Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1893-11-03

| commandment Remember the Sabbath day
to keep il holy?' Breaking it. Is not the
fourth commandment as important as the
eighth. as the seventh, as the ninth?
Some of these political campaign orators,
as l have seen them reported in other years,
and as | have heard 1t in regard TO them,
bombarding the suffering candidates all 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,
| Chou shalt not take the name OF the Lord
thy God 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 iind in
| all departments men are hurting the irindig-
nation against sins perhaps to which theyare
not especially tempted il against
iniquity toward which they are not particu-
larry 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
| rs 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
measure 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 | have seen the
Lords Prayer written on q five cent piece,
but the whole tendency of these times is 10
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
! Petraa.
bring up the candidates for ward and
| township and city and State office. bring
! them up. and / try them By this Decalogue.
! OF course they are imperfect. We are all
/ imperfect. We say things we ought not 70
| 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, AMI
| will vote for him, and you will vote for
1 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 Ardericca that she
/ had the river above Babylon changed 50 1t
wound this way and wound that. and curved
! this way and curved that, AMI 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 il YOU
only sail in sight Of this beautiful group Of
divine commandments. Although they may
sometimes seem to be little angular. 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 TO 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
Tread dying in his designations? In bis dy-
ing delirium he said, Now fetch on the
dice It is nine No. no II is gone, all is
gone Bring on more wine Bring on more
wine Oh how they rattle their chains
Fiends. fiends, fends say you cheat The
cards are marked Oh, death oh, death
oh. death Fiends, fends, flends r. And he
gasped his last and was gone. The Ten
Commandments slew him.
Let not ladies and gentlemen in this nine
teenth century revise the Ten Command
ments, but let them in society and at the
polls put to the front those who come the
nearest TO this Gol-lifted standard. On the
first Tuesday morning OF November read the
twentieth chapter of Exodus at family
prayers The moral or immoral character OF
the officers elected will add seyenty-hye per
cent. unto or subtract seyenty-Aye per cent.
from the public morals.
You and | cannot afford TO have bad Off
cas. The young men OF this country can
not afford to have bad officials. The con-
- a. . ell fh,a rf.srfl-
tural. the manufacturing, the religious in
tsrests Of this country cannot afford to have
bad officials. and il YOU. on looking Overthe
whole field. cannot find men who in your
estimation come within reasonable distance
OF obedience OF the Decalogue stay at home
and do not vote at all.
suppose when in the city Of So iom there
were four candidates put up for office, and
Lot did not believe in any Of them he did
not register. l suppose il there came
crisis in the politics OF Babylon, where
Daniel did not believe In any Of the candi-
dates, he staid at home on election day,
praying with his face toward Jerusalem.
But we have no such crisis. We have no
such exigency, thank God. But l have to
say TO you to-day that the moral character OF
rulers always affects the ruled, and appeal
to history.
tone Of all the Nation Of judah and threw
them into idolatry. Good King Josiah lifted
up the whole Nation by his excellent example
Why is it that to-day England is higher up
in morals than at any point in her NatlOn1
history? 1t is because she has the best ruler
in all EurOpe-all the attempts to scandalizo
her name failure. The political power oil
Talleyrand brooded all the political tricksters
Of the last ninety years. The dishonest vice
presidency Of Aaron Burr blasted this Nation
until important letters were written in cipher.
because the people could not trust the United
States mail. And let the court circles OF
Louis XIV and Henry VIII march out, fol-
lowed by the debauched Nations.
The higher up you put bad man the
worse is his power for evil. The great lab
ulist says that the pigeons were In fright at
a kite flying in the air, and so these pigeon
lowered near the dovecote, but one day the
kite said "Why are you so afraid? Why
do YOU pass your life in terror Make me-
king. and I'll destroy all your enemies. 50
the pigeons made the kite king, and As soon
as he cot the throne his regular diet was
pigeon a day. Aud while one Of his victims
was waiting for its turn to come II said
Served Us right - The malaria OF swamps
rises from the plain to the height, but moral
malaria descends from the mountain 10 the
plain. Be careful therefore. how you Gle
vate into any style OF authority men who are
in any wise antagonistic to the Ten Com
mandments.
As near as can tell. the most important
thing now to be done is to have about 49,
900. 900 copies OF the Sinaitic Decaiogue
printed and scattered throughout the land.
II was a terrible waste when the Alexandrian
library was destroyed, and the books were
taken 10 heat 1000 baths for the citizens OF
Alexandria. It WAS very expensive heat.
But without any harm TO the DecalOgue you
could with it heat 1000, 900 baths Of moral
publication for the American people
! say we want a tonic-a mighty tonic
corrective. an all powerful correctiye-and
Moses in the text, with steady hand, notwith-
standing the Earring mountains and the full
orchestra Of the tempest. and the blazing OF
the air, pours out the ten drops-no more.
no less-which our people need to take for
their moral cOnvalescence.
But shall not leave YOU under the DIS
couragement Of the Ten Commandments. be-
cause we have all offended. There is an
other mountain in sight. and while one
mountain thunders the other answers in
thunder, and while Mount Sinai. with light
ming, writes doom, the other mouctain. with
lightning, writes mercy. The only way you
will ever spike the guns OF the DecaloSue IS
by the spikes of the cross The only rock
that will evar sion the Sinatic uDheavals is