Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1893-11-10

| them StdQQ as t06 everlasting u6iGuSo Ol Sc
cietv and the church of God.
The committing OF one'sin opens the doc
for the commission OF other sins. You Sc
1t every day. Those emoezzlers, those ban
cashiers absconding as soon as they, ar
brought to justice, develop the fact tina
they were in all kinds of SIN. No exceptio
TO the rule. They all kept bad company
they nearly all gambled, they all went {
places where they ought not. Why? Th
commission of the one sin opened the gate
for all the other sins. Sins go in fiocks, II
droves and In herds. You open the door fol-
one sin that invites In all the miserable
segregation.
Some of the campaign orators this autumn
~some of them-bombarding the suffering
candidates all the week. will think no wron,
in Sabbath breaking. All the week hurting
the eighth commandment at one candidate
the seventh commandment at another can
didate and the ninth commandment a. still
another. what are they doing with the fourth
commandment. Creme nber the Sabbath da,
to keep it holy" Breaking it, Is not th'
fourth commandment as important as the
eighth, as the seventh, as the ninth?
Some of these political campaign orators
as have seen them reported in other years
and as have heard it in regard to them
bombarding the suffering candidates nj! the
week, yet tossing the name of God from their
| lips recklessly, guilty OF profanity-what are
| they doing with the third commandment?
| is not the third commandment, which says,
Thou shalt not take the name Of the Lord
| thy Col in vain, for the Lord will not hold
him guitless that taketh his name In vain
| is not the third commandment as impor-
tant as the other seven? Oh, yes, we find in
all departments men are hurting the irindig-
CT ell I'm, 20 <hn,, .
not especially tempted-hurling it against
iniquity toward which they are not particu-
larly drawn.
have this book for my authority when
say that the man who swears or the man who
breaks the Sabbath is as culpable before God
as these candidates who break other COM
mandments. What right have you and TO
select which commandment we will keep and
which we will break? Better not try to
measurs the thunderbolts of the almighty.
saying this has less blaze, this has less mo-
mentum. Better not handle the guns, better
not experiment much with the divine ammu-
milton.
Cicero said he saw the 'Iliad" written on
nutshell, and you and 1 have seen the
Lords Prayer written on five cent piece.
but the whole tendency of these times is to
write the Ten Commandments so small no.
body can see them. protest this day against
the attempt to revise the Decalogue which
was given on Mount Sinai amid the blast of
trumpets, and the cracking OF the rocks, and
the paroxysm Of the mountain of Arabia
PetrBa.
L bring up the candidates for ward and
township and city and State office. l bring
them up, and try them by this Dacslogue.
OF course they are imperfect. We are all
imperfect. We say things we ought not to
say we do things we ought not to do. We
have all been wrong we have all done
wrong. But l shall find out one of the can
didates who comes, In my estimation, nearest
to obedience of the Ten Commandments, an1
| will vote for him, and you will vote for
Him unless you love God less than your
party-then you will not.
Herodotus said that Nitocris. the daughter
OF Nebuchadnezzar, was so fascinated with
her beautiful village of Ardercca that she
had the river above Babylon changed 50 it
wound this way and wound that. and curved
this way and curved that and though YOU
sailed on it for three days every day you
would be in sight of that exquisite village.
Now, do not care which way you sail in
morals or which way you sail in life if you
only sail in sigh: of this beautiful group of
divine commandments. Although they may
sometimes seem to be little angular, l do
not care which way you sail, II you sail in
sight OF them you will never run aground,
and you will never be shipwrecked. Society
needs toning up on all these subjects.
| tell you there. is nothing worse 10 fight
than the ten regiments. with bayonets and
sabres of fire, marching down the side of
Mount Sinai. They always gain the victory,
and those who fight against them 20 under.
There are thousands and tens OF thousands
of men being slain by the Decalogue. What
is the matter with that young man of whom
l read, dying in his designations? In his dy-
ing delirium he said, ''Now fetch on the
dice. 1t is mine. No. no 1t is gone, all is
gone Bring on more wine Bring on more |
wne Oh, how they rattle their chains
Fiends, f1ends, fiends / say you cheat The |
cards are marked Oh. death oh. death |
oh, death Fiends, f1ends, Aendsr' And he
yasped his last and was gone. The Ten |
Commandments slew him.
Let not ladies and gentlemen in this nine
zenith century revise the Ten Command
nents but let them II society and at the
polls put to the front those who come the
nearest to this God-llfted standard. On the
first Tuesday morning OF November read the
twentieth chapter of Exodus at family
prayers. The moral or immoral character of
he officers elected will add ssventyave per
cent. unto or subtract seventy-dva per cent.
rom the public morals.
You and cannot afford to have bad off,
,ials. The young men OF this country can
not afford to have bad officials. The CON-
the moral, the artistic. the agricul-
ural the manufacturing, the religious in
erests of this country cannot afford TO havs
Dad officials, and II you, on looking overthe
whole field. cannot find men who in your
Estimation come within reasonable distance
If obedience of the Decalogue stay at home
md do not vote at all.
l suppose when in the city of SO lom there
we're four candidates put up for office, and
Lot did not believe in any of them, he did
lot register. 1 suppose IL there came a
,risis in the politics OF Babylon, where
Daniel did not believe in any OF the candi-
lates, he staid e. home on election day,
praying with his face towarj Jerusalem.
Gut we have no such crisis. We have no
uch exigency, thank God. But have to
ay to you to-day that the moral character OF
uers always affects the ruled, and appeal
o history.
Wicked King Manasseh depressed the moral
one of oil the liation OF judah and threw
hem into idolatry. Good King Josiah lifted
Ip the whole Nation by his excellent example.
Why is it that to-day England Is higher ur
n morals than at any point in her National
istory? It is because she has the best ruler
n ali Europe-Ell the attempts to scandalizo
Ter name failure. The political power OF {
brooded all the political tricksters
f the last ninety years. The dishonest vice.
Presidency of Aaron Burr blasted this Nation
ntil important letters were written In cipher,
ecause the people could not trust the United
tates mail. And let the court circles OF :
,ouis XIV and Henry VIII march out, fol-
owed by the debauched Nations. 6
The higher up you put a bad man the ;
yorse is his power for evil The great fab .
list says that the pigeons were In fright at
kite flying in the air, and go these pigeons c
,vered near the doyecote but one day the