage. We In this country, are doing out utmost to teach the "silent, sul len people" of mine and factory and railroad that might makes right. Do we want to learn that lesson? Do we want to appeal to the arbitrament of the sword in industry as we have In conquest? We may be sure that they will not be slow to learn that lessen. And we ought to know that in teach ing It we are sowing the wind to reap the whirlwind. It was Jesus who said, "With what measure ye mete It shall be measured to you again." The truth for which I am contending today and every day before the Jury of this congregation and all to whom my words may go Is the same old truth for which Jesus stood. It is the truth that brute force never decides anything, that no question Is ever settled until the solution which love dictates is reached. Might can never make right. Brute force can never consummate Jus tice, by whomsoever exercised. And we shall never have anything like peace or prosperity save as we have Justice. The appeals to force from above will be met by the appeal to force frem below. The anarchists of the avenues will con tinue to spawn the anarchists or the alleys. And by the same token Justice and love will call forth Justice and love. MODERN NERO. It is easy for our modern Nero to ac cuse the men of this time who hold to the faith of Jesus with treason and incendiarism, because the triumph of their struggle means the overthrow of the existing system. But they are no more traitors and Incendiaries than were Jesls and the Christians of Rome. It is still Nero who is the traitor and the incendiary. He is guilty of treason who repudiates the only principle upon which Just government can be founded, not he who repudiates the administra tion which violates that principle. He Is the Incendiary who sternly refuses to submit his cause to the arbitrament of reason and discussion, who plants himself sauarely on the creed of might and tramples on the rights of others, not he who demands that all things shall be submitted to the arbitrament of Justice and love. The day has gone by when any man could separate him self from his fellow. Your interests are my Interests, and my Interests are yours. Yeu cannot lite your life into the world of Industry, without taking the destinies of other men Into your keeping. You are answerable not Just to vour own conscience, but to the conscience of all your fellows. No man can with safety wield power of any sort, unless he Is under tne sway oi love. backward look across the ages and the beacon-moments see, That, like peaks of some sunken con tinent. Jut through uouvion s sea; Not an ear In court or market for the low foreboding cry Of those crises, God's stern winnowers, from whose feet earth's chaff must fly; Never'shows the choice momentous till the Judgment hath passed by. Careless seems the Great Avenger; his tory s pages dui record One death-grapple In the darkness, 'twlxt old systems and the Word; Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne Yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown, Standeth God within the ahadow.keep- Ing watch above his own. We see dimly In the Present what Is small and what Is great, Slow of faith how weak an arm may turn the Iron helm of fate. But the soul Is still oracular; amid the market's din. List the ominous, stern whisper from ninhl, rnvo within They enslave their children's children, who make compromise wiw sin. Then to side with Truth Is noble when we share her wretcnea crust. Ere her cause bring fame and profit and 'tis prosperous to be Just; Then It is the brave man chooses, while the coward stands aside, Doubting In hia abject spirit, till hia I. A..,.l AaA1 And the multitude make virtue of the faith they naa aeniea. Count me o'er earth's chosen heroes they were souls mat stoa aione, While tne men they agonized for hurl- the contumellus stone. Stood serene and down the future saw amMAn twnm Incline To the side of perfect Justice, mastered by their raitn aivine, By one man's plain truth to manhood and to God's supreme design. By the light of burning hereUca rkifea MaaAlnv fet I track. Tolling up new Calvaries ever with the cross that turns noi dc, And these mounts of anguish number how each generation learned One new word of that grand Credo which In prophet-hearts hatb burned Since the first man stood God-conquered with his face to heaven uptsrn d. For hnmanlty sweeps onward; where today the martyr stands, On the morrow crouches Judas, witn the silver in his hands; Far In front the cross tands ready and the crackling fagots burn, While the hooting mob of yesterday In silent awe return To glean up th scattered ashes Into History's golden urn. HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. (Omaha Trade Exhibit) In the later days plantations have been organized by professional organis ers. B. F. Dillingham and L. A. Thurs ton have stood as sponsors for several of the largest new enterprises, with behind their name and credit the pres tige of some old agency, like Castle It Cooke, Brewer & Co., Hackfleld 4 Co., Theo H. Davis & Co., The usual course has been to secure a large tract of land, first learning that the soil was satis factory and that there was a certainty of water supply for Irrigation. Then a prospectus Is issued. This sets forth In closest detail all the particulars of the new undertaking. Figures are pre sented covering a series of years and a variety of probable circumstances or possible happenings. It is announced that on a certain date subscription books for the assessable stock of the corporation will be opened. The pay