Seventh Sunday After Pentecost.
Capital Punishment.
"The wages of sin is death; every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be cut down and shall be cast into the fire." — Rom. vi. 23; Matt. vii. 19.
SYNOPSIS.
Ex.: I. Bill in legislature : II. Story of movement. III. Their arguments.
I. False kindness : 1. Humanitarianism. 2. Three classes of poor. 3. Scripture proofs.
II. Reasons : 1. Authority, self-preservation. 2. Imitation, deterrent. 3. Just revenge natural.
III. Expedient: 1. Cruelty necessary. 2. Crime ever with us. 3. Italy.
Per. : Money might be spent on poor, ignorant, ungodly.
SERMON.
Brethren, there is at present before the Massachusetts Legislature a bill for the abolition of capital punishment. The bill counts among its supporters many distinguished gentlemen, lay and clerical, and many noted women, formally organized into a society called the Anti-Capital Punishment League. A half-century of repeated defeats have attended their cause, but with admirable courage and perseverance they still prosecute the struggle, in the hope, no doubt, that a victory in the old Bay State will go far towards propagating their doctrines throughout the nation and the world. The grounds of their opposition to the death penalty are many and various, some adducing scriptural arguments, and others alleging reasons of right or expediency. For us Catholics the
