The intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1887-1891, 1889-03-16
r USES OF MONEY.
DR.. Talmage on the Temptations
of Those Who Would be Rich.
Bribery at E~lections-The Monster in Court
Rooms and Legislative Halls The
Mightiest Subject to the Tempter
Value of Honesty.

Rooms and Legislative Halls The
Mightiest Subject to the Tempter
Value of Honesty.
In n recent sermon at Brooklyn on the
subject of the Wrong Uses of Money"
Rev. 1. De Witt Talmage took his
text from 1 Timothy vi. 8: "They that
Will be rich fall into temptation and a
snare, aud into many foolish and hurtful
4usts, which drown men in destruction and
perdttion." He said:
That is the Niagara falls over which
rush a multitude of souls-namely, the
determination to have money ANYHOW
right or wrong. Tell me how a man gets
mis- money and what he does with it and |
Will tell you his character and what will
Do 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 it has been estimated
that S3),OOO,OOO were expended. l think
about S2J, 200. 900 of it were spent in out
aud out bribery. Both parties raised all
they could for this purpose. But that was
only ON a large scale what has been done
on q smaller scale for fifty years and in
all departments.
Politics from being the science of good
government has often been bedraggled
into the synonym for truculency and
turpiiude. A monster sin, plausible,
potent, pestiferous, has gone forth to do
its dreadful work iu all ages, Its two
hands are rotten with leprosy. 1t keeps
its right hand hidden in a deep pocket.
Tho left hand Is clenched, and with its
ItrhoEQus knuckle IL taps at the door of the
court room, the Legislative hall, the Con-
gress and the Parliament. The door
swings open and the monster enters, and
glides through the council m as
softly as a slippered page and then it
takes its right hand from its deep pocket
and offers IL in %salutation to judge or
legislator, II that hand be taken, and the
palm lof she tintruder cross the palm of
the oeieinb kte leprosy crosses from palm
to palm hi . xound blotch, round as a gold
eagle, andthe virus spreads, and the doom
Is fixed aud 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: ''Tneir right
hand is full of bribes." Amos says of
some men in his day, "They take a bride
and turn aside the poor in the gate" Eli
phaz f~oretells the crushing blows of Gods
Indignation, "Fire shall consume the
t~abernacles of bribery"
1t Is no light temptation. The might
lest have fallen under 1t. Sir Francis
Bacon, Lord Chancellor of England of our
modern philosophy, author of '.Novum
Ofganum," and a whole library Of books,
the leading thinker of his century, so pre-
OAnia.Va chat .yhn., N I;kNIo .L.lI L. ,,-.
asked by Queen Elizabeth, "How old are
your" 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 nave put him beyond
the temptation of bribery-$36,000 a
year-and Twickenham court a gift, and
princely estates in Hertfordshire and Cor
hambury-yet under this temptation 10
bribery falling fiat int ruin, and on his
confession of taking brides, giving as ex-
cuse that all his predecessors took them;
he was fined $4,000 or what corresponds
with our $500. 900, and imprisoned in Lon.
don tower. So also Lord Chancellor Mac
clesfeld fell; so also Lord Chancellor
Waterbury persisted. The black chapter
IL Gi6AAoh 4IlSby ObO huu LII lCdu
politics is the chapter of bribery. Some Of
you remember the Pacific mail subsidies
Most of you remember the awful tragedy
of the Credi. Mobilier. Under the tempta'
tion to bribery Benedict Arnold sold thu
fort in the highlands for $31, $40. For thii
sin Gorgey betraye ed Hungary, Ahithophe
forsook David and Judas kissed Christ
When | see so many of the illustrious go
ing down under this temptation 1t makes
me think of the red dragon spoken of il
Revelation, with seven heads and ter
horns and seven crowns, drawing a third
part of the stars of Heaven down after
HIM. The Hobbies of the legislatures o
this country control the country. TIL,
land is drunk with bribery.
'O," says some one. 'there's no need o
talking against bribery by promise or b,
dollars, because every man has his price.
do not believe it. Even heathenism ant
the dark ages have furnished specimen
of incorruptibility.
The President of the American Congress
during the American revolution, Genera
Rscd, was offered 10000 guineas by foreigi
commissioners il he would betray hi
country. He replied: "Gentiemen, l an
a very poor man, but your King is not ricI
enough to buy me-" But why go so far
when you and /, il we move in honorabl,
society, know men and women who by al
the consecrated force on earth and hel
could not be bribed. They would no NOR
be bribed than you would think of tempt
ing an angel of light to exchange Heave
for the pit. To offer a bride is villainy
but it is u very poor compliment to the ma
TO whom il is offered.
/ have not much faith in those peopl
who 90 about Dragging how much the
could get if they would only sell on
Those women who complain that they ar
very often insulted need to understan
that there is something in their ~carriag
to invite insult. There are men q
Albany and Harrisburg and at Wash
ington who would no more be al
preached by a bribe than a pirate boz
with a few cutlasses would dare to attac
a British an-of-wa with two banks {
guns on each side loaded to the touch hol
They are incorruptlble men ald they ar
The few men who are to save the city an
a the land. Meanwhile, my advice
10 all people to keep out of politics unlei
you are invulnerable TO this style of tenn
tation. Indeed, 4 you are naturally stron
you need religious buttressing. Nothin
but the grace of God can sustain our publ
men and make them what we wish.
My charge also to parents is, remembe
that this evil of bribery often begins
the home circle and in the nursery. L
not bribs your children. Teach them to q
that which is right. and not because of u
ten cents or the orange you will gi'
them. There is a great difference betwet
rewarding virtue and making the prof
thereof the impelling motive. That ms
who is honest merely because "honesty
the best policy" is already a moral BAN
rupt.