Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-11-03
MORALITY IN POLITICS.
DIR. TALMAGE TALKS OF THE
FOUR CANDIDATES.

wide attention this pulpit is attracting,
even across the water, it need only be no.
ticed that Mr.. Spurgeon, of England,
writing to this country says: ''Mr. Tai
mage's discourses lay hold of my inmOst
| soul. The Lord is with this mighty man
of valOr. So may he ever be till the cam
| paign closes with victory. am indeed
| glad of his voice. 1t cheers me intensely.
He loves the Gospel and believes in some-
thing which some preachers hardly do.
There are those about who use the old
! labels, but the articles are not the same.
May the Lord win armies of souls to Jesus
by this man. l am astonished when God
blesses me, but somehow | should not be
so much surprised if He blessed this
man." The opening hymn to-day was:
"Am l a soldier of the cross.
A follower of the lamb:
And shall fear to own his cause,
Or blush to speak his name?"
Before the sermon to-day DIR. Talmage
read and eXpOunded the ten command
ments. The subject of his discourse was;
''ShOuld the moral character of candi-
dates for office be taken into cOnsidera-
tion by vOters" DR.. Talmage announced
his text as EXODUS, the 2eth chapter and
the first II verses; namely, the ''Ten
Commandments" He said:
Earthquake and lightning put their forces
together to rock mountain of Arabia, Pc
trRa, and The traveller to- day finds a heap of
broken pOrphyry and greensboro rocks, bOuld-
ers against bOulders, the ruins of the first law
ll1rary-not written on parchment or papy-
rus, but on shattered slabs of granite. The
corner stones OF all morality, of all wise law,
of all righteous Jurisprudence, of all good
government, are the two tables Of stone on
which the ten commandments were written.
nn1n On a oil rl11I Iorr~ Ill
law, all American law worth anything, civil
law, criminal law, common law, martial law,
and law of nations. were rocked in the cradle
OF the twentieth chapter of Exodus. 1t would
be well if at this time all the newspapers of
the land would at some time publish this
chapter in place of one of their editorials
Some Of its passages have evidently been for
gOJten; they are all equally in force. You
nave no right to say which Is the more impOr-
tant. They are the pillars upon which the
temple OF society rests. Strike down any one
and you damage the whole structure. notice
that men are very apt to become incarnate
Slnals and thunder especially against the sin
70 Whlcn Ihey are not especially TEMPTED.
They take one gun out of the battery Of ten
guns and unlimber that. and load that, and
fire that.
To-day shall, in continuance of the series
OF sermons ON national affairs and within two
days OF the PRESIDENTIAL election, try the four
candidates for the Chief Magistracy. This
decalogue prohibits idolatry, image-making
and profanity and Sabbath desecration and
l.
tinence and theft and lying and cOvetousness.
That is the standard by which all candidates.
national. State and city, must be tried We
must not expect perfection Ii we don't vote
until we find the immaculate nominee we
would never vote a. all. Ourselves far from
perfect, we must not be censOriOus or NAL
edlctory or hypercritical of others. The
Chrlstly rule is as appropriate for November
as for any month of the year, and for every
fourth year as for the preceding three years.
Judge not that ye be not judged"
Neither am to take that which opposing
red-hOt partisanship shall say OF a man as
ms true character. From nearly all the great
cities OF this continent l receive daily or
weekly papers, sent me regularly or in com
pllment, SO | see both sides Of everything. 1t
IS interesting to see the OppOsites of a man
stated. The one makes him an angel and the
other demon. Then / split the difference
and find that he Is half way between. There
rever has been respectable or honest man
that ran for the Presidency since the founda-
ton OF this government, if / am to believe the
old files of newspapers in museums. What
great mercy that they were not all hung be-
fore Inauguration day! If a man should he
lleve One-half he saw in the newspapers, his
career would be short outside of Blooming
dale Asylum. ''That procession last week in
New \ ork was 5,000,' says one paper SIT
was l7,oOO," says another. 1.-The orator at the
Rink or the Academy of Music received a
very cool reception" says one paper. "The
audience rose at him as one man." says the
other, "and 1T was only after he had lifted his
hand to quiet the multitude that the vOcifera-
way and another paper twists it another way.
NOu must admit that at such time it is diff
fcult to estimate which of the candidates
comes the nearer to keeping the ten COM
mandments. | charge you to caution and
mercifulness in your judgments.