ments are five per cent a month. A portion of the paid up stock goes to the promoter as his fee and other frac tions of the paid up (about half the stock being assessable) are carried by leaders in the company. In most cases land owners accept shares in lieu of cash. The builders of the mills always take considerable stock. The agency Is a heavy holder. The artesian well bor ers are pleased to be stockholders. The principal employes put all their ready money Into shares. Since the beginning of this year more than $20,000,000 of stock has been placed on the Honolulu market. It has been literally snapped up and in ever instances has been oversubscribed from three to 30 times. The only man who gets a salary as a corporation officer is the auditor, and his allowance is small. On the planta tions managers receive from $3,000 to $12,000 a year, and men who know sugar are always in demand. The chemists, sugar boilers, engineers, irrigation ex perts and a few others are well paid. The coolies receive from $16 to $26 a month gold and have free fuel, water, houses and medical attendance. Half of them are under a contract that has a penal clause. There will be no trouble about having an ample supply of free labor, as the sources are numerous, the channels open and the Immigration companies eager to do business. Hawaii leads all countries of the earth In the production of cane sugar to the acre in cultivation. But it was only In 1898 that some of the oriental countries were passed. The planters of the isl ands are the world's most notable scien tific farmers. In charge of their ex periment station is Dr. Walter Max well, an Englishman formerly connect ed with the department of agriculture at Washington. With his corps he an alyzes soils, cane, sugar, fertilizers, wa ter and at the station has In conduct day In and day out hundreds of trials. His results are conveyed to the plan ters in printed bulletins. If Dr. Max well is the scholarly and gifted genius, Prof. Koebele Is the brilliant wizard. He is the entomologist for the planters, borrowed from the California state board of agriculture. Prof. Koebele. who did for the San Jose scale, wipes out any scale, Insect or blight that may threaten cane or any tree or plant of the islands. Dr. Maxwell and Prof. Koebele are perhaps the best paid men in their respective callings. A crop of cane in Hawaii matures in eighteen months. The area of a plan tation is from 3,000 to 50,00 acres. As recently as 1884 it was calculated that the islands would never produce more than 150,000 tons of sugar in a year. In the campaign of 1898-9 Just closing there will be taken off not less than 250,000 tons at $80 per ton. The con sumption of sugar Is Increasing. The market and the conditions can now be estimated pretty clearly ten years ahead and the prospects are moBt en couraging. At present the only lands used are those abutting the coast lines. The vast plains and forests back are still virgin, but are being approached and reach after. The best way to ac quire Interest In this enormously prof ltble business Is to go on the Honolulu or San Francisco stock exchanges and buy shares In corporations that are paying dividends of from 25 to 80 per cent All the new plantations promise as well. These great profits do not ac crue by accident are not gifts of God to the good, or anything of that sort. The manager of the big plantation thinks nothing of buying $19,000 worth of fertilizer In a single order, and the fertilizer Is all made in Honolulu by two companies owned by plantation people. Some have bonemeal and phosphates brought from the states, but most of the raw material comes from a guano Island of the group and from German chemical houses. Shipping in and out of the several ports of the Islands, chiefly Honolulu, Is of course a huge Item. In this busi ness the capital in nearl yall Hawaiian and American. The lnter-lsland fleet of steamers and scooners are consid erable ,and deep sea sailing vessels and steamers arrive and depart dally. The shipping business was greatly stimulat ed and Increased by the war. Then Ha waii has neither lumber nor coal and la without mineral. There Is building stone, but brick, lime and cement are all Imported. In '48-9 and the early BO'S flour and potatoes were shipped to Cali fornia, but now all flour and some pota toes are brought from the coast Prin cipal exports aside from sugar art rice, coffee and bananas. ED TOW8B, President Hawaiian Commlselon.Great- er America Exposition, 1889. The old proverb, "While there's life there's hope," gains a good deal of force from these brief sketches of men who triumphantly survived almost every form of accident: A few months ago died Thomas Rushton of Walkden, Lancashire, Eng land. Moat of his life was Ipent In hos pitals consequent on his many mishaps. When five years old he fractured both thighs, and before he had fairly recov ered he fell down stairs and sustained a double fracture. Thenceforward hia life was one long series of misfortunes, for besides breaking both legs twenty four times, he sustained many other In juries and underwent countleaa opera tlona. A short time ago the "Lancet" men tioned the case of a man who had frac. tured his limbs six times, and on each occasion the accident occurred on th same date namely, August M. Before he was II he bad met with five such mishaps, ao he resolved for th futur always to remain at home on th fatal 26th. It chanced, however, that twa ty-three years later, forgetting his reso lution, be went to work en th unlucky day, and on bis return slipped down and brek hit tog.