The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1896-05-20
ACKNOWLEDGE GOD.
DR.. TALMAGE WOULD AMEND TIE
CONSTITUTION.

Gods Name Left Out by Mental Over
sight OF Our Forefathers - Congress
Should Make No Appropriations For SEQ
tartan Schools-Bright Days to Come.
WASHINGTON, May 10.-Never was a
timeler 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 in this text stand for law
makers. Joseph was the lord treasurer
of the Egyptian government, and among
other great things which he did, ac-
cording to my text, was to teach his
senator's wisdom. And if any men On
earth ought to be endowed with wisdom
it is senators, whether they stand ID
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 Of our public
men is simply damnable.
By residence in Washington I have
come to find out that many Ct our public
men are persistertly 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 ser
mon from the text in II Peter: "They
are not afraid to speak evil CT Gignltlcs.
Whereas angels, which are greater In
power and might, bring not railing ac-
cusation 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. y
So constant and malignant is this work
of depreciation and standardization in 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, end its equestrian statuary, and
its wide streets, and its architectural
symmetries, and its lovely homes, 1t IS
not only the most beautiful city under
the sun, but has the highest style Of citi-
zenship. I 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.
Gods Name In the Constitution.
The gavels of our two houses OF ma
tional legislature will soon fall, and adj
4aurnment cf two bodies Of men as tai
ented, as upright and as patriotic as
ever graced the capitol will take place.
The two OF three unfortunate outbreaks
which you hsye noticed cnly make more
conspicuous the dignity, the fraternity,
the elcquence, the fidelity which have
characterized those two bodies during all
the long months Of important and anx'
ious deliberation. Weput a halo around
GREAT men of the past because they were
so rare in their time. Our senate and
hoase Of representatives have i've such
men where once they had one. But 1t
viN rot be until after they are dead that
they will get appreciated The world
finds it safer to praise the dead than the
tSing, because the departed, having a
heasS pile Of marble above them, may
not rise 10 become rivals.
But, before the gayels Of adjournment
drop and the Doors Of Capitol hill shut,
there are one or tso things that ought
to be done, and let Us pray God that
they NAV be accomplished. More forcl-
b,y than ever before, congress has been
implored to acknowledge God III ouR
constitution. The Methodist church, q
church that is always doing glorious
things. has in its recent Wilmington con-
ference requested or congress to amene
the immortal document which mas been
the foundation and wa}31 and dome OF
our United States government BY in
serting the words, Trusting IN AZ
mighty God. y L that amendment Is
made, it will not only please all the