The Bossier banner., 1893-11-30

| much man may have, or however
high the position he gets, he has no
| especial liberty given him in the inter-
| probation of the ten commandments.
A great sinner is no more to be excused
than a small sinner. Do not charge
| illustrious detection to eccentricity or
| chop off the ten commandments to
suit especial cases. The right is ever
lastingly right and the wrong is ever
lastingly wrong. If any man nomi-
mated for any office in this city or state
differs from the, decalogue, do not fix
up the Decalogue, but fix him up. The
law must stand whatever else may
fall.
call your attention also to the fact
that you are aware of, that the
| breaking of one commandment makes
it the more easy to break all of them,
and the philosophy is plain. Any kind
of sin weallens the conscience, and if
! the conscience is weakened, that opens
the door to all kinds of transgression.
If, for instance, man go into this po-
litical campaign welding scurrility as
his chief weapon, and he believes
everything bad about man, and he
believes nothing good, how long before
that man himself will get over the
moral depression? Neither in time
nor eternity. If l utter falsehood in
regard to a man, l may damage him,
| but do myself ten-fold more damage.
That is gun that kicks. If, for in
stance, a man be profane, under prov
/ +inn hn will n0,,,,,,i+ T
say under provocation. For if man
will maltreat the Lord Almighty,
would he not maltreat his fellowman?
If man be guilty of malfeasance in
| office, he will, under provocation, COM
nit any sin. He who will steal will
lie, and he who will lie will steal.
If, for instance, q man be impure it
opens the door for all other iniquity,
for in that one iniquity he commits
theft of the worst kind, and covetous-
ness of the worst kind, and falsehood
pretending to be decent when he is
not-and maltreats his parents by dis
gracing their name, if they were good.
Be careful, therefore, how you charge
that sin against any man either in high
place or in low place, either in Office or
out Of office, because when you make
that charge against a man you charge
him with all villainies, with all dis
gusting propensities, with all rotten
ness.
A libertine is beast lower than the
vermin that crawl over a summer car
cass-lower than the swine, for the
swine has no intelligence to sin against.
Be careful, then, how you charge that
| against any man. You must be so GER
| tain that mathematical demonstra-
| ton is doubtful as compared with it.
And then, when you investigate a
man on such subjec is, you must go to
the whole length of the investigation
and find out whether or not he has re-
pented. He may have been on his
knees before God and implored the Di-
vine forgiveness, and he may have i'm
plored the forgiveness of society and
the forgiveness of the world; although
if a man commit sin at thirty or thirty
five years of age there is not one case
out of thousand where he ever re-
pents. You must in your investiga-
tion see if it is possible that the one
case investigated may not have been
the exception, But do not chop off the
seventh commandment to suit the case
Do not change Fairbanks scale to suit
what you are weighing with it. Do not
cut off yardstick to suit the dry goods
you are measuring. Let the law stand,
and never tamper with it.
Above all, l charge you, do not join
in the cry that have heard-for ff-
teen, twenty years 1 have heard it
that there is no such thing as purity.
If you make that charge you are a
| foul-mouthed scandaler of the human
race. You are leper. Make room for
that leper! When man by pen or
type or tongue utters such a slander on
the human race, that there is no such
thing as purity, l know right away
that that man himself is a walking Iaz-
arctic, a reel1ing ulcer, and is fit for
no society better than that of devils
damned. We may enlarge our chari-
ties in such a case, but in no such case
| let us shave off the ten commandments.
Let them stand as the everlasting de-
fense of society and of the Church of
| God.
The committing of one sin opens the
door for the commission of other sins.
Those embezzlers, those bank cashiers
absconding as soon as they are brought
to justice develop the fact that they
were in all kinds of sin. No exception
to the rule. They all kept bad COM
pany, they nearly all gambled, they
all went to places where they ought
not. Why? The commission of the
one sin opened the gate for all the
other sins. Sins go in focks, in droves
and in herds. You open the door for
one sin, that invites in all the miser-
able congregation.
Some of the campaign orators this
autumn, some of them, bombarding
the suffering candidates all the week,
will think no wrong in Sabbath break
ing. All the week hurting the eighth
commandment at one candidate, the
seventh commandment at another can
didate, and the ninth commandment
at still another, what are they doing
with the fourth comnR ndment: Re