Brutality
ISAIAH’S last Woe! turns itself against Brutality, which arising partly from recklessness, partly from love of mischief, is thus outlined by the prophet: “Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink: which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him” (Is. 5, 22, 23).
So the six links of this dreadful chain lie before us. First love of Money. From love of money comes Wealth. Wealth entices to Wantonness. From this by soberer consideration wilful Falsification of ideas is born. Moral falsification of ideas terminates in Pedantry. And finally pedantry stimulates what we call Brutality.
Brutality has two forms, one as regards the person himself, and the second which indicates how he treats his neighbor.
Brutal with respect to himself, is the man who is past all bounds, and now seeks honor in shame and glories in evil. And brutal against his neighbor is he who as judge withholds righteousness from the righteous and condemns the guiltless.
This accounts for the fact that Isaiah includes this twofold utterance in one Woe! One selfsame Woe! upon him who boasts that he can drink so and so much, and at the same time upon the godless, who sits as judge and violates justice.
Consider well, how at the end of the road all this vile wickedness turns back into its original. With love of money it began, and in violation of justice for the sake of money it ends.
Money, it is said, is the nerve of war, but it is also the nerve of sin in its evil development.
Under all its forms of development love of money is and remains a root of all evil.
SO long as the struggle between good and evil goes on in man, he may indeed run after sin, and when he can overtake it he may rejoice in it, but with it all he prefers, that it be not noticed, and he ever does his best to establish a good reputation for himself.
As often as he perceives, that he is esteemed as an ordinary, but honorable man, it is to him a matter of congratulation. While on the other hand, when he becomes aware, that with respect to him people shrug their shoulders, or that there are shady reports of him abroad, it fills him with anxious apprehension.
The reason of this is, that in this first stage of sin man still reckons with his conscience, that conscience punishes him and so keeps him small in his own eyes, and that by this humbling operation of conscience recklessness is held in check.
But when he arrives at this last stage, things are altogether different.
He is then long past listening to his conscience. A madness has come upon him. His moral taste, his rational sense is falsified. He is no longer his former self. Evil bewilderment has made itself master of his heart.
His good name is now lost. He understands all the more clearly how people regard him. And in the end he refuses any longer to lower his eyes. He also dares. And henceforth he will brutally look his critics with their annoying remarks, in the eyes. What can they do to him?
He is at least as good as they. Or properly considered, the slander only came from sneaks, who were afraid to sin, and who have no courage to surrender themselves to sin. Small-souled and narrow-minded cowards.
Such a coward, he is not.
He is daring.
In him is courage, recklessness even, before the eyes of all to dare to sin. See how much of a hero he is, to drink himself drunk with wine, or to stimulate himself with strong drink.
AND do not say that this brutality of recklessness is an exception. For it is a fact that especially among the young, it haunts all worldly societies.
To be known among his comrades as a dare-devil, to dare what others do not dare, one makes a boast of it, that he can drink like a trooper. That he knows immoral resorts by name and surname. That he can swear and taunt like the roughest. That in brutality against his masters and superiors he is worsted by no one. That in wicked games of cards he is a past-master. That in meanest ways he gets rid of his friends or his debtors. That he knows how to get money out of his father. Dares brutalize virtuous maidens. And that especially in the matter of religion in scorn and in denial he far excels the purest atheist.
This is boasting of oneself in evil.
This is making one’s honor of his shame.
And then this goes so far, and he is so enamored of it and in such unholy circles one makes so notorious a reputation of distinction by it, that in the end he even boasts of sin, as though he had actually rendered himself guilty of what he has not committed.
That is braggadocio, priding oneself on it, swaggering in sin.
Ever stronger forms, in which brutality reveals its devilish nature.
WHAT evil this brutality has wrought with respect to one’s own person, is unbelievable.
Sometimes with boys of fourteen or fifteen years of age the soul is murdered by it.
Such boys are somewhat ambitious. Among their acquaintances they love to play the first violin. And they see, that nothing is in such demand, as this daring to sin; to go out of the way before no one and nothing; by nothing to be daunted.
At first the conscience still troubles them, and they hesitate.
But let one who is already dyed in the wool, unfortunately say: Come on, if you dare! just the suggestion, that there is something they would not dare to do, so that they would be looked upon as lacking in courage, as being pusillanimous, is so unbearable to them, that they rush in against it, and are now bound to make a show, and so they glide down into the depth of sin.
With women this evil daring wakens commonly at a later age.
But still you are mistaken when you deem, that this brutality of sin only occurs with boys and young men.
With our married men, and women, it is encountered equally well, be it in a less boisterous form.
Once in a while you even find a man of gray hair, who still takes hellish delight, in encouraging this brutality of sin among the young.
Think also of navy and army.
From of old brutal talk about sin and in brutality of sin outdoing others, has been part of the moral philosophy of a man-of-war and barracks.
WHEN once this brutality of recklessness has struck root deep enough, it turns into the brutality of love of mischief, which is aimed at others.
It begins among boys with teasing one another, to laugh at, to provoke, and finally, in popular parlance, to play Judas. A hellish game, in which many a young boy of well-to-do families has made incredible advances.
When one grows older, and obtains an independent standing in the world, this wantonness of brutality turns itself against every one over whom he has a certain authority, against his wife, his children, his servants, his creditors.
So in his small domain this brutal man becomes a tyrant.
If this already is shameful, it becomes most shameful only, when such a wanton and brutal person becomes clothed with larger authority. A land-agent over tenant-farmers; a foreman over factory-hands; a lieutenant over his troop; a mayor over a town; a judge over one who seeks justice or who on account of misdoing is prosecuted by law.
Then this selfsame wantonness, this tyrannical disposition, this brutality that spares nothing, tempts all such persons, to let arbitrariness pass for justice, high-handed approval for reasonableness, and in their love of mischief take delight, deliberately to violate the right, which should be holy.
All prophecy shows, that God the Lord points to arbitrariness in the judge, as the certain, positive sign, that the downfall of a nation is at hand.
Whatever totters and vacillates, as long as justice is held high, there is yet hope. “The king,” says Solomon, “by judgment establisheth the land” (Prov. 29, 4). “Zion,” thus saith the Lord by Isaiah, “shall by judgment be redeemed” (1, 27). And as token of His good pleasure, He promises His people: “I will restore thy judges as at the first” (Is. 1, 26).
And therefore, when sin goes so far, that in brutality, from love of mischief, it deliberately violates justice; worse still when it uses this violation of justice as a shameful means to benefit itself; then there is nothing more that can stop the evil; then operates a poison against which there is no antidote.
For do not forget, this evil never enters into the courts of law, except as it has been bred at home and in school and in all sorts of associations.
All brutality is in its root, that one boasts of the fact, that he spares no man.
And he who spares no one, is always in the last instance an audacious man, who in his heart also does not fear God.
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