Page images
PDF
EPUB

GOD'S VENGEANCE

AGAINST PUBLIC ROBBERS.

"But this is a people robbed and spoiled; they are all of "them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison-houses : “they are for a prey, and none delivereth; for a spoil, and none saith Restore."

[ocr errors]

ISAIAH, Chap. 42, V.22.

"And behold at evening tide trouble; and before the morning he is not. This is the portion of them that spoil us, and "the lot of them that rob us.'

ISAIAH, Chap. 17, V. 14.

A PUBLIC ROBBER, or robber of the public, is one who robs the people of a country, community, or nation. We hear and read sermons enough on the wickedness of stealing from and robbing individuals,

The crimes of stealing privately in houses; of breaking open dwellings to rob; of robbery committed on the highway; of frauds committed on traders and others; of making false writings for the purposes of fraud; of embezzlement of the goods or money of employers; of marauding in gardens and fields; and even of taking to our own use, in certain cases, wild animals, that have no owner, or proprietor, at all: the sin of committing these crimes is frequently, though not too frequently, laid before us in colours the most odious, though not more odious than the nature and tendency of it call for.

Those who reprobate acts of this description do right; but, if, at the same time, they carefully abstain from all exposure of the nature of public robbery; if they pass that over in silence, and especially if they, by any means, either direct or indirect, give their sanction to, frame an excuse for, palliate in any degree, the deeds of the public robber: if such be their conduct, they do wrong; they are the enemies of mankind; they are the foes of justice, morality and religion; and to them applies the question of the prophet JEREMIAH (Chap. 7, V. 11.) "Is this house, which is called by my name,

[ocr errors]

become a den of robbers?" To them, and to such a state of things, apply also the words of the prophet EZEKIEL in Chap. 22, beginning at verse 27: "Her

[ocr errors]

princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening "the prey, to shed blood, to destroy souls, to get disho"nest gain. And their prophets have daubed them with

[ocr errors]

untempered mortar." Then the text goes on to speak of the robbery, vexation and oppression committed onthe defenceless part of the people; and it concludes with these words, which let peculators well remember: "Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon ict

them, I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: "their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, "saith the Lord God."

The robber, be he of what description he may, is seldom at a loss for some excuse or other; for a something in the way of comfort to lay to his soul; for, some plea or other wherewith to divert his mind and speak peace to his conscience. But, disguise the thing how we may, all our receivings, other than those that come by free gift, or that proceed from value, in some way or other, given or rendered in exchange, are dishonest receivings,

If they come with the knowledge aud consent of the party, but in consequence of deceit practised on him, they are obtained by fraud: if taken from him without his knowledge, the act is stealing: if taken from him. with his knowledge and without his consent, the act is robbery. And, can the evil be less, in the eye of reason or of religion, merely because the robbery is committed on many instead of one?

In the case of public-robbery no particular sufferer is able to say what precise sum he has been robbed of by any particular robber in cases where there unhappily be many robbers; but, does this wipe away the sin? Are the robbers less robbers for this? The man whose house has been robbed seldom knows precisely what he has lost, and, in many cases, never knows who the robbers are; yet, the sin of the robbery remains the same; and, it remains the same, too, though the robbed person remain for ever unconscious of the robbery.

The public robber, or robber of the people of a country, flatters himself with the excuse, that he

« PreviousContinue »