Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-11-03

ing OF the pOrphyrv rocks and the parOxysn
of the mountains Of Arabia Petrea.
Stand up Mr.. Blaine, and Mr.. Cleveland
and Mr.. st. John, and let us measure you bl
the first seventeen verses of Exodus, the
twentieth. OF course they, like all the rest o.
US, will be found imperfect by that rule. Bu
the one who comes the nearest to the mora
accuracy of the decalOgue is the one | shall
vote for and the one you vote for if you re
gard God more than your party. HerOdOtut
tells us that NitOcris, the daughter of Ne
buchadnezzar, was so fond of the beautiful
village OF Afdericca that she had The river
above Babylon changed into winding course
curvlng TINS way and that, so that sailing OF
IL Tor three days one must come three times
IN sight OF the exquisite village. And l dc
not care which way you sail If you sail all the
time in sight of this group of divine com.
mands, little angular they may seem tC
you. but sailing thus you will never gel
aground and you Will never shlpwreck.
The worst army on earth to fight is the ter
regiments that, with sabres and bayonets OF
fire. march down the side of Mount Sinai.
They always get the victory, and go down
their enemies must. What was the matter
with that young man of whom l read, dying
IN his dissipation? Nothing, except that he
was wOrsted of the decalOgue. In his last
delirlum he cried out: ''NOw for the dice
That is mine No; all. all is gone! More wine
more wine! Oh, how they rattle! Fiends,
hends assail me- | say you cheat! The cards
are marked! Now the chains rattle! q
death 0 deathn Ladies and gentlemen
don't attempt at any time to revise and re-
model the ten commandments.
And charge you to use your influence, in
society and at the polls, for such as come the
nearest to that GOd-lifted standard. Al
family prayers next Tuesday morning read
the twentieth chapter of Exodus. The moral
or immoral character of your next President
will add IS per cent. or subtract IS per cent
from the moral welfare of this nation. You
and cannot afford 10 have a bad President
The young men of this nation cannot afford
1t, and the homes of America cannot afford it,
The commercial, the agricultural, the liter
airy, the labOrlng, the religious interests OF
our country cannot afford it. If you cannot
find candidate who, in your estimate, comes
within reasonable distance of Obeying the
decalogue, stay at home and vote not at all
When the election times came IN SodOm, and
there were four candidates for Mayor, and
Lot did not believe IN any Of them, he did not
register at all. Politics in Babylon were in
such a desperate state that Daniel stayed
nome all election day and prayed with his
face towards Jerusalem. But we are not
shut up to such an eXigency, am glad to say.
That the moral character of rulers affects
the ruled | prove from all history. Wicked
King Manasseh lowered the moral tone of ali
the kingdom of Judah and established idola-
try. Good King Josiah lifted the whole ma
ton by his excellent example. What helps
to make the English nation higher in the pre-
sent reign than IN all its predecessors? The
fact that at the head of it Is the best sovereign
OF Europe, the attempt at scandaliz'ng her
udulC always Il conspicuous failure. Inc pO-
Itlcal power of Talleyrand brooded into life
the tricksters of the last 80 years. The Vice
Presidency of dishonest Aaron Burr was so
baleful that nearly all the important letters
in the post Office in this time were in cypher
because the United States mails could not be
trusted. March out, ye court circles of Louis
XIV. and Henry VIII, followed by the de-
bauched nations that you led into sin. The
malaria of swamps rises from low lands to
the heights, but moral malaria settles from
the heights to the plains. The higher you
elevate an unrighteOus man, the worse his
power for evil. The greatest of fabuIists
tells us that the pigeons were in mortal
dread of a kite, but kept hiding from it day
by day. But one day the kite said: ''Why do
you live thus IN fear from day to day? Make
me your king and will protect you from all
evil" The pigeons called him to the throne.
Then the kite had for his regular fare pigeon
day. One of them while waiting for his fate
said: sit served US right"
ButsuppOse you put in the Presidential chair
vice Of any sort, you simply say to the young
men of America: Don't you see? The ten COM :
mandments do not mean as much as they used
to. Honesty is not the best policy. immoral
ity pays. Huzzah for the powers of darkness
IN the ascendancyW What we need most is
to publish campaign document and scatter
1t through all the States, well printed copy
OF the olnaltlc decalOgue. 1t was a terrible
waste when the old AleXanGrian library was
destroyed, and the books were used as fuel to
neat 4.O00 baths for the citizens of AleXandria.
