Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1892-11-12
ertremities. This Nation oannot axist

est of Georgia is the interest of Massachu-
sets; what is the interest OF New York is
the interest Of South Carolina Does the
Ohio River change its politics when it gets
below Louisville? Its not possible for these
sectional antagonists 20 continue for a
great many years with permanent conf
pound fracture.
Another evil threatening the destruction
Of our American institutions is the low state
of public morals.
What killed B ibylon of my taxt? What
killed Phunicia? What killed Rome? Their
own depravity, and thu fraui and the
drunkenness and the lechery which havs
destroyed other Nations will destroy ours
unless a merciful Col prevent. To show
you the low stats OF public morals / have
to call your attention to the fact that many
men nominated for Offices in different
States at different times are entirely unfit
for the positions for which they have been
nominated.
They have no more qualification for them
than wolf has qualification to be professor
/ of pastoral theology in foek of sheep, or a
blind mole has qualification to lecture class
of eagles on optics, or than vulture has
qualification to chaperon dove. The mere
pronunciation OF some of their names makes
a demand for carbolic acid and funigationi
I Yet Christian men will follow right under
/ the political standards
! | have to tell you what you know already,
/ that American politics have sunken to such
a low depth that there is nothing be-
I meath. What we seq in some directions We
see in nearly all directions. The pecula
ton and the knavery hurled to the sur
! face by the explosion OF banks and bust
ness firms are only specimens of great Co.
topaxis and Stromoolis OF wic6edness that
boil and roar and surge beneath, but have
not regurgitated to the surface. When the
heaven descended Democratic Party enacted
the Tweed rascality it seemed to eclipse
everything, but after awhile the heaven
descended Republican Party outwitted pam
demoniun with the star route infamy
My friends, we have in this country people
who say the marriage institution amounts
to nothing. They scoff at 1T. We have
people walking in polite parlors in our day
who are not good enough to be scavengers
in Sodom l went over to San Francisco ten
or fifteen years ago-that beautiful city,
that queen of the Pacific. May the blessing
of Got come down upon her great churches
and her noble men and womsnl When got
into the city of San Francisco the Mayor OF
the city and the President of the Boarl OF
Health called on me and insisted that 60
and see the Chinese quarter, no douot SO
that on my return to the Atlantic coast 1
might tell what dreadful people the Chinese
are.
But on the last night OF my stay in San
Francisco, before thousands of people in
their great opera house, | said "Would you
like me to tell you just what think, plainly
and honestyg, They said, Yes, yes,
can stand it allf" They said, Eyes, yes,
yesn Then" l said. my opinion is that
the curse of San Francisco is not your
Chinese quarter, but your millionaire liter
tinesm
And two of them sat right before me-
Felix and Drusilla. Aud SO it is in all the
cities. l never swear, but when l see man
] Of Ian ne
shame and calling his damnable deeds gal
lantry and peccadillo l am tempted to hurl
red hot anathema aud to conclude that IT,
according to some peoples theology, there is
no hell, there ought to be!
There is enou III out AMI out RIGHTEOUSNESS
in American cities to-day to bring dowl
upon them the wrath of that GOD who, on
the oath of August 70, buried Herculaneuu
and Pompeii 50 deep in as les that the eight
cen hundred and thirteen subsequent years
have not been able to complete exhumation.
There are in some of the American cities to-
day whole blocks of houses which the au-
thoritles know to be infamous, and vet by
purchase they are silenced by hush money,
so that such places are as much undsr the
defense OF government as public libraries
and asylums of mercy.
These ulcers on the body polite bleed AMI
gangrene away the life of the Nation, and
public authority in many of the cities looks
wounds as these with a siiken ban1age.
You will have to cure them by putting
deep in the lancet of moral surgery, aud
burning them out with the caustic of holy
wrath, and with most decisive amputation
cutting off the scabrous and putrefying
denominations. As the Romans were after
the Celts and as the Normans were after
the Britons, SO there are evils after this
Nation which will attend its obsequies uu-
less we first attend theirs.
