The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1896-05-20
WORDS TO CONGRESS.
REV. DR.. TALMAGE ON "8SFORS
THEY ADJOURN"

"a wao+s Some Things Dons and Some
Nova Irndoue-A Grand and Hopeful
Sermon of Interest to National LeGis-
lators.
WASHINGTON, May 10,-Never was
timelier or more appropriate sermon
than that preached by Rev. DR.. Tai
mage this morning. The subject was,
Before They adjourn" having refer
ence to the early dissolution of con-
sress, and the text selected was Psalms
cv, %, ''And teach his senators wis
dom"
Senators in this text stand for law
makers. Joseph was the lord treasur-
er of the Egyptian government, and,
among other great things which he
did, according to my text, was to
teach his senators wisdom, and if any
men on earth ought to be endowed
with wisdom it is senators, whether
they stand in congresses, parllaments
or reichstags or assemblies or leglsla-
lures. By their decisions nations go
up or down. Lawmakers are some
times so tempted by prejudlces, by
sectional preferences, by opportunity
of personal advancement, and some
tiries what is best to do is so doubtful
that they ought to be prayed for and
encouraged in every possible way, in
stead of severely criticised aud blamed
and excoriated, as is much of the time
the case. Our public men are SO Of
ten the target to be shot at, merely
because they obtain eminence which
other men wanted, but could not reach,
that more iniustices are hurled at our
national legislature than the people Of
the United States can possibly mag
inc. The wholesale belying Of our
puclic men is simply damnab.e.
By residence in Washington have
come to find out that many OF our
public men are persistently misrepre-
sented, and some of the best Of them,
the purest in their lives and most faith
full in the discharge of their duties.
are the worst DETAINED. Some day l
want to preach a sermon from the text
in II Peter: ''They are not afraid to
speak evil Of dignitaries, whereas an
gels, which are greater IN power and
might, bring not railing accusation
against them before the LORD. But
these, as natural brute beasts, made to
be taken and destroyed, speak evil Of
the things that they understand not. "
So constant and malignant is this
work OF depreciation and scandaliza-
ton in regard to our public men that
all over the land there are those who
suppose that the city of Washington
is the center of all corruption, while,
what with its parks, and its equestrian
statuary, and its wide streets, and its
architectural symmetrles, and It's love
ly homes, it is not only the most
beautiful city under the sun, but has
the highest style of citizenship. l
have seen but one intoxicated man IN
the more than six months OF my resi-
dence, and I do not think any man
can give similar testimony of any eth
er city on the American continent.
The gavels of our two houses of ma
tional legislature will soon fall, and
adjournment of two bodies of men as
talented, as upright, and as patriotic
as ever graced the capitol will take
place. The two or three unfortunate
outbreaks which you have noticed on
" make more conspicuous the dignity,
the fraternity, the eloquence, the Il
deity, which have characterized those
two bodies during all the long months
Of important and anxious deliberation.
We put halo around great men OF
the past because they were so rare IN
their time. Our senate and house of
representatives have five such men
where once they had one. But it will
not be until after they are dead that
they will get appreciated. The world
finds it safer to praise the dead than
the living, because the departed, hav-
ing 8 heavy pile of marble above them
may not rise to become rivals.
But before the gavels OF adjourn
ment drop and the doors OF Capitol
hill shut there are one or two things
that ought to be done, and let us pray
God that they may be accomplished.
More forcibly than ever before con-
gress has been implored to acknowI-
edge God in our constitution. The
Methodist church, church that is al
ways doing glorious things, has IN its
recent Wilmington conference re
quested our congress to amend the I'M
mortal document, which has been the
foundation and wall and dome of our
United States government, by insert
Ing the words, Trusting In Almighty
God" If that amendment is made, 1t
will not only please all the good peo'
pie of the country, but will please the
heavens. It was only an oversight or
a mental accident thatthe fathers who
made the constitution did not insert a
divinely worshipful sentence. They
all, so far as they amounted to any
thing, believed in God, the Father
Almighty, the Maker of heaven and
earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only
begotten Son." The constitution
would have been a failure had it not
been for the divine interference. The
members of the convention could
agree on nothing until, in response to
Benjamin Franklin's request that the
meetlngS De opened Oy prayer, Iuo
Lord God was called on to interfere
and help, and then the way was
cleared, and all the states signed the
document, historical fact that all the
rat terriers of modern inhdelity can
not bark out of existence! l know
that there was an exception to the
fact that the prominent men of those
times were good men. Tom Paine, a
libertine and sot, did not believe IN
anything good until he was dying,
and then he shrieked out for Gods
mercy. And Ethan Allen, from one
of whose descendants I have received
within few days confirmation OF
the incident I mentioned in recent
sermon, as saying to his dying daugh-
ter that she had better take her moth