Ihat was very expensive heat. But with
out any harm to the decalogue itself it might
be made to heat 10000 baths for the moral
purlhcation of the American people.
The nation needs q tonic, a powerful tonic,
a corrective, mighty corrective, and Moses
In the text, with steady hand, notwithstand-
ing the Jarrlng OF the mountains and the
blazing of the air, and the awful orchestra of
the tempest pOurs out the ten drops, no more
and no less, which this American nation need
Immediately to take for its moral GONZALES
cence. But | am not the man to leave YOU in
tNgnaf fi10
reading Of the ten commandments, because we
have all offended and we have all done wrong
and been wrong. There is another mountain
IN sight, and " hen Sinai thunders the other
mountain answers in thunder, and if the light
ming of the one writes doom, the lightning of
the other writes mercy. Only in one Vav can
the guns of the decalOgue be spiked, and that
ls by the spikes of the cross; only one rock
tha6 can stop the bOulders of Sinai from quak-
ing, and that is the Rock of Ages.
Higher than Sinai is Calvary. l know that
one peak Of Sinai, according to the English
survey expedition. is 1000 feet high and an
other peak 5000 feet and another 5000, and
that Mount Calvary, according to modern ex-
plOrers, is only slight rising knoll outside
the wall OF Jerusalem. But in moral power
1t overtops and OvershadOWs all the mountains
OF the hemispheres, and HimalaYas and
Mount Blancs and Mount Washingtons and
Sinals are hiliOcks compared with it. AS
fortress sometimes silences fortress, Moultries
Sumters, so | set against Sinai,
Guc AIOuutdIH Ol lIle law, Ine mlgnJlcf noun
tain of the cross. 1.-The soul that sinneth it
shall die!" bOOms the one, till the earth lars
under the cannOnade. 'Save them from 60
ing down to the pit, for have found ran
som" peas forth the other, and earth and
heaven and hell tremble under the reVerbera-
ton. Moses, who commands the one, sur
renders to Jesus, who commands the other.
'Once by the law our hopes were slain,
But now in Christ they live again."
Aristotle says that once when Mount Etna
erupted and torrents of scOTie came upon the
its base, the flames parted so that
they made a lane of safety for those who went
to rescue their aged parents from the destruc-
tlcn of the overlooking mountain. So this
hamIng volcanic sinai of the text parts its
fury to let pass into eternal safety those
from the red ruin that bounded them on
both sides. As l stand this moment half way
between the mountain of the 20th of Exodus
and the mountain of the 10Th of John. nv
terror subsidies in a supernatural calm, be-
cause the uproar of the Sinaitic peak is mod
Grating, and subsiding, and quieting, until it
comes TO so deep a silence that l can hear the
other mountain speak. Yea, l can hear it
blood, the blood cleanseth from all sim"
That up-turned mountain of the text
writers tell us, has several WadYs or water
courses, Aleyatt and Ajelah, emptying into
Feiran. but they are not navigable. You can
not put a boat of human construction into
those rocky streams. But the boat of gospel
rescue can sail anywhere, and it comes right
mp amid these water courses of Sinaitic
threat, and doom, and offers to take YOU off
and out and from under the shadows into the
and to the land of peace.
On, If you could see that boat of rescue COM
ing you would feel as John Gilmore, in his
book "Storm Warriors" says a ships crew
felt when they were being beaten to pieces on
the kentish Knock sands off the coast of Eng
land. And they had all given up to die. for
every minute took away some of their plank
from the wreck. But at last they saw a
Ramsgate lifeboat coming through the break
ers straight for them, and they cried: ''Can
it be so! 1t is! 1t is! 1t is! Thank God, it
isW And Jack tar, speaking Of that boat
said ''Oh, my lads, what a beau
ty she looked! What a beauty she looked
coming over those seas!' May God take us
all off the miserable wreck of our sin into the
beautiful escape of the Gospel.
The Gar,,,ax, EFYoo4sa.