Beautiful Allegory

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 14, 1872

Beautiful Allegory.

Mr. CHITTENDEN, of Kentucky, was at one time defending a man who had been indicted for a capital offense. After an elaborate and powerful defense, he closed his effort with the following striking and beautiful allegory:

“When God, in his eternal council, conceived the thought of man’s creation, he called up to him the three ministers who constantly wait upon the throne—Justice, Truth, and Mercy—and thus addressed them: ‘Shall we make man?’ Then said Justice, ‘O God, make him not, for he will trample upon the laws.’ Truth made answer also, ‘O God, make him not, for he will pollute the sanctuaries.’ But Mercy, dropping upon her knees, and looking up through her tears, exclaimed, ‘O God, make him; I will watch over him with my care through all the dark paths which he may have to tread.’ Then God made man and said to him, ‘O man, thou art the child of Mercy; go and deal with thy brother.’ The jury, when he had finished, was drowned in tears, and against evidence and what must have been their own conviction, brought in a verdict of not guilty.”