Who Kindled the Fire
One article in the Mosaic law, given from heaven, is this: “If fire break out and catch in thorns, so that the stacks of corn or the standing corn be consumed therewith, he that Tdndled the fire, shall surely make restitution.” This statute had a peculiar necessity in such a hot, dry country as Palestine, where there was a peculiar danger from accidental conflagrations. If a man burned over his stubble-field, it was necessary, before the dry grass was lighted, to see that the wind was in the right quarter, and every precaution taken that the flames should not kindle upon the property of a neighbor. If any farmer neglected to take these precautions, and the swift-footed flames vrent careering through vineyards, and orchards* and stacks of barley, then he who kmdled the fire was required to pay for the damage produced by his own carelessness.
The sound principle that underlies this law is that men must suffer for the evil they do through thoughtless recklessness, as well as for what they do with malicious intent. Men are to be held accountable, not only for the injuries which they wilfully perpetrate, but for the injuries which they occasion to others through wanton carelessness or even thoughtless indifference. The person who set his neighbor’s barley-stacks on fire was required to make restitution, although he did not intend to burn him out. The responsibility comes back on him who kindled the flames. Let us apply the principle of this divine enactment to our own times, and point out the moral dangers of playing with fire. Perhaps we may discover that some very respectable people are often very destructive incendiaries.
1. If I invite a group of young men in my house to surround a card-table, I may simply design to furnish thefn an hour’s amusement.
But perhaps a lust for gambling may lie latent in some young man’s breast, and I may quicken it into life by my offer of a temptation. There is fire in that pack of cards! And I deliberately place that fire amid the inflammable passions of that youthful breast. On me rests the consequences of the act, as well as upon him whom I lead into temptation. The motive does not alter the result by one iota.
“For evil is wrought by want of thought, As well as by want of heart.”
2. Among social virtues none is more popular than that of hospitality. When bountifully practised toward the needy, it rises to the dignity of a Christian grace. And ordinary hospitalities may be set to the credit of a generous spirit. But here is the master or mistress of a house who spread their table with a lavish provision for the entertainment of their evening guests. Among the abundant viands of that table the lady of the house places the choicest brands of Madeira wine, and on a side-board she sets out a huge bowl of inviting punch. And among the invited guests of the evening comes a man who has promised the wife of his early love that he will never again yield to his awful appetite and turn their sweet home into a hell. He sees the tempter in that accursed punch-bowl, and is pressed very courteously to “take a glass.” The fire “catches in the dry thorns” in an instant. He drinks. He goes reeling into his own door that night, and his whole household is in a flame of excitement and terror, and agony and shame. Now who kindled that fire? Let her who put that bottle to her neighbor’s lips make answer! According to the Jewish law, the incendiary was required to pay the damages of the conflagration. But what “restitution” can be made for a ruined character, a desolated home, or a broken heart?
If my house and its contents are destroyed by fire, the insurance company may restore my pecuniary loss. But they cannot replace the precious keepsakes and the relics of the “WHO KINDLED THE FIRE? 139
loved and lost which my dwelling contained. To-day there are thousands of human houses in New York and Brooklyn — dwellings of immortal souls — that are on fire! In these burning bodies of our fellow-men are precious things beyond the wealth of Ophir, — hopes, talents, faculties, affections, and an immortality of being. Who kindled those fires?. We answer that every one who tempts another to the social glass is a partner in producing the conflagration. Who feed the fires? Unquestionably the venders of strong drink, who, for lucre’s sake, deal out the liquid flames of perdition. The proprietors of the 10,000 drinking-saloons in our twin cities do not aim to kill their fellow-men. But they do kill them, whatever be their secret motives in pursuing their abominable traffic. At the bar of God they will be held responsible. And let me inquire just here whether those Christian citizens who do not even lift a finger to sustain the law which hanks the grogseller’s fires during God’s own Sabbath are not themselves partially guilty for some of the consequences of the wide-spread conflagration. We commend this question to the consciences of our neighbors on the day of election.
3. The artillery of this divine law against incendiarism has a wide range. It is pointed against that social nuisance, the slanderer. “Behold how great a matter his little fire kindleth!” The utterance of evil reports may be well likened to playing with fire. For there is but a spark required to set a whole neighborhood in a blaze; and when the flame gets under way it is beyond all human control. No matter that the spark may have been lighted without malicious motive. The ugly scorch upon the commercial integrity of the merchant, or upon the good name of the Christian minister, or upon the reputation of the young maiden, may not have been the prompting of wilful malignity. But the scorch is there; and somebody struck the spark.
A careless word sometimes makes irremediable mischief. I have read that a foolish young English clerk — fond of practical jokes
—once said to a friend,” Have you heard
that E & Co., the bankers, have stopped
payment 1 “He merely meant that the banking-house had as usual closed up for the night. But he amused himself by seeing how he had startled his friend. He did not stop to explain his real meaning. His friend mentioned the alarming report to another: the rumor spread. Next day there was a” run upon
the bank,” and Messrs. E & Company
were obliged to suspend payment! The silly youth did not mean to burn down the commercial credit of a prosperous house: he only meant to amuse himself by playing with fire. And a kindred mischief to his is perpetrated by every one who retails contemptible gossip, or gives birth to a scurrilous slander. “An abomination to the Lord is the false witness who speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.”
4. This law against incendiarism applies to every utterance of spiritual error and infidelity. He who utters a devilish suggestion to corrupt the innocence of chastity sets fire to passion, and becomes the incendiary of a soul. He who scatters a pernicious literature comes under the same condemnation. He who sows scepticism, by tongue or pen, sets fire to the “standing corn” of righteous opinion. Beware how you play with the sparks of falsehood! Beware how you play with the fire of wicked suggestion, that may kindle a blaze of sin in another’s heart! Beware how you fling an infidel thought among the growing barley of a young and sensitive mind! For in the day of final reckoning you will be called up to answer to the question, who kindled the fire?