Los Angeles herald., 1892-07-18
POLITICS ARE ROTTEN.
The Death of Labor Means Cap.
itaps Demise.
A Warning Note Sounded in a Ser
mon.
Rev. B. w. II. Tay1er's Advice-Down
with Bosses and Up With Poiit-
ical Conscience-Dr. Thom-
son on He'll.

to large congregation on the Fall o.
Babylon, taking for his text the hand
writing on the wall in Daniel v, 25
"Mene, Meme, Tekel, Upharsin." The
best descriptions of ancient Babylon, the
preacher remarked, have come down to
us from the writings of Herodotus and
Ctesias, and they give us very fair
idea of the wealth and grandeur of that
magnificent city. The huge stone bridge
which spanned the Euphrates, the
double walls of the city, the celebrated
hanging gardens, its temples, the mas
terry of the science of astrology by the
Chaldean priests, the vast population,
the remains lately discovered and de-
ciphered-all these were described in
chaste and graphic language.
Then the conquest OF Babylon by the
Joint army of Media and Persia, under
the skilful command of Cyrus, by turn
ing the course of the river Euphrates
from its bed and permitting the invad-
ers to enter unperceived, was por-
trayed. The handwriting on the wall
and the Interpretation of the Hebrew
seer; the crowning act of sacrilege
which Belshazzar committed by press
ing the sacred vessels of the house of the
Lord to the wine-reddened lips of infa-
nous women, and the destruction of the
gods, Bel, Nebo and Merodach, were all
touched upon in the destruction of
Babylon's downfall.
The warning finger which wrote on
the wall of Belshazzar's banqueting
hall also points out to us the dangers
which beset US on all sides. There
seemed to be in the air presages OF a
coming storm, in which mems worst
passions might run riot and anarchy's
red banner be waved over smouldering
cities and ruined industries. We can
almost hear the rumblings of the social
istic earthquake shaking the ground
upon which we tread. A terrible con-
hict seemed imminent between labor
and capital, a conflict which would par
alyze the heart of the nation. Labor
and capital were described by the
preacher as twin giants born of the
lawful wedlock between energy and en-
terprise," and 80 closely are these aHso-
ciated together that the death of one
would be the death of the other.
Ephraim must not vex Judah, and
Judah must not try to lord it over
Ephrain. The hollow rottenness which
for scathing comment, and the paradox
of free republican country being gov
erned by an oligarchy OF rings, corpo-
rations, trusts, bosses, unions, and go
forth, was made plain. The time has
come when unrighteous dealings of
this kind must be swept away,
else the nation will fail to
achieve the highest destiny, and the
cry will resound through the earth:
"America, like Babylon, is fallen, is
fallen" The remedy was in the hands
of the people-not dynamite, not the
sword or the revolver, but the irresist-
ible ballot. Men were urged to vote in
accordance with their conscience, and
not at the dictate of party bosses. When
men vote like sheep, they will be ruled
like sheep, driven, branded and clipped,
but when men vote as men they will be
respected and ruled as men.
A splendid tribute was paid to the
press of the country as being the most
mighty influence in American national
life. 1t exposed oppression, it pleaded
the cause of the oppressed and down
trodden, it held the lash of fearless
criticism over the head of the wrong
doer. The newspaper is the refuge of
any man and every man who has cry
to utter and an appeal to make to the
hearts of his fellow-men.
The examples of Assyria, Babylon,
Persia, Greece and Rome, teach us this
lesson-a lesson not too late for us to
learn--that God has presented this
country with unlimited possibilities,
unbounded opportunities, but we must
be careful lest selfshness, wrong, op-
preston, robbery and lawlessness rob
US of our opportunities, and they sink
into the ocean of what might have been.
The unerring finger of history has writ
ten upon the eternal walls of time this
lesson: That unless the God of Truth,
Justice, Equity and Righteousness guide
the life of the nation, by guiding the
lives of the individual units within the
nation, national grandeur will be but
an empty dream, and national opportu-
mites all unrealized.
The preacher closed by urging his au-
dience to take hold of every opportunity
presented for rising to something higher
and nobler. No man is absolutely sat-
isfed with his own life, for he sees
many riffs and flaws which need mend
ing. How many make shipwrecks of their
lives by carelessly allowing opportunity
to slip through the fingers? The great
and good God presents us with many
opportunities to develop this or that re-
ligious feeling. or this or that grace of
character. Sometimes we blame God
for.too many opportunities, and we say
that if such and such an opportunity
had not presented itself such and such a
sin would. not have been committed.
But that is feeble excuse, for we should
by that opportunity rise above our
selves, and learn that the resistance of
opportunity to sin strengthens the
character, and imparts divine grace.
Let holy purposes, kind deeds, noble re-
solves, frequent euchariBts fill up the
waste places in our souls. "For though
ye have lain among the pots, (thatis be-
come blackened in life or in character)
yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove,
that is covered with silver wings. and
her feathers like gold"
cHRIsT's DOCTRINE OF HELL.
"And these shall 60 away into ever
lasting punishment, but the righteous
into life eternal" was the text upon
which DIR. Thomson preached his SER
mon on "Christ's Doctrine of He'll"
yesterday morning at the Church of the
Unity. 8
The church was crowded to the door.
as usual, the temperature inside and
outside the building was torrid, the topic
was warm one and everything was
sultry. The large audience, however,
listened with the closest attention, and
x-~~J of %ho oloruank -