Wood River times. [volume] (Hailey, Idaho) 1882-1915, 1893-12-09
they are conv1viai, or they arc exceed.

they are conv1vial, or they arc exceed.
, 1ngly vlvaclous, or you apply some
, other sweet name to them, but God
knows they are drunk! Some of you,
q month or six weeks ago. had no more
religion than you ought to have, and
after the elections are over to calculate
how much religion you have left will
be a sum in vulgar fractions. Oh, the
pressure is tremendous!
Polite Designations.
How many mighty intellects have
gone down under the dissipation OF
politics. | think of one who came
from the West. He was able to stand
out against the whole American Senate.
God had given him faculties enough to
govern kingdom, or to frame con-
stititutiOn. His voice was terrible to
his cOuntrys enemies and mighty in
SEPARATION in the day of national peril,
But twenty glasses OF strong drink a
! day were his usual allowance. and he
went down into the habits of con.
firmed inebriate.
Alas for him. Though costly monu-
ment has been reared over his resting
place, the young men of this country
shall not be denied the awful lesson
that the agency by which the world
was robbed OF one of it's mightiest in
tellects, and oar country of one of it's
ablest constitutional defenders, was
the dissipation of political life. You
want to Know who l mean? Young
man. ask your father when you get
! home. The adverse tide is fearful
and l warn you against it.
You need not go far off to find the
| wornout politician. Here he is, stumb-
ling, along the highway, his limbs
hardly able to hold him up. Bent over
and pale with exhausting sickness.
Surely to anybody who accosts him.
His last decent article of apparel
pawned for strong drink. Glad if.
when going. by grocery, some low &C.
qunlntance invites him in to take a sin
of ale and then whipping his lip with
his greasy sleeve. Kicked off the steps
by men who once were proud to be his
constituents. Manhood obliterated.
Lip blistered with curse. Scars of
brutal assault on check and brow.
Foul mouthed. A crouching, stagger-
ing, wheeling wretch. No friends.
No God. No hope. No heaven.
That is your wornout politician.
That is what some of you will become
unless by this mornings warning and
the mercy OF God your steps are ar
rested. Oh, there are no words enough
potent, enough damning, to describe
the horrible drunkenness that has
rolled over this land, and that has bent
down the necIs of some of the mighti-
est intellects, until they have been
compelled to drink out of the trough of
bestlality and abOmination l warn
young men against political life, unless
they are teetOtalers and consecrated
Christian men.
Again, | counsel you that when YOU
go to the ballot box at the city, or the
state, or the national elections, YOU
recognize God and appeal to him for
his blessing. There is power higher
than the ballot box, than the guber-
material chair, than the presidential
White House. 1t is high time that we
put less confidence in political plat
forms and more confidence in God. See
what weak thing is human foresight!
How little our wise men seem to know!
See how, every autumn, thousands of
men who are clambering up for higher
positions are turned under! God up
sets them. Every man, every party,
every nation, has mission to perform.
Failing to perform it, down he goes,
The Gospel in Politics.
God said to the house of Bour-
bon, "Remodel France and establish
equity House of Bourbon would not
do 1t. Down it went. God said to the
house of Stuart, make the English
people free, God fearing, and happy"
House of Stuart would not do it. Down
1t went. God says to the political par
ties IN this day, ''by the principles OF
Christianity, remodel, govern, educate,
save the people," Failing to do that,
down they go, burying in their ruins
their disciples and advocates. God can
spare all the political intrigaers of this
raj
ton who shall do justice and love
mercy.
II God could spare Luther before the
reformation was done, and if He could
spare Washington before free govern
ment had been fully tested, and if He
could spare Howard before more than
one OF thousand dungeons have been
alleviated, and if He could spare
Robert McCheyne just as Scotland was
gathering to his burning utterances,
and If He could spare Thomas Clarkson
while vet millions of his fellow mon
had chains rusting to the bone-then
lie can spare any man. and He can
spare any party. That man who
through cowardice or blind idolatry of
party forsakes the cause of righteous
ness goes down, and the armed bat
tallons OF God march over him.
y Christian men, take ont your Bible
this afternoon, and in the light of that
word make up your mind as to what is
your duty as citizens. Remember that
the highest kind of patriot is q Chris
tan patriot. Consecrate yourselves
first to God, then you viii know how to
consecrate yourselves to your country.
All these political eXcitements will be
gone. Ballot boxes and gubernatorial
chairs and continents will smoke in the
final contlagration, but those who love |
God and do their best shall come to |
lustrous dominion after the stars have
ceased their shining. and the ocean
has heaved its last billow, and the
closing thunder OF the judgment day
Shall toll as the funeral of a world. oh,
prepare for that day.
Next Tuesday questions of state will |
be settled, but there comes a day when
the questions of eternity will be de-
clded. You may vote right and get
the victory at the ballot box. and vet
suffer eternal defeat. After you have
cast your last vote, where will YOU 60