Judge Ward as a Moralist

Feilding Star, Volume VI, Issue 111, 5 March 1885, Page 3

Judge Ward as a Moralist

■■ ♦ At the District Court in Invercargill, before hit Honor Judge Ward, Ann Harrington, aged twenty-three, pleaded gnilty to a charge of attempting suicide the prisoner said she had been drinking, and was not in her right mind when the crime was committed. His Honor, addressing the prisoner, said : — " It may well be that he who deserted you was sorely to blame, and that you chose to trust in God's mercy rather than to suffer further cruelty. It is well for us all that God's mercy is greater than man's But it is not thus that we are bidden to seek Him. Christ has said, *'Come unto Me, all he that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest." But we must bear Hit yoke, and endure the burden He lays upon us ; and though His yoke be easy and His burden be light, it may be long before we find them so. Think you there are none here who have prayed, in bitter sorrow or trouble that God would grant them rest? But we have all to run the race that is sat before us ; and it is God, and not we ourselves, who should fix the end. It is at the touch of his hand that the silver cord is loosed at last. and the golden bowl is broken, it is at His bidding only that our dust should return to the earth as it was our /spirit to him that gave it. I bid you return thanks to Hun for saving you from the fearful sin of self-slaughter ; and if hereafter evil times should copie once more upon you, I bid you trust and pray." The prisoner was bound over in her own recognisance to appear for sentence when called upon. ________