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Modern Persecution, or Insane Asylums Unveiled
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2737 | Again, my theology teaches me that in every human being there is a soul to be redeemed. That in every rock there is a well. Could I not, therefore, hope that the drill of long and patient perseverance might yet reach this spring in this Doctor's flinty heart? | |
2738 | Yes, I had my hope quickened into a spasmodic life that the latent spark of manliness in this hardened sinner, might yet be developed into the strength of a vigorous life, correspond-ing to his intellectual strength. It was my aim and purpose thus to develop him, by the only power in the universe ad-equate to this work, and fitted for it, and that is "woman's in-fluence." Indeed I fully determined that in the same ratio that he had tried to crush the womanhood in me, in that same proportion would I raise the manhood in him. And although my first effort for his elevation cost me banishment from the scenes of civilization, to dwell among maniacs, yet this did not dispirit me, nor cause me to regret the effort. | |
2739 | I know too, that God does not require one sinner to punish another sinner, for he has expressly claimed the right of pun-ishment as being his own prerogative. The Great Father of the human family has not delegated the right to one child to punish the faults of another -- on the contrary, he claims the right of punishment as exclusively his own. | |
2740 | Therefore as his child I am bound to refer to my Father, the settlement of the wrongs I receive from my brothers and sisters. All he allows me to do is, to do them good, that is to defend myself by benefiting them, not by injuring them. | |
2741 | Now the greatest good I could bestow upon Dr. McFarland was to influence him to stop sinning, by doing justice towards me forthwith. And now that he had taken the first decided step in that direction, I aimed to urge him onward by every possible influence. | |
2742 | Again, I do not feel called upon to judge of the motives of my fellow sinners. If they act rigid, it is none of my business what motive prompted the act. | |
2743 | For example, if Dr. McFarland allows me the right of self-defense, and thereby secures my personal liberty, I have a right to acknowledge the act as a good one, even if he was compelled to do so through fear of exposure or punishment, or even if selfish policy, and nothing else prompted him to do this good deed. | |
2744 | His subsequent course has demonstrated that he had no good end in view, so far as I was concerned, in allowing me to write this book, but on the contrary he determined to use the book as the means of getting me again incarcerated. | |
2745 | As he had allowed me to expose Calvinism before the trus-tees, for the purpose of getting their sanction in calling me an insane person; so he now allowed me to write a book, hoping thus to secure the sanction of my readers in calling me insane. And notwithstanding the whole plot had been conceived and executed on the principles of the most conceited selfishness, yet, I have no right on that ground to call the act a wrong, or a bad act. These may have been the highest motives this hardened sinner could possibly exercise, on this low plane on which his persistent iniquities had placed him. | |
2746 | And since my Father in Heaven does not ignore fear, as a bad motive, why should I? He says, "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom," evidently representing this prin-ciple as the very lowest round of the ladder of human pro-gression yet being an agent employed by God for the sinner's arrest in his downward course, we should not despise it, lest, we thus "quench the smoking flax or break the bruised reed." | |
2747 | But the caviler may say, "what goodness can be attributed to the act of giving you what was already yours by the right of inheritance, as a human being? Your right of self-defense was not Dr. McFarland's to bestow, even if he did allow you to use this right, while others withdrew from you every op-portunity for its exercise. It was yours already. You did not seem to feel under any special obligation to Mr. Packard for giving you your old clothes on this principle." | |
2748 | No, I did not, for he was at this time beyond the limits of Christian fellowship. I felt conscious that the law of. love required me to withdrew from him all fellowship, believing he belonged to that class whom we are commanded to treat in this manner, for their good. I had borne with him until for-bearance had ceased to be a virtue; for every act of fellowship bestowed, only encouraged him in his course of wrong doing. I had for twenty-one years pursued this uniform course of per-sistent kindness, only to be trampled under his feet, for so do-ing, and now circumstances compelled me to treat him on a plane lower even than the fear of punishment. | |
2749 | From that class who cannot be moved even by the lowest motive in human development, I feel bound to withdraw my-self, knowing that stern justice alone can now move them in the line of repentance, and as he had denied me the least shadow of justice in the right of self-defense, it was now meet that he should experience the justice he had denied me. |