The national leader., 1889-03-30
GOULD NOT BE RR1REp.

I To offer bribe is villainy, but it is a
very poor compliment to the man to
whom it is offered.
have not much faith in those peO-
pie who go about Dragging how much
they could get if they would only sell
out. Those women who complain that
they are very often insulted, need to
understand that there is something in
their carriage TO invite insult. There
are men at Albany, and at Harrisburg.
and at Washington. who would no
more be approached by a bribe than a
pirate boat with few cutlasses would
dare to attack a British man-of-War
with two banks of guns on each side
loaded to the touch-hole. They are in
corruptible men, and they are the FeW
men who are TO save the city and save
the land. Meanwhile. my advice is
KEEP OUT OF POLITICS
unless you are invulnerable to this style
of temptation. Indeed, if you are nat
urally stron", you need religious but
tressing. Nothing but the grace of
God can sustain our public men, and
make them what we wish. / wish that
there might come an old-fashloned re-
vivaI of religion, that it might break
out in Congress, and in the legislatures,
and bring many of the leading Republi-
cans and Democrats, down on the anxi-
Gus seat of repentance. That day vii.
come, or something better, for the
Bible declares that kings and queens
shall become nursing fathers and moth
ers to the Church. and if the greater in
authority, then certainly the less.
My charge also to parents is, remem-
Der that this evil or bribery often begins
in the home circle, and in the nursery.
Do not bribe your children. Teach
them to do that which IS right, and not
because of the ten cents or the orange
you will give them. There is a great
difference between rewarding virtue,
and making the profits thereof the i'm
pelling motive. That man who is
honest merely because Honesty is the
best policy" IS Dlyeady Il moral bank
rupt.
My charge is TO you, in ali depal t.
ments OF life, steer clear OF bribery, all
of you. Every man and woman at
some time will be tempted to do wrong
for COMPENSATION. The bribe may not
be offered in money. 1t may be offered
III social position. Let us remember
that ther3 is a day coming when the
most secret transaction of private life,
and of public life, will come up for pub
lie reprehensiOn. We
CANNOT BRIBE DEATH,
we cannot bribo sickness, we cannot
bribe the grave, we cannot brIbe the
judgments of that God who thunders
against this sin. ''Fiel' said Cardinal
Beaufort, ''lie! can't death behired? is
money nothing? must 1 die, aud so
rich? if the owing of the whole realm
would save me, L could get it by policy
or by purchase - by money" No,
death would not be hired then, he will
not he hired now. Men of the world
often regret that they have to leave
their money here when they go away
from the world. You can tell from
what they say III their last hours that
one of their chief sorrows is that they
have to leaye t eir money. 1 break
that delusion. | tell that bribe-taker
that he will take his money with him.
God will wrap it up in your shroud, or
put it in the palm of your hand in res
direction, and there it will lie, not the
cool, bright, shining gold as it was on
the day when you sold your vO and
your moral principle, but there it will
lie, hot metal, burning and cOnsum-
ing your hand forever. Or, if there be
enough OF it for IA chain, then it will
fall from the wrist, cllnklng the fetters
Of an eternal captivity. The bribe is
AN EVERLASTING POSSESSION.
You take it for time, you take it for
eternity. Some day in the next world,
when you are longing for sympathy,
you will feel on your check a kiss.
Looking up you viii, find it to be Judas,
who took thirty pieces Of silver as a
bribe, and finished the bargain by put
ting an Infamous kiss on the pure cheek
of his divine Master.
Another wrong use of money is seen
i'll the d0,tse Of trust funds, Every man
during the course of his life, Oh larger
or smaller scale, has the property of
others committed to his keeping. He
is, so far, safety deposit, he is an adj
ministrator, and holds in his hand the
interest of the family OF a deceased
friend. Or he is an attorney, and
though his custody goes the payment
from debtor to creditor, or he is the col
lector for a business house, which COM
pensateS him for the responsibility, or
he is treasurer for charitable 1nstltu-
ton. and he holds aims contributed for
the suffering; or he is an official of the
city or the state or the nation, and taxes
and subsidies and salaries and supplies
are in his keeping. 1t Is as solemn a
trust as God can make it. 1t is con-
centred and
MULTIPLIED Condolences.
On that man depends the support of a
bereft household. or the morals OF de-
pendents, or the right movement of a
thousand wheels OF social mechanism.
| A man may do whit he Will with Lis