News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1896-05-14
ACKNOWLEDGE GOD.
Or. TALMAGE WOULD AMEND THE
CONSTITUTION.


sight of Our Forefathers 90 Congress
Should Make No Appropriations For ser-
tartan Schools-Bright Days to Come.
WASHINGTON, May 10.-Never was a
timelier or more appropriate sermon
than that preached by Rev, Dr. Talmage
this morning. The subject was Before
They Adjourn, " having reference to the
early dissolution of congress, and the
text selected was Psalms CIV, %, 'And
teach his senators wisdom. "
Senators i'll this texe stand for law
makers. Joseph was the lord treasurer
of the Egyptian government and among
other great things which he did, &C.
cording 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, parliaments or reichstags or
assemblies or legislatures. By their de-
Cisions nations go up or down. Law
makers are sometimes so tempted by
prejudices, by sectional preferences, by
opportunity of personal advancement,
and sometimes what is best to do is so
doubtful that they ought to be prayed
for and encouraged in every possible
way instead of severely criticised and
blamed and excoriated, as is much of
the time the case. Our public men are
so often the target to be shot at, merely
because they obtain eminence which
other men wanted but could not reach,
that more injustices are hurled at our
national legislature than the people Of
the United States can possibly imagine.
The wholesale belying CT our public
men is simply damnable.
By residence i'll Washington I have
come to find out that many Of our public
men are persistently misrepresented, and
some Of the best Of them, the purest in
their lives and most faithful i'll the dis
charge Of their duties, are the worst de-
famed. Some day want to preach a ser
mon from the text i'll II Peter: "They
are not afraid to speak evil Of dignities.
Whereas angels, which are greater i'll
power and might, bring not railing &C.
CusatiOn against them before tie 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 standardization i'll re-
gard 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
symlnetries, and its lovely homes, it is
not only the most beautiful city under
the sun, but has the highest style of citi-
Eenship. l have seen but one intoxicated
man i'll the more than six months Of my
residence, and DO not think any man
3an give similar testimony of any other
sity on the American continent.
Gods Name In the Constitution.
The gavcls of our two houses of ma
tional legislature will soon fall, and adj
journment Of two bodies Of men as tai
ented, as upright and as patriotic as
ever graced the capitol will take place.
The two or three unfortunate outbreaks
which you have noticed only make more
conspicuous the dignity, the fraternity,
the eloquence, the fidelity which have
characterized those two bodies during all
the long months CT important and anx
ious elaboration. Weput a halo around
great men of the past because they were
so rare i'll 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, having a
heavy pile Of marble above them, may
not rise to become rivals.
But, before the gavels Of adjournment
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 forci-
bly, than ever before, congress has been
implored to acknowledge God in oul
constitution. The Methodist church, q
church that is always doing glorious
things, has in its recent Wilmington con.
ference requested our congress to amend
the immortal document which has beer
the foundation and wall and dome Of
our United States government by in
sorting the words, Trusting in AL
mighty God. " If that amendment il
made, it will not only please all the
good people of the country, but will
please the heavens. 1t was only an over
sight or a mental accident that the ia
theirs who made the constitution did moi
insert divinely worshipful sentence
They all, so far as they amounted tt
anything, believed in "God the Father
Almighty, the Maker of heaven ant
earth, and i'll Jesus Christ, his only be
gotten Son." The constitution would
have been failure had it not been fo
the divine interference. The member
Of the convention could agree ON nothing
until, III response to Benjamin Frank
Inns request that the meetings be open
ed by prayer, the Lord God was callet
ON to interfere and help, and then tn
way was cleared and all the states sign
ed the document a historical fact tina
all the rat terriers of modern infidelit,
cannot bark out Of existence | know
that there was an exception to the fac
that the prominent men i'll those time
were good men.
Tom Paine and Ethan Allen.
Tom Paine, libertine and sot, die
not believe i'll anything good until h
I ~