Grand Rapids herald. [volume] (Grand Rapids, Mich.) 1892-1959, 1892-11-07

fraud, and the drunkenness, and the lech-
cry which have destroyed other nations
VIII destroy ours unless merciful God
prevent. To show you the low state Of
public morals. have TO call your atten-
non 10 the fact that many men noni-
aztsd for Offices in different states at off
lersnE tunes are entirely unfit for tho
positions FOX which they have been nonl-
mated.
DECLARATIONS OF POLITICS.
They have no more qualification for
them than : vol has qualification to be
professor OF pastoral theology IN flock
Of sheep, or a blind mole has qu4lifica-
ton 10 lecture class CT eagles on optics,
or than vulture has qualification 70
ehaperon dove. The mere pronnncia-
ton OF some OF their Names makes de-
uand for carbolic acid and funligationl
Yet Christian men VIII follow right on
under the political standards.
have 70 tell you what you know
already, that American politics have
sunken 10 suc.. /, low depth that there is
nothing beneath. What we see IN some
directions We see in nearly all directions.
The psculation and the knavery hurled
TO the surface by the explosion Of banks
and business firms are only specimens OF
great Cotopaxis and Strombolis of wick
edness that boil and roar and surge be-
meath, but have not yet regurgitated to
the surface. When the heaven descended
Democratic party enacted the Tweed ras-
eality IL seemed to eclipse everything;
but after awhile the heaven descended
Republican party outwitted pandemoni-
um with the star route infamy.
My friends, We have in this country
people who say the marriage institution
amounts to nothing. They scott at 1t.
We have people walking In polite par
lors in our day who are not good enough
10 be scavengers in Sodom! Invent over
to San Francisco ten or fifteen years ago
that beautiful city, that queen of the
Pacific. May the blessings OF God come
down upon her great churches and her
noble men and women! When goti
the city of San Francisco the mayor OF
the city and the president of the board
of health called on me and insisted that
/ 60 and see the Chinese quarter, no
doubt SO that on my return TO the At
lantic coast / might tell what dreadful
people the Chinese are.
But on the last night OF my stay IN
San Francisco, before thousands Of peo-
pie in their great opera house, said,
Would you like mo to tell you just
what think, plainly and honestlyT
They said, Eyes, yes, yesr' said, do
you think you can stand it allY' They
said, Eyes, yes, yes!' ''Then," l said,
''my opinion is that the curse of San
Francisco is not your Chinese quarter,
but your millionaire hbertinesv'
And two Of them sat right before me
Felix and Drusilla. And SO it is in all
the cities. Inever swear, but when see
a man go unwhipped Of justice, laugh
ing over his shame and calling his damna-
BILE deeds gallsntry and peccadillo, am
tempted to hurl redhot anathema and
to conclude that if, according to some
peoples theology, there is no hell, there
ought to be!
THE WICKED, vOLUPTUOUs CITY.
There is enough out and out licentious-
ness in American cities today to bring
down upon them the wrath of that God
who ON the Gath of August, 70, buried
Herculaneum and Pompen 80 deep in
the ashes that the eighteen fundred and
thirteen subsequent years have not been
able to complete the elimination. There
are In some Of the American cities to-
/ day whole blocks of houses which the
authorities know to be infamous, and
yet by purchase they are silenced-by
hush money-so that such places are as
much under the defense Of government
as public libraries and asylums Of mercy.
These ulcers on the body polite bleed
and gangrene away the life of the ma
ion, and public authority in many Of
the cities looks the other way. You
cannot cure such wounds as these
with silken bandage. You will
have to cure them by putting deep in
| the lancet Of moral surgery and burn
/ ing them out with the caustic of holy
wrath, and with most decisive amputa-
! ton cutting off the scabrous and putre-
/ fying denominations. As the Romans
were after the Celts, and as the Nor
mans were after the Britons, so there
are evils after this nation which will at
J tend its obsequies unless we first attend
/ theirs.
/ Superstition tells Of a marine reptile
the cephaloptera-which EMBODIED and
/ crushed a ship of war; but it is no super
stition when tell you that the history
/ Of many of the dead nations proclaims
! to us the fact that our ship Of state is in
danger Of being crushed by the cepha-
, loptera of national depravity. Where
/ is the Hercules to Stay this hydra? Is it
not time to speak by pen, by tongue, by
ballot box. by the rolling Of the prison
/ door, by hangman's halter, by earnest
prayer, by Sinaitic defamation?
| A son of King Crpsus is said TO have
| been dumb, and to have never uttered .
word until he saw his father being put
to death. Then ne broke ;ve shackles
I of his silence aud cried out, Kill not
my father. Cruesusf When / see the
( cheatery, and the wantonness, and the
manifold crime Of this country attempt
ing to commit patricide yea, Iuatricide
upon our institutions, il seems to me
that lips that heretofore have been dumb
ought 90 brepk the silence with canorous
tones Of fiery protest.
WE HAVE 0CODLY HERITAGE.
! want to put all of the matter before
you. so that every honest man and wom-
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