The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1889-03-27
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIvINES SUN.
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "Wrong Uses of Money"

:
foolish and hurtful lusts, ,,ohich drown men
In destruction and perdition. ~ Timothy
w., 8.
That Is the Niagara Falls over which rush
multitude Of souls, namely the determine.
tion to have money anyhow, right or wrong.
Tell me how man gets his money and what
he does with it, and will tell you his char
acter, and what will be his destiny in this
world and the next. propose to speak this
morning about some of the ruinous modes OF
getting money. :,
We recently passed through national
election in which it has been estimated that
thirty million dollars were expended. think
about twenty million Of it were spent in out
and out bribery. Both parties raised all
they could for this purpose But that was
only on large scale what has been done on
smaller scale for fifty years and in all de-
partments.
Politics from being the science Of good
government has often been bedraggled into
the synonym for truculency and turpitude.
A monster sin, plausible, potent. pestiferous,
has gone forth to do its dreadful work in
all ages. Its two hands are rotten with
! leprosy. It keeps its right hand hidden in O
deep pocket. The left hand is clenched, and
with its ichorous knuckle it taps at the door
OF the court room. the legislative ball, the
SooE swing. sad the and she monss
enters and glides through the aisle of the
council chamber as softly as slippered page,
and then it takes its right hand from its
deep pocket and offers it in salutation to
Judge or legislator. If that hand be taken.
and the palm Of the intruder cross the palm
Of the official, the leprosy crosses from palm
to palm in round blotch, round as a gold
eagle, and the virus spreads, and the doom is
fixed, and the victim perishes Let bribery,
accursed Of God and man, stand up for trial.
The Bible arraigns it again and again.
Samuel says of his two sons who became
Judges: "They took bribes and perverted
Judgment" David says of some of his purr:.
surers: "Their right hand is full of bribes"
Amos says of some men in his day: They
take bribe and turn aside the poor in the
gate" Eliphaz fortells the crushing blows
Of Gods Indignation, declaring: Fire shall
consume the tlbernables of bribery"
1t is no light temptation. The mightlest
have fallen under it. Sir Francis Bacon,
Lord Chancellor Of England, founder of our
modern philosophy, author OF 'Novum
the leading thinker Of his century, so
precocious that when little child he was
asked by Queen Elizabeth: How old
are your' he responded, 81 am two years
younger than your Majesty's happy
reign" of whose oratory Ben. johnson
wrote "The fear of every man that heard
him was lest he should make an end" hav-
ing an income which you would suppose
of bribery-thirty-s thousand dollars q
year, and Twickenham court g. gift, and
princely estates in Hertfordshire and Cor
hamburg yet under this temptation
to bribery falling fat into ruin,
i and on his confession of taking
brides, giving as excuse that all
/ his predecessors took them; he was fined
/ E.~ 81 o,I ln1l put
responds with our two hundred thousand
! dollars, and imprisoned in London tower.
/ So also Lord Chancellor Macclesfed fell so
| also Lord Chancellor Waterbury perlshed. The
black chapter In English, Irish, French and
American politics is the chapter Of bribery.
Some Of you remember the Pacific Mail
subsidies. Most OF you remember the awful
the temptation to bribery Benedict Arnold
sold the fort in the Highlands for
S31,575. For this sin Gorgey betrayed
| Hungary, Ahithophel forsook David and
Judas kissed Christ When l see so many
Of the illustrious going down under this
temptation. it makes ME think of the red
dragon spoken of in Revelation, with seven
beads and ten horns and seven crowns,
drawing third part of the stars of heaven
down after him. The lob5ies of the legisla-
lures of this country control the country.
| The land is drunk with bribery:
"Oh,n says some one, there's no need OF
! talking against bribery by promise or by
/ dollars. because every man has his price"
! do not believe it. Even heathenism and the
dark ages have furnished specimens Of in
compatibility. A cadi of Smyrna had case
gave him five hundred ducats in
! bribery. The case came on. The
briber had many witnesses. The poor
man on the other side had no witnesses. At
the close of the case the cadi said: This
Door man has no witnesses, he thinks: shall
! produce in his behalf five hundred witnesses
against the other side" And then pulling
out the bag of ducats from under the otto
man, he dashed it down at the feet
GtctOD Of the br0sr sss5nse saying glyss my
inondas, offered brbe, sail: ~ will do
this thing If it be right, and if it be wrong
all your goods cannot persuade me.
| Fabricius of the Roman senate was offered a
bribe by Pyrrhus of Macedon. Fabricius
answered: ''What an example this would be
to the Roman people: you keep your riches
The President OF the American Congress
! during the American Revolution, General
! Reed was offered ten thousand guineas by
foreign commissioners il he would betray
thi country. He replied: "Gentlemen,I am
a very poor man, but tell your King he is
! not rich enough to buy me-" But why go
so far, when you and I, if we move in
honorable society, know men and women VINO
by oil the concentrated force OF earth anu
hell could not be bribed. They would no
more be bribed than you would think OF
tempting an angel of light to exchange heaven
for the pit. To offer bribe is villainy, but
1t IS a very poor compliment to the man to
whom it is offered.
have not much faith in those people who
20 about Dragging how much they could get
If they would only sell out. Those women
who complain that they are very often in
suited need to understand that there is some
thing in their carriage to invite insult.
There are men in Albany and at Har.
rishurg and at Washington who would no
more be approached by bribe than pirate
boat with few cutlasses would dare to at
tack q British man-of war with two banks Of
guns on each side loaded to the touch hole.
They are incorruptible men, and they are
the few men who are to save the city and
save the land. Meanwhile, my ad-
vice is to all people to keep out of politics
temptation. Indeed, if you are naturally
strong, you need religious buttressing.
Nothing but the grace Of God can sustain
our public men and make them what we
wish. wish that there might come an
old.fashioned revival Of religion, that
| 1t might break out In Congress and IN
the Legislatures and bring many of the lead
ing Republicans and Democrats down on the
anxious seat of repentance. That day will
come, or something better, for the Bible de-
clares that Kings and Queens shall become
nursing fathers and mothers to the church,
aud if the greater in authority, then certain
" the less.
My charge also to parents Is, remember
that this evil Of bribery often begins IN the
home circla and in the nursery. Do not
hribe your children. Teach them to do that
which is right. and not because OF the ten
| cents or the orange you will give them.