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CHAPTER XIV.

THE FREEDOM OF THE WILL DEFINED, AND THE

EFFECT OF THE ORGANISM.

N the light of modern science we are wholly justified in proclaiming the freedom of the will and the sovereignty of God as manifested in what is possible to man. In dealing with this subject in the meantime, we will take no notice of the responsibility the Christian belief confers thereby increasing the responsibility of the individual a hundredfold. In view of the necessity doctrine the responsibility in man is greatly less in consequence of so many elements coming into play, in shape of the antecedents of the individual, the early training, and the circumstances in which he is placed, and over which he has no control. From this point of view man's responsibility is a question that the wisdom implied in the Infinite alone can determine. For each grain of energy, moving in connection with conscious life, can be taken account of by Him, the Infinite One. The energy in every form will proclaim the condition through which it assumes its present form and place in the individual life, and whatever responsibility is attached therewith, it being always borne in mind that it is a law of the organism, that a pleasure is snatched and a pain avoided without any regard to consequences, and that to act in accordance with this rule is always the natural

law of the mind's action. will is determined by many antecedent circumstances, and principally rests with the power the individual has acquired over the two sets of muscles taking their rise in the sensorium brain, which will enable him to direct his energy according to deliberate choice. But that there

The so called freedom of the

may be a proper use of this high attainment in having a complete control over the power of these muscles implied in the execution of the will, their exercise must be accompanied with a high sense of justice, in the light of individual responsibility, before this power will morally affect man's actions. In the light of all this, how little responsibility can we justly say attaches itself to many actions which our laws punish with the greatest severity. For example, take the case of a drunkard's brawl, in which, let us suppose, one man kills another. Well, I hold that the former is wholly irresponsible in this case; the so-called murderer had no control over his actions, he had no power to withhold his hand; his was an action as much determined by previous circumstances as the result of any of our laws of nature. The whole guilt attaching to this act rests in the power the man had over his inclination in regard to getting intoxicated. And as I follow that man through the few succeeding scenes of his earthly life, from the prison to the court of the so-called justice, and hear the judge sum up the evidence, leaving the jury simply to say in one word what he implied in many words, that the prisoner is guilty of murder; as I see the judge assume the black cap, and in mock justice condemn the man as a murderer to death, while he expresses a hope that God will have

mercy on his soul, which doubtless will be fully fulfilled in view of all the circumstances of the case; as I follow him to the scaffold, where through the carelessness attaching to some one the hanging process may have to be twice performed, the rope having broken, and the man requiring to be hoisted and hanged a second time. During all these different stages the poor man is thought of as the guiltiest wretch on earth, while the family of which he was a member is branded, because it has chanced to be in connection with such a wretch. The fact of the matter however is, that the man is a martyr to circumstances over which he may have no control, or over which his power may have been very limited indeed. Certainly in regard to the last act for which he and his family and friends suffer all this misery, he is wholly irresponsible, and dies a martyr to the socalled law of justice made in the name of a Christian state, and in the light of the certain knowledge that the automatic structure of the individual renders the action of that individual, when under the influence of passion or drink, wholly automatic. Individuals who suffer thus will doubtless find the measure of justice meted out by a God of mercy wholly different from man's. And yet man asks God's blessing on such a state of things, and calls it justice in the light of Christ's teaching, with the words ever before our eyes, "With what judgment ye judge ye shall be judged". (Matt. vii. 2.) No one will deny that society must be protected, but dare we, in the name of Christian justice, protect it at such a cost. Indeed, viewing our criminal class as a whole, we feel that our sense of justice in the light of their responsibility is

wholly at fault; we must give them a new organism before we have a right to punish them as we are doing, and this new organism Christianity provides. The scenes that sometimes takes place in our convict prisons are of a nature that would paralyze the half of humanity, if there were any one to care for the poor convicts, and draw public attention to what they sometimes suffer, But a convict seems to have no claim on humanity; for no one heeds his grief. Yet true is it that in many cases he suffers as a creature of circumstances; while the circumstances surrounding him in prison often, if not always, tend to harden him yet more.

I was informed of one punishment administered in the convict prison either at Portland or Portsmouth, in 1875 or 1876. It was of this nature. One of the convicts had six dozen lashes given him in consequence of having spit over the balcony on one of the officers (a medical officer I think). This dreadful punishment so shocked me when I heard it that I was quite unnerved for days. I have since then prayed hundreds of times for the man that suffered so, and look forward to meeting him in glory, (for as a Christian of course I believe in the efficacy of prayer as a means to an end). Now if the officer so used, who must have been greatly provoked, had simply forgiven the man this personal insult, which I fancy he as a head official had the power to do, but which perhaps he could not have done if it had happened to an official in a lower position, how the cord of sympathy would have vibrated in a heart treated in this way! The man would have stood self-condemned, whereas the punishment suffered for such an offence

must have paralyzed every human feeling that might linger in his heart. And how the prompters of such a punishment are to stand before God, to have the same measure in some sense measured to them again, is a matter which concerns themselves only. The future certainly does hold in store some such position as that for them whoever they may be, and I for one do not feel that I have any sympathy to offer them, seeing that, when they had the power to act mercifully, they showed so little mercy to the erring but weak.

What mockery the form of prayers offered up in behalf of the convicts, in convict prisons, must appear before God, in the light of such cases as this! How useless to pray, where no sympathy is given! Prayer is as much to be valued as a means to an end in going forward to our work, as the end itself which is ultimately to be attained. When we ask the Giver of all Good to touch the heart of any one, we ought also to ask to be able to help that one, by having our own heart beating in sympathy. I am informed that Ladies, while engaged in their works of mercy and labour of love, have been excluded from convict prisons, because they were too sympathetic and were giving the authorities trouble in regard to the 'punishments. In this I may have been misinformed, but at any rate there is little power brought to bear so as to soften the convict's heart. However, as I think of the future in connection with our convicts, I can find comfort in the assurance that, where man has measured out their punishment, God's justice is testified, and they must stand acquitted before a merciful God, so far as the offence they have suffered for is concerned. They have

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