CRIMES AND CRIMINALS : HOW TO TREAT THEM. 73 
— probably with justice — for he had lost complete control of his passion and should 
be disciplined thoroughly. But to a mortal pest-house he should not be sent. 
For if he was not a criminal when he went to prison, he will most certainly be one 
when he comes out. His prison-life has made him ten-fold more the child of 
hell, than he was before. 
But I am told when advancing these arguments, that society must protect 
itself. Certainly ! but we don't put patients infected with small-pox, measles, 
scarlet-fever, typhoid-fever, cholera, yellow-fever and every other contagion into 
a den, and there let the poor wretches die and rot in one great festering charnel- 
house, in order to protect the community from the contagion. We have places 
arranged on the best principles known to sanitary science for curing them, and 
we give such remedies as modify the course of, or cure the disease itself. 
Now would it not be much more rational to do this for the morally diseased ? 
Would it not be cheaper for the State ? And would it not do more toward stamp- 
ing out crime, than all the laws that are, or can be put on the statute-books of the 
land ? And is it not the true scope of civil government ? 
Government in this country is an organization of the people for mutual pro- 
tection and mutual benefit, "for the people and by the people," and for secur- 
ing the greatest good to the greatest number. They then have the right to 
separate from their number any and all that may injure or contaminate them ; for 
they are disposers of the rights of others when they affect the rights of the com- 
munity. For the individual only gives up to the community his communal rights, 
not his individual rights, and that communal society can only hold him to account 
for acts that are against the interests of the community. 
They have the right then to separate, for purposes of moral sanitation any 
diseased member, but they have no power to inflict a penalty — in the sense of 
retribution for breaking law. Man never has, and never can delegate individual 
rights. He is morally responsible to but One — the Author of his existence — and 
by Him, and Him alone, can a penalty for moral turpitude be exacted. God 
has declared: "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay." Man may not lay his hand 
on his fellow's throat and say. For your crime you shall suffer, this or that. God 
alone holds to account the breakers of law by a penalty. 
But we profess to be actuated in our social relationship, and government by 
the law of the gospel — the law of love. Fear never has, and in its very nature never 
can prevent crime. The essence of crime consists in the desire to do a" wrong. 
To prevent crime, then it is necessary to so instruct the moral nature, educate it 
— that virtue and morality shall appear desirable, that it is advantageous, and 
will eventuate in perfect happiness, that from the very nature of their life "The 
wicked shall not live out half their days." Not because God in His word has 
said so, not because he is ready to punish sin and crime; but from the nature 
and organization of the human family. The grand organic law of our being is 
the law of love. It is the key note of all organized existence. You may call it 
affinity, or selection, or choice, or love. They are only different expressions of 
the same thing. The plant takes — selects — from the soil what it requires — what 