BE careful also not to make the mistake
which many do make in thinking that men in
high position are to be judged by a different
standard from that which they apply to ordi-
nary mortals. Men in high place or with
large means have no more liberty given them
al hn ON a
ments than those in place incOnspcuous. Sim
ners on large scale are no more to be eX-
cused than sinners on small scale. Do not
IL such lllustrlOuS detection eccentricitY, or
chop of anything of these ten commandments
to suit especial cases. The right is everlast-
ingly right, and the wrong is everlast-
ingly wrong. If men differ from the deca-
lo4ne of my text, do not fix up the decalOgue
but fl them up.
Remember also that if a man breaks one or
two OF the ten commandments he will find it
easy to break them all. Sin of any kind
weakens the conscience, and the conscience
weakened, the door Is open for transgression
OF all sorts. If, for instance, a man be pro-
fame, he is not trustworthy; for if he NAL
treats the Almighty do you think he would.
If tempted. decline maltreating his fellow?
After man has been guilty of malfeasance
IN o1hce you cannot trust his word in any
thing. A man that will steal will lie and vice
versa. If man is unchaste he win do any
crime under proper prOVOcatiOn. In such
unchastity he commits theft of the worst sort,
and Is guilty of cOvetuOusness of the basest
style, and Is chargeable with fasehOOd be-
cause he pretends to be decent when he is not,
and he fractures the law against dishonoring
parents, because he disgraces their name, if
they were good. Be careful how you charge
such sin against any man, whether candi-
date Tor O1hce or not, for in so doing you
charge that man with all vileness, with all
disgusting prOpenslties, with all rottenness.
llbertlne is beast lower than the vermn
that craWls on a summer carcass, and lower
than the swine, for the swine have no intelli-
II hOu
charge such dishonOr on any man, either in
office or out Of office. Be so careful of it that
a mathematical demonstration would be
doubtful compared to it.
Moreover, if you know of any man who has
thus fallen, inquire diligently and prayerfuliy
If he has not repented Perhaps he may have
Decn down on his knees before God, crying
for mercy, although if a man of IS be repre-
hensible for such sin there is not more than
one chance In thousand if he ever reforms
\ ct the case you are investigating may be
that glorious one. TO meet anv especial
case enlarge your forgiveness, but don't shave
off the seventh commandment. Let that
stand as the everlasting defense of society.
Do not change Fairbanks scale to suit what
you are going to weigh with it. Do you Join
in the cry that l have seen in some news
papers that there is no such thing as purity?
Then you are foul -mOuthed scandalizer of
the human race. You are yourself leper.
Make room for that leper. When man ut
ters such sentiment as that, either with
tongue or pen, know he is walking laZar-
etto, and know that he is a reeking ulcer. and
that he is fit for no society better than that of
devils damned. There is such thing as pur-
ity. and ten thousand times ten THOUSAND are
lis disciples who are the uphOlders of family
and church and nation.
es; If man breaks one commandment ig
makes it easy for him to break them all Do
you notice that when one of those Wall street
defrauders or one of those bank embezzers is
brought to justice it turns out in the trial that
he had loose companions, and gambled, and
went to places where he ought not9 Sins 90
in flocks,a and herds and droves. Admit one and
you will be apt to admit all the miserable seq
regation. Noted by the papers that many of the
campaign orators, bOmbardlng the suffering
candidates in their speeches, think nothing Of
riding from place to place all Sabbath day or
political headq uarters calculating the
election probabilities. During all the
week they have been hurling the
eighth commandment at Mr.. Blaine and
the seventh commandment at Mr.. Cleveland.
and the ninth commandment at Mr.. st. John
But what are they doing with the fourth
cOmmandment-"Rem the Sabbath dav
to keep it hOly?" They are breaking II. is
not the fourth commandment as good as the
seventh or eighth or ninth? All the week de-
nouncing candidates for misbehavior, while
some OF these campaign orators profane the
name Of God, tossing 1t irreverently from
their lips. And what are they doing with the
third commandment-"Thous shalt not take
the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the
Lord will not hold him gulltless that taketh
His name in vain?" Is not the third COM
mandment as important as the other seveng
Aye, this decalogne Is my authority for
saying that the man who swears or breaks the
Sabbath is as reprehensible as any of the
candidates now nominated if they should be
found guilty of the offenses charged What
right have we to go through the ten com
mandments and make our selection as to
Whlch we snail keep ana which we shall