The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1880-11-04
SUBJECT OF sERM IN: "THE PRESIDENTIAL
CONTEST"

CONTEST.
TExT-Galicians ", IS; Brethren, ye
have been called unto liberty, only use
not liberty for an occasion of the flesh"
We are on the eve of the quadrennial
Presidential excitement, and, this morn
ing and next Sabbath morning, as a
Christian patriot, l have some earnest
things to say. have no partisan fetter
on either hand or either foot. My in.
structions come neither from Chicago
nor Cincinnati, but from the throne of
God. 1t is fortunate that the ministry
in this country are not tempted by Gov
ernmental patronage. There are lands
where the State does everything for the
Church. st. Peters at Rome has cost
the Government $2OO,oO0,OOO. X4rxes
took frog the temple of Belus $l0O 000,-
600 of gold. England pays $4,000 a
year to her Archbishop of Canterbury,
and $770, 900 in all to her Bishops, while
$4,000 of her ministers are paid by the
Government. Our ministers have no
such temptation to surrender private
judgment to the diCtation of the State /;
but still cletgymen have powerful press
ure to make them think this way or
that, preach this way or that, and vote
this way or that. Yet the minister of
religion must shake off the prejudice of
the hour and rise above the instructions
both of his congregation and of the
printing press, and take his message
from the Lord.
There is one word in my text that
stirrs the blood of every genuine man,
and that word is liberty. aye have
been called to liberty" Paul wrote that
under Nero, the tyrant hated of all ages,
the Emperor who, incOgnitO roamed the
streets at night for the pleasure of rob.
bing passengers, bedaubing Christians
with tar and pitch and setting them on
lie to light up his parks, kicking his
own wife till she died, and h wing his
own mother assassinated and fGally
committing suicide. No wonder that
word, liberty, under such bad man cost
Paul his head. But while the Emperor
destroyed the man who dared to use 80
insurrectionary a word, the word itself
was indestructible and has been the
most arousing and revolutionary word
ever written. 1t got into the Magma
Charta and made England free; into the
Declaration of Independence, and start
ed this nation on its high career; into
the speech of Garibaldi and the procla.
nation of Victor Emmanuel, and Italy
shook off tie dust of the grave; into
France and overthrow the Napoleonic
dynasty; under an hundred despotic
thrones and will keep them rocking un-
til they fall fit. 1t took hold of the
printing press and broke its shaCkles and
made it the mightiest agency for intelli.
gence and evangeiz ltion that the world
has ever known. That word will keep
on it's rounds till in all the earth there
shall not be yrant's scepter or slaves
chain or an oppressed workman or be-
nighted intellect, Liberty for the State!
Liberty for the Church, Liberty for the
printing pre- 8 Liberty for the pul pits
Liberty for the platform Liberty for
all continents, for all islands, for all
zones, for all ages Brethren, ye have
been called to liberty"
Yet my text was not only a driving.
wheel, but brake; not only an inspir'
alton, but limitation. Brethren, ye
have been called unto liberty, only use
not liberty for an occasion of the flesh"
Liberty, but not wild license. Liberty,
but not moral recklessness.
First, I charge you, so far as I am your
teacher and pastor, to have nothing to
do in this Presidential contest with Sian.
derous implication of public men. Take
up the newspaper flies Of the last eighty
years and see that each Presidential
election the people of the United States
have felt called upon to utter widespread
malediction of dignitaries. All those
men who have passed into the gallery
of national sainthood were called in
their day to go chin deep through the
slush of lampoonery and pasqdinade,
and there was no exception. Thomas
Paine wrote and published a letter to
George Washington, the first President,
and said: "Treacherous in private
friendship and 8 hypocrite in public life,
the world will be puzzled to decide
whether you are an apostate or an i'm
postor, whether you abandoned good
principles or whether you never had
any" John Quincy Adams Consoled
himself with the thought he had no
more epresentation and scandal to
90 through with than his father. John
Adams, and declares during his Presi-
dental campaign that there must be
some people who gave their entire time
to making lies about him March 4,
1901, the day of Thomas Jsfferson's in.
aHguration, as President, the Sentinel, of
Boston, had this deriding epitaph
Monumental inscription Yesterday
expired, deeply regretted by millions Of
grateful Americans and by all good men,
the Federal Administration of the Gov
ernment of the United States, animated
by Washington, an Adams, HamiI-
ton, Knox, Pickering, Wolcott, McHen-
ry, Marshall, Stoddard and Dexter; age,
twelve years. AS one tribute of graft.
tude in these times this monument to
the talents and,services Of the deceased
is raised by the Sentinel" During An
drew JaCkson's candidacy the country
was flooded with coffin hsndbills repre-
senting six dead men in reference to the