Superstition tells of marine reptile, the
cephaloptera, which enfoldel an crushed
snip of war; but it is no superstition when ]
tell you that the history of many of the
dead Nations proclaims to Us the fact that
cur ship of state is i'll danger OF being
/ crushed by the csphsloptera of National de-
! pravity. Where is the Hercules to slay 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 flalter, by earn
| est prayer, by Sinaitic defamation?
| A son OF King Croe us is said to have been
! dumb an to have never uttered worl un-
/ til he saw his father being put to death.
/ Tden he broke the shackles of silence and
| cried cut, Kill not my father, Cree 'us"
| When l see the caeatery and wantonness
AMI the manifold crime of tliS country at.
! tempting to commit patricide-Fea. matri,
/ cide-upon our institutions, it seems to me
that lips tla5 heretofore have been dumb
! ought to break tle silencs with canorous
tones Of fiery protest
want to put all of the matter before
you, so that every honest man AMI woman
will know just how matters stand, an
what they ought to do if they vote, and
what they ought to do if they pray. TA;s
Nation is not going to perish. Alexander
when he heard CT the wealth OF t1e Indies,
| divided Macedonia among his soldiers
Some one asked him what he hal kept FOR
himself, and he replied, Il am keeping
] nd fhatf - -
shining in my soul, whatever else [ shall
| surrender Hope thou in God. He will set
! back these oceanic tides of moral devasta-
ton. Do you know what is the prizs for
which contention is m ade to-day? 1t is the
/ prize OF this continent
| Never since, according to John Milton,
! when satan was hurled heatlong flaming
from the ethereal skies in hidsous ruin and
combustion down." have the powers Of
/ darkness been so determined to win this
continent as they now are. What a jewel
it ls-a jewel carved in relief, the cameo OF
this planet On one side of us the Atlantic
Ocean, dividing us from the WORKOUT Gov
ernments of Europe. Ga the other side the
Pacific Ocean, dividing us from the super
stitions of Asia. On the north of us the
Arctic Sea, which is the gymnasium in which
the explorers and navigators develop their
courage A continent l0,50) miles long,
i,O0O,0 coo square miles, and all of it but
N~CN'sN
ton.
OHe hundred millions of popu alton on
this c 'ntinent of North aui South Am sr;c, -
one hundred millions, AMI room for many
hu1ired millions more All f1ra, and ali
fauna, all metals, az all precious woods,
ami all grains an all fruits. The Appl.
lachian range the backbone and the rivers
the gauglia, carrying life all through and
cut to the eXtramities. Isthmus OF Darien
the narrow waist o. a giant continaur
all to be under one government and all free,
ana all Christian, and the scene of Christs
personal reign on earth J., according to the
exoectatio1 of many people, He shall at last
set up His throne in this world
Who shall have this hemisphere? Christ
or satan? Who shall have the shore of
her inland seas, the silver of her Nevadas
the gold Of her Coloraios. the tel scopes of
her observatories, the brain of her uaivers:-
ties, the wheat OF her prairieS, the rice OF her
savannahs, the two great ocean beaches,
the one reaching from Baffin's Bay to
Terra del Fuego, and tbs other from
Behring Straits TO Cape Horn-and ali
the moral AMI temporal and spiritual
and everlasting interests of population
vast beyond all computation save by Him
with whom thousand years are as one day?
Who shall have the hemisphere? You and
will decide that or helo to decide it, by con-
scientiouS vote, by earnest prayer, by maiu-
tenance of Christian institutions, by support
OF great philanthrophies, by putting iy.
mind and soul on the right side of ali moral,
religious and National movements.
All, it viii not be long before it will not
make any difference to you or to me what
becomes of this continent, so far as earthly
I oo,,,for+ ;e oo-carpad will wan