Milford chronicle., 1889-03-15


gins at Home-Abuses of Trust Funds.
II Pays to Be Honest.
BRooKLYN, March 10. AT the Tabernacle
this morning six thousand voices, supported
by organ and cornet, rolled out the hymn be-
ginning;
Ne'er think the victory won.
Nor once at ease sit down;
Thine arduous work will not be done
Till 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 o; "They that will be rich fall
into temptation and a snare, and into many
foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men
in destruction and perdition.
That is the Niagara Falls over which rush
a multitude Of souls, namely the determine
ton to have money any how, right or wrong
Tell me how man gets his money and what
be does with it, and l will tell his character,
and what viii be his destiny in this world and
the next. l propose to speak this morning
about some of the ruinous modes Of getting
money.
We recently passed through a national
election in which 1t 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
a large scale what has been done on a smaller
scale for fifty years and in all departments.
Politics from being tho science Of good gov
ernment 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 a deep
pocket. The left hand is clenchod, 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 u
slippered page, and then it takes its right
hand from its deep pocket and offers it in sal
utation to judge or legislator. Il that hand
be taken, and the palm Of the intruder cross
the palm of the official, the leprosy crosses
from palm to palm in a 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
judges, "They took bribes and perverted
Judgment David says of some of his pur-
suers, 'aTheir right hand is full of bribes. :"
Amos says of some men in his day, "They
take a brihe and turn aside the poor in the
gate" Eliphaz foretells the crushing bolts Of
Gods indignation, declaring, Fire shall con-
sumo the tabernacles of bribery.n
It Is no light temptation. The mightiest
have fallen under it. Sir Francis Bacon,
lord chancellor of England, founder of our
modern philosophy, author of ''Novum Or
ganum" and whole library Of books, the
leading thinker of his century, so precocious
that when alittle child he was asked by Queen
Elizabeth, ''HOw old are youl" he responded,
81 am two years younger than your majesty S
happy reign of whose oratory Ben Jonson
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 bri-
bery-thirty-six thousand dollars year, and
Twickenham court a gift, and princely estates
in Hertfordshire and GOrhambury-yet under
this temptation to bribery falling fat into
ruin, and on his confession of taking bribes
giving as excuse that all his predecessors took
them, he was fined two hundred thousand
dollars, or what corresponds with our
two hundred thousand dollars, and I'M
prisoned in London Tower So, also,
Lord Chancellor Macclesfield fell; SO, also,
Lord Chancellor Waterbury perished. The
black chapter in English Irish, French and
American politics is the chapter Of bribery.
Some OF you remember the Pacific Mail sub
sides. Most of you remember tho awful
tragedy of the Credit Mo5ilier. Under the
temptation to bribery Benedict Arnold sold
tho fort in the Highlands for S3l,575. For
this sin Gorgey betrayed Hungary, Ahitho-
phel forsook David and Judas kissed Christ.
When see so many Of the llustrious going
down under this temptation it makes me
think of the red dragon spoken Of in Revela
tions, with seven heads and ten horns and
seven crowns, drawing a third part of the
stars Of heaven down, down after him. Tha
lobbies Of the legislatures of this country con
troll the country. The land is drunk with
bribery.
EVERY MAN HAS NOT his PRICE.
"Oh," says some one, there's no need Of
talking against bribery by promise or by dol
lars. because every man has his price l do
not believe it. Even heathenism and the dark
ages have furnished specimens Of incorrupti-
bility. A cadi of Smyrna had a case brought
before him on trial A man gave him Eve
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 tho eadi said, This
poor man has no witnesses, he thinks; / shall
produce in his behalf five hundred witnesses
against the other siden And then pulling
out the bag of ducats from under the otto
man, he dashed it down at the feet Of the
briber, saying, Il give my decision against
s-afI
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 u
bribe by Pyrrhus Of Mncedon. Fabrcius an
swered, ''Vhat an example this would be 10
the Roman people; you keep your riches and
I win keep my poverty and reputation
The president Of the American congress
during the American Revolution, Gen. Reed
was offered 10000 guineas by foreign com
missioners If he would betray this country
He replied: "Gentlemel, l 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, il we move in honorable society, know
men and women who by all tho concentrated
force Of earth and hell could not bs 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 q
bribe is villainy; but it is very poor com
pliment to the man to whom it is offered
have not much faith in those people who
go 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 at Albany, and at Harrisburg, and
at Washington, who would 70 mere bo ap-
preached by bride than a pirate boat with
a few cutlasses would dare to attack British
man-of-war with two banks Of guns on each
side loaded to the touch hole. They are in
coITuptible men, and they are the few men
who are to save the city and save the Land.
Meanwhile, my advice is to all people to keep
out Of politics unless you are invulnerahle to
this style Of temptation. Indeed, il you are
naturally strong, you need religious buttress-
ing. Nothing but the grace Of God can sus-
tain our public men and make them what
we wish I wish that there might come