The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1889-07-04

came to the rescue of this Nation in 1876,
at the close of presidential election
famous for devilish ferocity. A darker
| cloud yet settled down upon this Nation.
The result of the election was in dispute,
the revolution, not between two or three
sections, but revolution in every town and
village and city of the United States
seemed imminent. The prospect was that
New York would throttle New York, and
New Orleans would grip New Orleans, and
Boston, Boston, and Savannah, Savannah,
and Washington, Washington. Some said
Mr.. Tilden was elected; others said Mr..
Hayes was elected; and how near we
came to universal massacre some OF us
guessed, but God only knew. l ascribe
our escape not to the honesty and right
eousness OF infuriated politicians, but
ascrlbe it to the upper forces of the text
Chariots of mercy rolled in, and, though
the wheels were not heard and the flash
was not seen, yet all through the mount
aims of the North, and the South, and the
East, and the West, though the hoofs did
not clatter, the cavalry OF God galloped
by. l tell you, God is the friend of this
Nation. In the awful excitement at the
massacre of Lincoln, when there was a
prospect that greater slaughter would
open upon this Nation, God hushed the
tempest. In the awful excitement at the
time of Garheld's assassination God put
His foot on the neck of the cyclone.
To prove that God is on the side of this
Nation, argue from the last eight or nine
great national haryests, and from the
national health of the last quarter of q
century, epidemics very exceptional, and
from the great revivals of religion, and
from the spreading of the church of God.
and from the continent blossoming with
asylums and reformatory institutions,
and from an Edenization which promises
that the whole land is to be a paradise
where God shall walk in the cool of the
day.
If IN other sermons showed you what
was the evil that threatened to upset and
demolish American institutions, am en-
couraged more than can tell you as see
the regiments wheeling down the sky,
and my jeremiads turn into doxologieS
and that which was the Good Friday of
the Nations crucifxion. OF course God
works through human instrumentaIities,
and this national betterment is to come
among other things through scrutinized
ballot box. By the law of registration it
is almost impossible now to have illegal
voting. There was a time-you and re-
member it very well-when droves of
vagabonds wandered up and down on
election day, and from poll to poll, and
voted here, and voted there, and
voted everywhere, and there was
no challenges; or, if there were,
it amounted to nothing, because
nothing could so suddenly be proved up
on the vagabonds. Now, in every we'll
organized neighborhood, every voter is
watched with severest scrutiny. l must
tell the regis trar my name, and how old
am, and how long I have resided in the
State, and how long have resided in the
ward, or the township, and if 1 misrep-
resent fifty witnesses will rise and shut
me out from the ballot box. Is not that
a great advance? Aud then notice the
law that prohibits man voting if he has
bet on the election. A step further needs
to be taken, and that man forbidden
vote who has offered or taken a bride,
whether it be in the shape of free drink
or cash paid down, the suspicious cases
obliged to put their hand on the Bible and
swear their vote in if they vote at all. So
through the sacred chest of our Nations
suffrage redemption will come.
God also will save this Nation through
an aroused moral sentiment There has
never been so much discussion of morals
and lmmorals. Men, whether or not they
acknowledge what is right have to think
what is right. We have men who have
had their hands in the public treasury the
most of their lifetime, stealing all they
could lay their hands on. discoursing elo-
quently about dishonesty in public serv-
ants, and menI with two or three families
OF their own preaching eloquently about
the beauties of the seventh command
ment. The question of sobriety and drunk
enness is thrust in the face of this Nation
as never before, and to take part in our
political contests. The question fully
and deferentially heard at the bar
of every Legislature and every
House of Representatives and every
United States Senate. and an Omnipotent
voice will ring down the sky and across
this land and back again, saying to these
rising tides of drunkenness which
threaten to whelm home and church and
Nation: "Thus far shalt thou come, but
no further, and here shall thy proud
waves be stayed"
Have you any doubt about the need of
the Christian religion to purify and make
decent American politics? At every YEAR
ly or quadrennial election we have in this
country great manufactures, manu-
factories of lies, and they are run day
and night, and they turn out half dozen
day all eq tipped and ready for sailing.
Large lies and small lies. Lies private
and lies public and lies prurient. Lies
cut bias and lies cut diagonal. Long
limbed lies and lies with double back ac-
ton. Lies complimentary and lies defam-
atory. Lies that some people believe. |
and lies that all the people believe, and
lies that nobody believes. Lies with
humps like camels and scales like croco-
dies and necks as long as storks and feet
as swift as an antelope's and stings like |
adders. Lies raw and scalloped and |
PANIED and stewed. Crawling lies and |
jumping lies and soaring lies. Lies
with attachment screws and ruf4ers
and braiders and ready bobbins. |
Lies by Christian people who never lie |
except during elections, and lies by peo-
pie who always lie, but beat themselves |
IN pr esidential campaign.
Nothing but Christianity will ever stop |
such flood of ind ecency. The Christian |
religion will speak after awhile. The
billingsgate and low scandal through
which we wade every year or every four
years must be rebuked by that religion