The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-11-06
A DREADFUL vrTw.


The following is part Of the sermon
preached by DR.. .Parkhurst in New
York city the Sunday morning before
election.
The Rev. DR.. Parlzhurst preached his
first political sermon during the present
campaign Sunday morning These
are some of the things he said:
1t is to be hoped that we are hope
ful. and most triumphantly hopeful.
touching the issues of the present
week, but at the same time the crisis
is SO momentOus and the bare poasibil-
tiles of evil so terrific and the yawning
depths of lying lawlessness and OBJ
streperous anarchy that have been
opened in our midst are so cavernOus
and black that with all our devout ex-
pectation Of being able to praise God
with patriotic reclamation before the
week is out, we are Quoted into a CON
dition of sobriety under the crushing
weight of the crisis.
God promised the Hebrews a bril-
liant future if they would behave them
selves and keep his commandments.
They decided to do as they preferred to
do and the perdition came-came just
as it will come to our own nation if
we fool with realities. play economic
tricks with what is immutable and mix
divine determination and human ca
price in one indiscriminate tumble. A
considerable element in OUT population
is made up of men who come to our
country principally for the reason that
it is a land of hberty-liberty being in
derstood by them to mean the unob-
structed opportunity to do as they like.
These people will not be largely affect
ed by any defeat which they may ex-
perience this week. There are but three
ways in which their reasonable mis-
chievousness can be permanently in
terrupted-natura1 death, Jail and re
construction.
THE thing which the solid integrity
Of the country has to do this week is
to grind it's heel relentlessly and UNI
pityingly into the viperous head that
is lifting itself up in venomous antag-
Onism. not only 10 this government, but
in venOmOus antagonism 10 all govern
ment We recognize the wrongs that
need to be righted. We appreciate the
burden too heavy to be borne which
the tyranny Of wealth in far too many
cases has buckled upon the tired and
chafed shoulder of the poor, and no
man would throw himself more whole
heartedly than myself into the task of
trying to unbuckle those burdens and
to heal the bruises they have wrought.
1T is no longer a question Of silver
versus gold Nor is it a question
whether VIE viii respect this authority
or whether we viii respect that author
ity. In its way the movement is plow-
ing ruthlessly into the quivering vltals
of our constitutional life as a great peO-
pie and is bloodt hirstingly menacing
the permanence of our institutions. As
the purposes animating it have grown
in intensity it has unobservantly let
slip off the robes Of propriety and legal
ity which it had considerably assumed,
and stands forth today in no inconsid-
crate part of its constituency in
the franBness of its anarchisUic naked
ness. 1t is more inherently fatal than
secession was in 1860. Secession did
not claim to abrogate authority, but to
transfer the seat OF its investiture. The
movement which we ought to meet and
throttle this week has a lurking hatred
for all authority: it has naturally
drawn into its wake that clique of or
gained criminals that have for years
fattered on the spoil and the virtues Of
this city. converting it morally into a
I kind of municipal hell. and has had the
I effrontery, almost magnificent in its
proportions, to bring to US here for the
purpose of instructing us in our civic
duties a man who is the crowned hero
and the worshipped deity of the an
arcaaists of the northwest"