Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1896-05-16
ACKNOWLEDGE GOD.
DIR. vAlMAcE WOULD AMEND TIE
CONSTITUTION.

CONSTITUTION.
Gods Name Left Ont BY Mental Over
s,rht Of our Forefathers Congress
should Make No Appropriations Tor See
tartan schools Bright Days TO Come.
WASHINGTON, May I0.--Never was a
timelier or more appropriate sermon
than that preached by Rev. DIR. 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 in this text 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
il is senator's whether they stand in
congresses, parliaments or reichstags or
assemblies or legislatures. By their de-
risions nations go up or down. Law
makers are sometimes 50 tempted by
prciudices, 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 CT 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 ominence which
other men wanted but could not reach,
that more injustices are hurled at eur
national legislature than the people Of
the United States can possibly imagine.
The wholesale belying Of our public
men is simply damnable.
BY residence in Washington l have
come to find out that many Of our public
men are persistently misTepresented, aud
some of the best Of them, the purest III
their lives and most faithful in the DIS
charge of their duties, are the worst de-
famed. Some day want 10 preach scr
mon from the text in III Peter: "They
are not afraid to speak evil Of dignities.
Whereas angels, which are greater IN
power and might, bring not railing &C.
cusation against them before the Lord.
But these, as natural brute beasts, made
TO be taken and destroyed, speak evil Ct
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 these 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
symmetries, and its lovely homes, it is
not only the most beautiful city under
the sun, but has the highest style of citi-
zenship. / have seen but one intoxicated
man in the more than six months of my
residence, and do not think any man
can give similar testimony Of any other
city ON the American continent.
'---God's Name In the Constitution.
The gavels Of our tt1y's-ee 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 Of important and anx-
ious elaboration. Weput a 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 win get appreciated. The world
finds it safer to praise the dead than the
living, because the departed, having
heavy pile Of marble above them, may
not rise to become rivals.
But, before the gayels 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 our
constitution. The Methodist church,
church that is always doing glorious
things, has in its recent Wilmington con-
ference requested our congress to amend
the immortal document which has been
the foundation and wall and dome of
our United States government by in
sorting the words, Trusting in al
mighty God. " If that amendment is
made, it viii not only please all the
good people Of the country, but viii
please the heavens. 1t was only an over
sight or a mental accident that the IA
theirs who made the constitution did not
insert divinely worshipfu1 sentence
They all. so far as they amounted to
anything, believed i'll "God the Father
Almighty, the Maker of heaven and
earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only be-
gotten Son. =" The constitution would
have been failure had it not been for
the divine interference. The members
Of the convention could agree on nothing
until, in response to Benjamin Frank
Inns request that the meetings be open
ed by prayer, the Lord God was called
on to interfere and help, and then the
way was cleared, and all the states sign
ed the document, historical fact that
all the rat terriers Of modern infidelity
cannot bark out of existence. l know
that there was an exception to the fact
that the prominent men in those times
were good men.
Tom Paine and Ethan Allen.
Tom Paine, hbertine 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 l have received
within few days a confirmation Of the
incident l mentioned in a recent SER
mon, as saying to his dying daughter
that she had better take her mothers
Christian religion than his own infidel-
ity. The article sent me says: 1.-The
story has been denied by some of the
Allen family, but the Bronson family,
some of whom were with the dying girl,
affirm that it is substantially true La