rom their work to look down the road. Perhaps there was a
tremor of fear and condemnation in their hearts. We believe that every
man who purposes in his heart to help lynch one of his fellow men, if
he allows reason and conscience half a chance to be heard, will not
engage in the attempt.

Presently two men came in sight, riding as though their lives depended
upon their haste. They were Jasper Very and John Larkin, who had heard
of the proposed lynching. The riders spurred their horses across the
bridge and flung themselves from their saddles, but not before Jasper
Very had shouted in his loudest voice: "Men, I call upon you in the
name of God to stop this wicked act." Then, rushing up to the condemned
man, who was already gasping for breath, he pulled the rope from over
the limb sufficiently to loosen the knot around Wiles' neck. The
lynchers were too much surprised to resist.

While John Larkin held the weakened prisoner Jasper Very removed the
rope from his neck, and the two preachers helped Wiles to a seat on the
bridge. Here Very stood over him as though he were his guardian angel.
His eyes blazed with a fire never seen in them before. His gigantic
form seemed to swell to larger proportions. He looked the incarnation
of power tempered with pity. Very spoke with his heart hot within him:
"Men of Kentucky, I am ashamed of your actions this day. What you
purpose doing is a stain upon our State. It is a crime the memory of
which, if committed, you will not be able to hide from your minds till
life's last hour. Do you not know that two sins can never make an act
right? How do you dare to hurry this man into the presence of his Maker
unprepared? How can you meet such a sin at the judgment day? There are
the courts. Let Sam Wiles be tried in them. You are well aware that our
laws are very severe against horse-stealing, and when brought to the
bar of justice the prisoner will suffer the full penalty of his deeds.
But there is a higher law than those in our criminal courts. It is
God's law, given to the children of men amid the thunders of Mount
Sinai when the whole mountain was black with a thick cloud of smoke,
which rolled away as from a great furnace into the sky. God descended
in fire upon the mount. Thunders roared, lightnings flashed, and the
peaks trembled to their foundations. The trumpets sounded louder and
louder and the awful voice of almighty God 'shook the earth.' What were
the commandments there given? One o