The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1893-11-10

breaking of one commandment makes
it the more easy to break all Of them.
and the philosophy is plain Any kind
Of sin veakens the conscience, and Ii
the conscience is weakened, that opens
the door to all kinds of transgression.
If. for instance, a 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 utter falsehood in
regard to man, / may damage him,
but do myself ten-fold more damage.
That is a gus that kicks If, for in
stance, man be profane, under prov
ocation he will commit any crime.
say under provocation. For il a man
will mal1reat the Lord Almighty,
would he not maltreat his fellow-man?
If man be guilty of malfeasance In
Office, he viii, under provocation, COM
NIT any sin. He who will steal will
lie, and he who win lie win steal
If. for instance, a 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
grazing 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 man you charge
him with all yillainies, with all dis
gushing propensities, with all rotten
ness
A libertine is beast lower than the
vermin that crawl over summer car
cass-lower than the swine, for the
swine has nOintelligence 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
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-
X
pIcred the forgiveness of society and
the forgiveness of the world; although
if a man commit sin at thirty or THU ty-
five years of age there is not one case
out of thousand where he ever re-
penis. You must in your investiga-
ton 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 a yardstick to suit the dry goods
you are measuring Let the law stand,
and never tamper with it.
Above all, charge you, do not join
in the cry that have heard-for fif-
teen, twenty years / 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 a leper. Make room for
that leper! When man by pen or
type or tongue utters such SANDER on
the human race, that there is no such
thing as purity, 1 know right away
that that man himself is walking laz-
arctic, reelSing ulcer, and is fit for
no society better than that of devils
damned. We may enlarge our chart
les in such case, but in no such case
let us shave off the ten commandments.
Let them stand as the everlasting de-
Tense of society and of the Church of
God.
The committing of one sin opens the
door for the commission of other sins.
~. har L. !,
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 fiocks, 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, ombarding
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 cam
didate, and the ninth commandment
at still another, what are they doing
with the fourth commandment: RE
member 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 / have seen them re-
ported in other years, and as
them, bombarding the suffering can
didates all the week, yet tossing the
name of God from their lips recklessly,
guilty of profanity. What are they do
ing with the third commandment? Is
not the third commandment, which
says; '"rhou shalt not take the name
of the Lord thy God in vain, for the
Lord will not hold him guiltless that
taketh his name in vain"-is not the
third commandment as important as
the other seven? Oh, yes, we find in
all departments men are hurting their
indignation against sins perhaps to
which they are not specially tempted
hurting it against iniquity towards
which they are not particularly drawn.
have this book for my authority
when 1 say that the man who swears
or the man who breaks the Sabbath is
as culpable before God as those candi-
dates who break other commandments.
What right have you and / to select
which commandment we will keep and
which we will break? Better not try