A PREACHER-SHERIFF by W. N. G.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 28, 1901

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 35.

A PREACHER-SHERIFF.

By W. N. G.

The sheriff of Cumberland County, Me., in which is the city of Portland, is also a preacher. A correspondent of the Union Signal notes the fact of his recently supplying a Congregational pulpit in the absence of the pastor. Speaking of his appearance in the pulpit, the correspondent says:—

His sermon was on the great love of God as expressed for needy humanity by the life and teachings of Christ. . . . As he stood there full of fire and hope, a close observer might have noticed a look of weariness upon his face, easily accounted for by the fact that a murder trial of which he, as high sheriff, has had the charge, has just closed, and the murderer has been sentenced to prison for life, the severest penalty in the State of Maine.

As we note the two prominent points in these two sentences, we are reminded of the now popular query, “What would Jesus do?” He never set any such example, or gave any such commission to His ministers. A poor criminal was once brought before Him for judgment. She was a woman, and the evidence was positive, and the penalty was death. But, notwithstanding the magnitude of the offense, He said, “He that is without sin among you, let him ‘first cast a stone at her.’” Christians are in the world to manifest the Spirit of Christ, and not to execute judgment upon their fellow-men. “The ‘Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but ‘to save them.’” Hunting down criminals to punish them is a necessary work in the world, but it is not Gospel work; it is not Christian work.

Of the man-worshiping church, the church that does homage to the powers of earth, the Lord says, “Come out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her ‘plagues.’” Rev. 18: 4. Returning to the incident to which we have referred, which was the more out of place, a condensed-milk advertisement on a painted eagle, or a church service—a professedly Christian church service—in honor of a body of men whose profession is the art of using “carnal weapons”?

W. N. G.