The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1880-11-04
POLITICAL SERMONS,

When is political sermon not politicslf An.
sWer-When II contains fundamental trutha
adapted to all times and only hits the guilty by
mistake or accident As for instance we haVa
heard OF preacher who announced his text
| '1hoG shdh not aedL." At once man (report savR
Republican, started up and left the church In
nigh dudgeon, giving for his reason that he knew
Dy the text that the preacher intended to be po-
| litical and personal.
Last Sunday my Rector preached q sermon ON
Ihe perla Of prosperity, announcing for his text;
'Ihe prosperity Of fools shall destroy them -
ana although have not heard Of any complaint
ABOUT the sermon as political, yet 1t seems to me
to strike at the very root Of the Upas tree Of Re-
publicanism. OF course the preacher had no
such thought or design when he wrote the ser.
mon and 1t is only upon my promise Of making
lhis explanation that he has allowed me to CODY
the following extracts
After explaining the reasons why adyerslty
makes men and prosperity destroys, and why It ia
that few great men are made and no great virtues
are exercised in the midst Of successful career
OF business or Of pleasure. The preacher referred
to some Of the lessons Of History as follows:
What in all ages has proved the most fatal
|
or pesIilence or famine, but emphahcally and
pre- eminently, prosperity, Look at the history
Of the Roman Republic and Empire When the
success and courage Of the Romans had made
them masters Of the wealth and pleasure of the
conquered nations, then at ance their destruction
commenced. Their vigilance was lost in a false
security. Men thought of little else but sports
and pleasures, and instead OF those fable families
the Camilli the FabriCcii and the Scipios and
all the other ilustrt0us Dropagatols Of the grow.
Ing greatness OF the Republic there sprRng up
| degenerate race OF Caligulas and Neros and
Vitelliuses; and these were followed by q still
more degenerate race Of sycophants and parasites
and hatterers, men who had no other ideas Of
distinction than what they acquired by official
dignity and servlle imitation OF the vices of the
rich and great; and so by degrees the Empire
| pined and shriveled away and passed at length
from surfeit Of gross and eXtravagant prosperi-
| ~ into a final and irremediable consumption and
destruction. On this point Of history listen for
moment to the language Of DR.. South-'The whole
business that was carried on with such NOSE and
| eagerness in that great city then the Empress of
the Western world, was nothing else but to build
magnihcenty, to feed luxurOusy to frequent
sports and theatres, to run for the spotua, and in
word, to hatter and be aattered the effect of a
too full and unwieldy prosperity But surely they
| conld not have had leisure to think upon their
sumeus, their mullets, their lucrnian oysters,
their pheni.cOpters and the like they could not
have made a rendezvous of all the elements Of
their table every day In such prodigious variety
OF meats and drinks; they could not, / say, have
thus attended these thrOngs had the Gaus been
besieging their capitol, or Hannibal at the head
OF his CArthaginian army rapping at their doors
this would quickly have turned their spits into
swords and Wbd their teeth too against their enc
mics. But when peace, ease and plenty took away
| these whetstOnes Of courage and emulation they
insensiby slid into the Asiatic softness were In.
tent upon nothing but their cooks and their
| gouts, their file attendants and unusual habits
so that the Roman genius was even lost and
stihed and the conquerors themselves transformed
into the guise and garb Of the conquered"
The preacher concluded with the following re.
markable and splendid extracts from, as he said
! two different and celebrated authors of the same
age and reaecting the wisdom Of sixteen cen.
turies as In accordance with the teachings of holy
| scripture. ofprosperity, Shakespeare says:
ut is the bright day that brings forth the adder,
And that Graves wary walking"
or adversely, he says:
"Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which like the toad, ugly and Venomous
| Wears yet precious jewel in his head
And this our life, exempt from public haunt,
Finds tongues in trees, books In the running
brooks,
Sermons in stones and good in everything"
OF both prosperity and Adversely Lord Bacon
says
"The virtue OF prosperity is temperance. The
virtue Of adversely is fortltude Prosperity is the
blessing of the Old Testament. Adversely is the
blessing Of the New, which carrieth the greater
benediction and the dearer revelation OF Gods
favor. Yet even in the Old Testament, IL you
listen to DaVid's songs you shall hear as many
hearse like airs as carols, and the pencil OF the
Holy Ghost hath labored wiser in describing the
afi ctioDs Of Job than the felicities of Solomon.
| Prosperity is not without many fears and disas-
ters and adversely is not without comfort and
| hopes, We see in needle work and embroideries
1t is nore pleasing to have lively work upon
sad and solemn ground, than to have a dark and
melancholy work upon lightsome ground
judge therefore of the pleasures of the heart by
the pleasure Of the eye Certainly, virtue is like
precious odors, more fragrant when they are
incensed or crnshedi for prosperity doth best dis.
cover vice. but adversely doth best discover
virtue" E. H. CoLMAN,