Is not this in itself a justification of the spirit of Jesus? Does it
not appear, on the review of nearly two thousand years of history, that
society has attained its greatest happiness and has reached its highest
condition of virtue, precisely in those periods when the gentle ideals
of Jesus have had most sway over human thought and action? And if this
be so, is it possible to doubt that society will only continue to
progress towards happiness and content in the degree that it obeys the
counsels of Jesus, making not force but love the great social dynamic,
which shall control all its operations and guide all its judgments?
It may appear impossible and inexpedient for the human judge to say to
the offender, "Neither do I condemn thee; go, sin no more"; but it is
very clear that the opposite course does by no means lead to a
cessation of sin. For what is the total result of all our punishments
in the name of law but the manufacture of criminals? According to our
theory of punishment a jail should be a seminary of virtue and
reformation. Men submitted to its discipline should come out new
creatures, cured of every tendency to crime. On the contrary, in nine
cases out of ten, they come out a thousandfold worse than they went in.
If this is not the case, it is because some Christian influence, not
included in our legal system, has reached them.
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