The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1889-03-14
WRONG USES OF MONEY.
A SERMON OF GREAT POWER BY
/ REV. T. De WITT TALMAGE.

gins at Home Abuse of Trust Funds,
1t Pays To BE Honest.
BRooKLYE, March 10.-At the taber-
nacle this morning, six thousand
voices supported by organ and cor
net, rolled out the hymn beginning:
Ne'or think the victory won,
Nor ronse at ease sit down; -
Thine ariuous work win not be done
TIL thou hast got thy crown.
The Rev. T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.,
preached the sermon. His subject
was, Wrong Uses of Money" and his
text, / Timothy vi, 0: ''They that will
be rich fall into temptation and a
snare, and into many foolish and
hurtful lusts, which drown men in de-
struction and perdition."
That is the Niagara Falls over
which rush a multitude of souls.
namely the determination to have mo-
ney anyhow, right or wrong. Tell me
how man gets his money and what
he does with it, and I will tell you his
character, and what will be his des-
tiny in this world and the next. I
propose to speak this morning about
some Of the ruinous modes of getting
money.
We recently passed through ma
tional 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 n large scale what has
been done on smaller scale for fifty
years and in all departments.
Politics from being the science of
good government has often been be-
draggled into the synonym for trucu-,
lency and turpitude. A~monster sin,
plausible, potent, postiferous, has gone
forth TO do its dreadful work IN all
ages. Its two hands are rotten with
leprosy. 1t keeps its right hand hid
den in a deep pocket. Tho left hand
is clenched, and with its ichorous
knuckle it taps at the door of the
court room, the legislative hall, the
congress and the parliament. The
door swings open and the monster
enters, and glides through the aisle of
the council chamber as softly as a
slippered page, and then it takes it's
right hand from its deep pocket and
offers 1t in salutation to Judge or legis-
palm Of the intruder cross the palm of
the official, the leprosy crosses from
palm to palm in a round blotch,
round as gold eagle, and the virus
spreads, and the doom is fixed, and
the victim perishes Let bribery, ac-
cursed Of God and man, stand up for
trial.
Tho Bible arraigls it again and
again. Samuel says of his two sons
who became judges, 'They took bribes
and perverted judgment" David says
Qf some of his pursuers, 'Their right
hand is full of bribes" Amos says of
some men in his day, '"They take a
bribe and turn aside the poor in the
gate" Eliphaz fortells the crushing
blows of Gods Indignation, declaring,
Fire shall consume the tabernaelos
OF bribesy"
1t is no light temptation. The might
Jest have fallen under it. Sir Francis
Bacon, lord chancellor of England,
founder OF our modern philosophy,
author of ''Novum Organum, and a
whole library of books, tho leading
thinker of his century, so precocious
that when little child ho was asked
by Queen Elizabeth, "How old are
you3" he responded, II 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" having an income which you
would suppose would have put him
beyond the temptation of bribery
thirtysix thousand dollars year,
and Twickenham court q gift, and
princely estates in Hertfordshire
and Gorhambury-yet under this
temptation 20 bribery falling fiat
into ruin, Gnd on his confession of
taking bribes, giving rs excuse that
all his predecessors took them; he was
fined two hundred thousand dollars,
or what corresponds with our two
hundred thousand dollars, and impris-
oned in London tower. So also Lord
Chancellor Macclesfeld fell; so also
Lord Chancellor Waterbury perisbed.
The black chapter in English, Irish,
French and American politics is the
chapter of bribery. Some of you re-
member the Pacific Mail subsidies.
Most of you renember the awful trag-
edy of the Credit Mobilier. Under the
temptation TO bribery Benedict Arnold
sold tho fort in the Highlands for
$31 E5. For this sin Gorgey betrayed
Hungary Ahithophel forsool1 David
and Judas Kissed Christ. When I see
SO many of tho illustrious going down
under this temptation, it makes me
think of the rcd dragon spoken of in
Revelation, with seven heads and ten
horns aud seven crowns, drawing q
third parG of tho stars of heaven down
after him. The lobbies of the legisla
lures of this country control tho coun
try. Tho land is drunk with bribery
EVERY MAN HAS NOT HIS PRICE.
oh" says some one, there's nc
need of talking against bribery by
promise or by dollars, because every
man has his price" 1 do not believe
it. Even heathenism and the dark
ages have furnished specimens of in
compatibility. A cadi of Smyrna
had q case brought before him or
trial. A man gave him five hundred
ducats in bribery. Tho case came on
Tho briber had many witnesses. The
poor man on the other side, had nC
witnesses. At the close of the cas,
the cadi said: This poor man has nS
witnesses, no thinks;' shall produc,
in his behalf five hundred witnesses
pulling out the bag of ducats from
under tho ottoman, he dashed it dow
at the feet of the briber, saying, -
givemy decision against YOU" Epam
inondas, offered bribc, said II vii
do this thingif it b right, and If j
bo wrong all your goods cannot per
stadc me" Fabric Is of tie Roman
senate was offered d bribe by Pvrrhu
OF Maeedon. Fabricius answered
''What an example this would be I
the Roman people; you keep you
riches and Twill keep my poverty nm
reputation.
The president of the Americanscol
gress during the American revolution
Gen. Reed, was offered ten thousan
guineas by foreign commissioners
he would betray this country. He r
piled: Gentlemen, | am very pos
man, but tell your king he is NJ
rich enough to buy mc.N But why {
80 far, when you and /, If we move
honorable society, know men an
women who by all the concentrate
force of,earth and hell could not
bribed They would no more
bribed than YOU would think of temp
ing an angel of light To exchanl
heaven for the pit To offer bribe
villainy, but ii is very poor comp
ment 10 the man TO whom il is offerc
have. not much faith in those pa
ple who go about Dragging how mus
they could get II they would only Sc
out. Those women who compla
that they are very often insulted ne'
to understand that there is sonethil