The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1893-11-10
SERMON TO VOTERS.
Rev. DR.. Talmage Talks TO the Citi
zen ON His Duties
The Immoral Influences OF Bad Men 10
Office Emphasizes the Necessity for
the Good Citizen to be Faith
full to His Privileges

The following discourse by Rev. Il.
Dewitt Talmage was delivered in the
Brooklyn tabernacle from the text:
And al the people saw the thunderings and
She ightnings and the noise OF the trumpet
and the mountain smoking.-Exodus Xxx, iS
On the eve of elections in the sixty
counties of this state, and in all the
counties of some of the other states,
while there are many hundreds of NOM
inees 20 Office, it is appropriate and inn
portant that preach this before-elec-
ton sermon.
My text informs you that the light
nings and earthquakes united their
forces to wreck mountain of Arabia
Petrea in olden time, and travellers to-
day find heaps of porphyry and green
stone rocks. bowlder against bowlder,
the remains of the first law library
written, not on parchment or papyrus,
but on shattered slabs of granite. The
csrnsr-stones of all morality, of all
wise law, of all righteous jurispru-
denee. of all good government, are the
two tablets of stone on which were
written the Ten Commandments All
Roman law, all French law. all En-
glish law, all American law that is
worth anything, all common law, civil
law, criminal law, martial law. law of
nations were rocked in the cradle of
the twentieth chapter of Exodus. And
it would be well in these times of
great political agitation If the news
papers would print the Decalogue
some day in place of the able editorial.
The fact is that some people suppose
a l.. o. =
ence, and some are not aware of some
of the passages of that law and
others say this or that is of the more
Importance. when no one has any right
TO make such an assertion. These laws
are the pillars of society, and If you
remove one pillar you damage the
structure. / have noticed that men
are particularly vehement against sins
to which they are not particularly
tempted, and find no especial wrath
against sins in which they themselves
indulge. They take out one gun from
this battery of ten guns, and load that,
and unlimb her that, and fire that. They
say: This is an Armstrong gun, and
this is Krupp gun, and this is a Nor
denfeldt five-barreled gun, and this is
Calling ten-barreled gun, and this
is a Martigny thirty
gun" But / have to tell them that
they arc all of the same caliber, and
that they shoot from eternity to eter-
nifty. Many questions are before the
people in the coming elections all over
this land, but shall try to show you
that the most important thing to be
settled about all these candidates is
their personal, moral character. The
DecalOgue forbids idOlatry, image
making, profanity, maltreatment of
parents, Sabbath dissertation, murder,
theft, incontinence, lying and covet-
business. That is the Dccalogue by
which you and ] will have to be tried,
and by the same Decalogue you and 1
must try candidates for office
OF course we shall not find anything
like perfection. If we do not vote I'M
til we find an immaculate nominee we
will never vote at all. We have so
many faults of our own we ought not
TO be censorious or maledictory or hy-
percritlcal in regard to the faults of
others. The Christly rule is as appro-
pirate for November as any other
month in the year: Judge not that
We be not judged, for with what meas
ure We mete it shall be measured to
you again"
Most certainly are we not to take
the statement of red-hot partisanship
the real character of any man. From
nearly all the great cities of this land
receive daily or weekly newspapers,
sent to me regularly and in compli
ment, so / see both sides-I see all
sides-and it is most entertaining and
my regular amusement to read the OPP
posite statements The one statement
says the man is an angel, and the other
says he is n devil; and l split the differ
ence, and l find him halfway between.
There never has been an honest or re-
special BILE man running for the United
States presidency, or for a judgeship,
or for the mayOralty, or for the shriev-
atty, since the foundation of the
American government, if we may be-
lieve the old files of newspapers in the
museums. What mercy it is that
they were not all hanged before they
were inauguratedl If man believe
one-half of what he sees in the news
papers in these times his career will be
very short outside of Bloomingdale in
sane asylum. / was absent two or
three years ago during one week of
political canvass, and was dependent
untirely upon what l read in regard to
what had occurred in these cities, and
read there was a procession in New
York of five thousand patriots, and
minute after | read in another sheet
that there were seventeen thousand;
and then l read in regard to an
other procession, that there were
ten thousand, and then / read
in another paper that there were
sixty thousand. campaign orator in
the rink or at the academy or music
received a very cold reception-a very
chilling reception--said one statement
The other statement said that the au-
dience rose at him, so great was the en-
thusiasm that for long while the
orator could not be heard, and it was
only after lifting his hand that the
vociferation begun TO subside. One
statement will twist an interview one
way, and another statement will twist
an interview another way. You must
admit il is a very difficult thing in
times like these to get very accurate
estimate of mans character, and /
charge you, as your religious teacher,
charge you to caution and to merci-
sulness, and to prayer.
/ warn you also against the mistake
which many are making, and always
do make, of applying different stand
ard of character for those in promi-
nent position from the standard they