The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-05-11
bet stood on Mount Washington and the other
on the Himalayahs it would not be any more

moral lesson First an honest chairmaker then
alderman, then member of Congress, then SUI
pervisor Of the city, then school commissioner,
then State senator, then commission of the De-
partment of Public Works. On and up, steal
ing thousands of dollars here and thousands of
dollars there swindlng the largest scale OF NAL
feasance ever witnessed in this country, so that
the new city courthouse of New York is mon
ument of municipal crime having cost more
than the Capitol at Washington the Parlia
ment House of London, and running tho city
debt from thirty-six million of dollars to ninety
seven millions. Now he stands high up in mill
ionairedom. Country seats, terraced and arbored
and parterred to the waters brink. Horses
enough to stock kings equerry; Grooms and
postilIions in full rig. Wine cellars enough to
make whole Legislatures drunk; New York pol
itics and finance in his vest pocket. He wnked,
and officials went down He lifted his little
finger, and ignormuses took high place. He
whispered and at Albany and Washington peo
pie said it Numbered. Higher up and higher up,
until pandemonium seemed about to adjourn TO
this world, and there was some prospect that In
the satanic realm there would be change vi ad
minstration. and that Apollyon, after holding
dominion so long, would have an earthly
competitor. To bring all to climax,
a wedding came in the house of that man.
Diamonds as large as hickory nuts pin of
sixty diamonds, representing sheaves of wheat;
musicians in semi-crcle. half hidden by
great harp of flowers; ships Of flowers; forty
silver sets, one Of them with 240 pieces; one we'd
who owned several Long Island. sound steam
boats, and not long before he was shot for his
crimes, sent as a wedding present to that house
frosted silver iceberg, with representations OF
arctic bears walking on icice handles and ascend
ing the spoons. Never such convocation of
bronzes, of pictures, of shaws. The highest
wave Of New York splendor rolled in upon the
scene and recoied, never again to rise so high.
But at the moment when all observation of earth
and hell was concentrated upon the scene,
H. ,Df
the American bar, Charles O'Conor, got on the
track of the offender. First arrest; then IN
dictment; then sentence OF twelve years I'M
prisonment on twelve indictments; then penl-
Tertiary on Blackwels island; then suit against
him for Sc, 000 000 then Ludlow-street Jail; then
escape and flight in foreign country; then return
under the tight grip of the constabulary, and
death from broken heart in prison cell. AL
lowed to go until all the world learned as
never before that the way of the transgressor is
hard, that dishonesty does not pay permanent
dividend, that man had better be an in
dustrious chair-maker on days wages than
fraudulent commissioner of public works, with
all his pockets crammed with pfdnder.
How proudly in history sounded the name of
William the Copqueror. Gntimidator of France
and Anjou and Brittany; victor at Hastings
snatching the English crown, driving people
from their homes that he might have a game
forest making a doonsday book by which all
the land was put under despotic espionage, to
avenge joke at his obesity; proclaiming war,
trampling harvest fields and vineyards under
cavalry hoof, until nations were horror struck.
But at that apex OF renown. while he was riding
one day, his horse put forefoot hot cinder
and plunged, wounding the rider against the
pommcl of the saddle so that he died, his son
Fastening to England to get the crown before
his fathers breath ceased The imperial corpse,
coffinless, carried in cart, and most of the at
tendants leaving it in the street at fire alarm
that they might go and see the confagration
The burial in the church built by the conqueror,
interrupted by some one who cried: Bishop.
the man whom thou hast praised was robber-
the very ground on which we are standing is
mine, and is the site where my fathers house
stood.-~He took it from me by violence to build
this church upon it. / reclaim it as my right,
and in the name OF God forbid you to bury him
here cover him with my glebe." go up"
said the ambition of William the Conqueror, "go
up by way of a throne, go up by way of Grim
nality, 60 up by way of revenge" Como
down. says God, "come down by the way of a
miserable DEATH come down by the way of igno-
minous obsequies; come down in the sight of all
nations; come clear down. come forever down"
So all around US, through our smaller scale,
the wicked are allowed to live so that their over
throw may be the more impressive, memorable
and climacteric.
And what 1 say of sin may be said of Satan,
its author sometimes called Abaddon, the
dragon, the serpent Apollyon, the Prince of
the power of the air. That there is a COM
manneri in chief of all evil doubts. The
l.
called him silva. In medieval times ne
represented on canvas as a NEUROLOGICAL COM
bnation of Thor, Cerberus, Pan, Vulcan and
other horrible addenda. But, whatever You
call him. this monster is abroad, and only for
destructive purposes. Although Milton some
times gloriied him by splendor of description,
he is the concentration of all meanness and
despcability My little child OF seven years
asked her mother ''Why does not God kill the
devil at once and have done with it," In less
tarc NH hav a SkpG ho
ton. 1t is promised that he shall be put back
into the pit and chained Why not heave the old
miscreant into his den now? Itwouid seem that
he has done enough to close up the chapter of
infamy. His work in the last half century
would make an appropriate peroration. No;
God is going to let him get to the tiptop of all
endeavor, and then, while all the earth and all
the solar system, and all consultations, and
galaxies, and the universe are watching, hurl
him down with violence and horror enough
to teach FIVE hundred eternties that the
most acute, and prolonged, and stupendous re-
bellion against God and righteousness shall come
down into crash of everlasting ruin. God is
not going to do it by piecemeal. He is not going
to do it in small skirmish. He is waiting till all
the forces are massed, and some day. when in
confident and defiant mood at the head of His
army, this great Goliath of hell stalks forth, our
champion, the Se-s of David, will strike him
down. not with Tooth stones from the brook,
but with fragment of the Rock of Ages Yet
this will not be done until the giant of evil and his
holy antagonist stand fully within sight of the
two great armies of heaven and hell This
tragedy only postponed to make the scene more
warningly and tremendously climacteric That
is the reason why God does not kill the devil 1t
is not quite time yet to kill him. Be patient If
God can afford to wait you can afford to wait
The clock of destiny strikes only once in thou
sand years.
Sometimes God lets the wicked live that they
may build that which righteousness may appro-
pirate for good uses At the last meeting of our
church court we were told of a college started a.
the far West by infdels. There was to be in it
no nonsense of chapel prayers and the obsolete
was made up of the enemies of Christianity
The college buildings were reared and the work
begun. But such an institution could not pros
per. A minister of a Presbyterian church was
in a bank one day on business, and lie overheard
in an adjoining room the college board of trus-
tees discussing what they had better do with
their collesa they could not rnaIzasit