The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1889-05-16
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
The Wrong Uses of Money" and
the Danger Therein.
The Sin of the Hour the Diversion o
Money From It's Legitimate Uses to
Channels of Corrupt, Dishonest
and Vicious Expenditures.

for his subject the 'fWr0ng Uses OF
Money" from which he evolved the fol-
lowing pointed discourse. His text was:
They that will be rich fall into temptation
and snare, and into many foolish and hurtful
iusts, which drown men in destruction ana per-
dition.-[I. Timothy, vi, 81
That is the Niagara Falls, over which |
rush multitude Of souls, namely, the de-
termination to have money anyhow, right |
or wrong. Tell me how a man gets his |
money and what he does with it, and | I
will tell you his character 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 expend-
ed. think about twenty million dollars
of it were spent in out andout 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 depart
ments.
Politics, from being the science Of good
government, has often been bedraggled
into the synonym for truculency and
turpitude. A monster sin, plausible, po-
tent, pestiferous, has gone forth to do
its dreadful work in all ages. Its two
hands are rotten with leprosy. 1t keeps
its right hand hidden in a deep pocket.
The left hand is clenched, and with its
ichorous knuckle it taps at the door of the
courtroom. the legislative hall, the Con-
gress and the Parliament. The door
swings open and the monster enters and
glides through the aisle of the council
..f~.~ ,1s
and then it takes its right hand from its
deep pocket and offers it to judge or legis
lator. If that hand be taken and the palm
of the intruder crosses the palm of the
official, the leprosy crosses from palm to
palm in round blotch, round as 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 brides and perverted
Judgment" David says of some of his
pursuers: "Their right hand is full of
bribes." Amos says of some men in his
day: s'They take bride and turn aside
the poor in the gate" Eliphaz foretells
the crushing blows of Gods indignation,
declaring: s'Fire shall consume the tab
ernaeles of bribery"
"Oh, "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 heathen-
ism and the Dark Ages have furnished
specimens of incorruptibility. A cadi of
Smyrna had a case brought before him ON
trial. A man gave him five hundred ducats
in bribery. The case came on. The briber
had many witnesses. The poor man on
the other had no witnesses. At the close
of the case the cadi said:
This poor 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 ottoman, he dashed il
down at the feet of the briber, saying:
81 give my decision against YOU"
Epaminondas, offered bride, said:
81 will do this thing if it be right, and /
it be wrong all your goods can not per-
suade me-"
Fabricius, of the Roman Senate, was
offered bride by Pyrrhus of Macedon
Fabricius answered:
.'What an example this would be to the
Roman people; you keep your riches and
will keep my poverty and reputation"
The President of the American Con
gress, during the American revolution
General Reed was offered ten Thousand
guineas by foreign commissioners if h
would betray this country. He replied:
Gentlemen, am q very poor man, bu
tell your King he is not rich enough t
buy me-"
But why go so far, when you and I, j
vya move in hounra hla sOoiotv t-noyu N, "a
and women who by all the concentrate
force of earth aud hell could not
bribed. They would no more be bride
than you would think of tempting an ange
of light to exchange Heaven for the phi
To offer bride is yillainy, but it is a yer
poor compliment to the man to whom
is offered.
have not much faith in those peopl
who go about Dragging how much the
could get if they would only sell on
Those women who claim that they ar
very often insulted need to understan
that there is something in their carriag
to invite insult. There are men at AL
bany and at Harrisburg and at Washing
ton who would no more be approached b
a bride than pirate boat with few GU
lasses would dare to attack BIRTHS
man-of-war with two banks of guns 0
each side loaded to the touch hole. The
are incorrupible men, and they are tt
few men who are to save the eli
and save the land. Meanwhile, my ad
vice is to all people to keep out
politics unless you are invulnerable
this style of temptations. Indeed, if "
Aare naturally stong, you need religion
buttressing. Nothing but the grace
God can sustain our public men and NAL
them what we wish. wish that the
might come an old-fashioned revival
religion, that it might break out in Coz
gress and in the Legislatures and bri1
many of the leading Republicans al
Democrats down on the anxious seat
repentance. That day will come or som
thing better, for the Bible declares tn
kings and queens shall become nursiI
fathers and mothers to the church, and
she greater in authority, then certain
the less.
Ny charge, also, to parents is, remer
Der that this evil of bribery often begil
in the home circle and in the nursery. ]
not bride your children. Teach them
do that which is right, and not because
ten cents or the orange you will gi
them. There is great difference betwe
rewarding virture and making the prof