Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1893-11-02
COMING ELECTIONS.
tEV. DR. TALMAeE's VIEWS ON 4
/ TIMELY SUBJECT.

Plea For the saoredness OF the Ten Com
mandments.
BROOKLYN, Oct 2o.-The text Of Rev. DR..
Talmage's ante-election sermon was Exc
dus III. IS. "And all the people saw the
thunderings and the lightnings and the
noise Of the trumpet and the mountain
smoking" He said:
On the eve Of elections in the co counties
of this state, and in all the counties Of
most Of the United States, while there are
many hundreds of nominees to Office, it Is
appropriate and important that / preach
this before election sermon.
My text informs you that the lightnings
and earthquakes united their forces to
wreck d mountain of Arabia Petrea in old
en- time, and travellers today finds heaps OF
porphyry and greensboro rocks, bowlder
against bowlder, the remains Of the first
law library, written, not on parchment or
papyrus, but on shattered slabs of granite.
The cornerstones Of all morality, of all
wise law, OF all righteous jurisprudence, of
all good government are the two tablets
of stone on which were written the Ten
Commandments
All Roman law, all French law, all Eng.
lish law, all American law that is worth
anything, all common law, civil law, Grim
inal law, martial law, law of nations were
rocked in the cradle of the twentieth chap
ter of Exodus. And It would be well in
these times Of great political agitation If
the newspapers would print the Decalogue
some day in place of the able editorial.
The fact Is that some people suppose that
the law has passed out of existence, 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 IL you
remove one pillar you damage the whole
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 them
selves indulge. They take out one gun
from this battery of 10 guns, and load that.
and unlimber that, and fire that. They
say, "This is an Armstrong gun, and this
is Krupp gun, and this is a Nordenfeldt
5 barreled gun, and this is a Gatling 10
barreled gun, and this is a Martini 81
barreled gun" But l have to tell them
that they shoot from eternity to eternity.
Many questions are before the people in
the coming elections all over this land, but
shall try to show you that the most i'm
portant thing to be settled about all these
candidates is their personal, moral charac-
ter. The Decalogue forbids idolatry, i'm
age making, profanity, maltreatment Of
parents, Sabbath Dissertation, murder,
theft, incontinence, lying and covetous-
ness. That is the Decalogue by which you
and will have to be tried, and by the same
Decalogue you and l must try candidates
for Office.
SPLITTING THE DIFFERENCE.
OF course we shall not find anything like
perfection. If we do not vote until we find
an immaculate nominee, we will never vote
atall. We have so many faults of our own
we ought not to be censorious or maledic
tory or hypercritical in regard to the faults
of others. The Christly rule is as appropri-
ate for November as any other month in
the year. Judge not that ye be not judged,
for with what measure ye mete it shall be
measured to you again"
Most certainly are we not to take the
statement OF redhot partisanship as 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 compliment, SO see both
sides-I see all sides-and it is most enter
tanning and my regular amusement to read
the opposite statements The one state
ment says the man is an angel, and the
other says he is devil; and split the diff
ference and find him half way between.
! There never has been an honest or re-
spectacle man running for the United
States presidency, or for a judgeship, or
for the mayoralty, or for the shrievalty
since the foundation of the American gov
ernment, II we may believe the old files of
newspapers in the museums What mercy
it is that they were not all hung before they
were inauguratedl Ii a man believe one
half of what he sees in the newspapers in
these times, his career will be very short
outside of Bloomingdale insane asylum.
! / was absent two or three years ago dur
ing one week of a political canvass, and
was dependent entirely upon what / read
in regard to what had occurred in these
cities, and read there was a procession in
New York of 5000 patriots, and minute
after l read in another sheet that there
were 1900, and then read in regard to
another procession that there were 10. 900.
and then read in another paper that there
were 10000.
A campaign orator in the Rink or the
Academy of Music received very cold re-
ception-a very chilling reception-said one
statement. The other statement said the
audience rose at him. So great was the en-
thusiasm that for long while the orator
could not be heard, and 1t was only after
lifting his hand that the vociferation began
to subsidel One statement will twist an
interview one way. and another statement
will twist an interview another way. You
must admit it is very difficult thing in
times like these to get very accurate esti-
mate Of a mans character, and charge
you, as your religious teacher, charge you
tocaution and to mercifulness and to prayer.
M warn you also against the mistake
which many are making and always do
make of applying different standard of
character for those in prominent position
from the standard they apply for ordinary
persons. However much a 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 everlastingly right, and the
wrong is everlastingly wrong. If any man
nominated for any office in this city or
state differs from the Decalogue, do not fix
up the Decalogue, but fix him up. Thelaw
must stand, whatever else must fall.
COMMANDMENT BREAKING.
call your attention also to the fact that
you are all aware of-that the breaking of
one commandment makes it the more easy
to break all Of them-and the philosophy is
plain. Amy kind of sin weakens the con-
science, and IL the conscience is weakened
that opens the door for all kinds of trans
gression. II, for instance, a man go into
this political campaign welding scurrility
as his chief weapon. and he believes every