Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-03-21
WRONG USES OF MONEY.
Dr.. Talmage on the Temptations
of Those Who Would be Rich.
Bribery at EIections-The Monster in Court
Rooms and Legislative Halls The
Mightiest Subject to the Tempter
Value of Honesty.

In a recent sermon at Brooklyn on tn
subject of the wrong Uses of Money,
Rev. 7. De Witt Talmage took hi
text from l Timothy vi. 8: ''They tina
will be rich fall into temptation and 1
snare, and into many foolish and hurtfu
lusts, which drown men in destruction and
perdition." 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
his money and what he does with it and
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 a national
election in which it has been estimated
that 49,, 009, 900 were expended. l think
about $4,000 900 of it were spent in out
and out 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 departments.
Politics from being the science of good
government 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. 1t keeps
its right hand hidden in a deep pocket
The left hand is clenched, and with its
itchorous knuckIe it taps ct 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 chamber as
softly as slippered page. and then it
takes its right hand from its deep pocket
and offers it in salutation to judge or
legislator. If 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 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: "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 foretells the crushing blows of Gods
SUdll consume Tile
tabernacles of bribery"
1t is no light temptation. The might
lest have fallen under it. Sir Francis
Bacon, Lord Chancellor of England IF cur
modern philosophy. author of ~ ovum
Organum" and a whole library of books
the leading thinker of his century, so pre-
cOcious that when a little child he was
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 have put him beyond
the temptation of bribery-$36,O 900 a
year-and Twickenham court gift, and
princely estates in Hertfordshre and Cor
hambury-yet under this temptation TO
bribery falling fat into ruin, and on his
confession OF taking brides, giving as ex-
cuse that all his predecessors took them;
be was fined 100000 or what corresponds
with our 5000 Geo, and imprisoned in Lon
don tower. So also Lord Chancellor Mac
clesfeld fell; so also Lord Chance lor
Waterbury persisted. The black chapter
IN English, Irish, French and American
politics is the chapter of bribery. Some of
you remember the Pacific mail subsidies.
Most OF You remember the awful tragedy
of the Credit Mobilier. Under the tempta-
ton to bribery Benedict Arnold sold the
fort in tie highlands for S3l, $40. For this
sin Gorgey betrayed Hungary, Ahithophel
forsook David and Judas kissed Christ
When sec so many of the illustrious 60
ing down under this temptation it makes
me think of the red dragon spoken of in
Revelation, with seven heads and ten
horns and seven crowns, drawing a third
part of the stars of Heaven down after
him. The Hobbies of the legislatures OF
this country control the country. The
land is drunk with bribery
90" 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 heathenism 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 500 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 the
cadi said: This poor man has no wit
nesses, he thinks; l shall produce in his
behalf SOD witnesses against the other
side" And then pulling out the bag of
ducats from under the ottoman, he dashed
it down at the feet of the briber saying:
Il give my decision against you" Epam-
inondas, offered a bride, said: 81 will do
this thing if it be right and if it be wrong
all OF your goods can not persuade me-"
fabrlcIus, of the Roman Senate was
offered bride by Pyrrhus, of Macedon.
taorlclus answered: What an example
this would be to the Roman people; YOU
keep your riches and will keep my pow
trty and reputation"
The President of the American Congress
during the American revolution. General
Reed, was offered 10000 guineas bv foreign
commissioners if he would betray his
country. He replied: Gentlemen, I am
very poor man, but your King is not rich
rnough to buy me-" But why go so far.
when you and l, if we move in honorable
society, know men and women who bv all
the consecrated force on earth and hell
couid not be bribed. They would no more
be brlbed than you ould think of TEMPT
ing an angel of light to exchange Heaven
Tor the pit. To offer a bride is villainy.
out IL Is very poor compliment to the man
to whom it is offered.
have not much faith in those people
who go about Dragging how much thew
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 Harrisburg and at Wash
ington who would no more be an
preached by a bride 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
Ihey are incorruptible men and they are
the Few men who are to save the city and
Coz -