The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1898-08-10
THE BRIBE EVIL.
Rev. DR.. Talmage Enters a Plea
for Fair Dealing.
Money Obtained by Fraud Sends Men Down
to PerditiOn- Bribery Described as ~
Monster that Has Poisoned Some
of the Brightest Minds the
World Has Produced.


themselves by dishonest means and
holds out to them warning that they
cannot afford to disregard. His text
is Timothy 6: 0: They that will be
rich fall into temptation and snare,
and into many foolish and hurttul
lusts, which drown men in destruction
and perdition."
That is the Niagara Falls over
which rusn multitude of Sc IS, name
ly, the determination to nave the
money anyhow, right or wrong. Tell
me how man gets his money and
what he does with it, and l Will tell
you his character, and what will be his
destiny IN this world and the next.
l propose to speak to-day about the
Famous modes VI getting money.
In ali our city, state and national
elections, large sums of money are
used in bribery. Politics, from being
the science OF good government, has
often been bedraggled INTO the synonym
for truculency and turpltude. A mon
ster sin, plausible, potent, pestilerous,
has gone forth to 40 lts dreadful work
in all ages. Its two hands are rotten
with leprosy. 1t keeps its right hand
hidden IN oeep pocket. The left
hand is clenched, ana with it's ichorouS
knuckle it taps at the door of the
court room, the Legislative hall, the
congress, and the parliament. The
door swings open and the monster
enters, and glides through the aisle
of the council chamber as softly as u
slippered page, and then it takes its
right hand from its deep pocket, and
offers it in salutation to Judge or leg
| islator. If that hand be taken, and
| the palm of the intruder cross the
palm of the official, the leprosy crosses
from palm to palm in a round blotch,
round as a gold eagle, and the virus
spreads, and the doom is fixed, and
the victim perishes. Let bribery, ac-
cursed of God and man, stand up for
| trial.
The Bible arraigns it again and
| again. Samuel says of his TWO sons,
VINO became Judges, "They took bribes
and perverted judgment" David says
of some of his pursuers, "Their right
hand is full of bribes." Amos says of
some men in his day, They take a
bribe, and turn aside the poor in the
gate" Eliphaz foretells the crushing
blows of Gods Indignation, declaring
Fire shall consume the tabernacles
of bribery"
1t is no light temptation. The
mightiest have fallen under it. Lore
Bacon, Lord Chancellor of England
founder of our modern science, author
of "Novum 0rganum," and a whole
library of books, the leading thinker
of his century, so precocious tina
when a little child he was asked by
Queen Elizabeth, How old are you?'
he responded, II am two year.
younger than your majesty's happy
reign" of whose oratory Ben Jonsol
: wrote, "The fear of every man tina
heard him was lest he should make al
end;" having an income which yol
would suppose would have put hin
beyond the temptation of bribery
thirty-siX thousand dollars a year, ant
Twickenham Court, gift, and prince
ly estates in Hertfordshire-yet unde
, this temptation to bribery, falling fla
into ruin, and on his confession of TAX
ing bribes, giving as excuse that al
his predecessors took them; he wa
, fined two hundred thousand dollars
or what corresponds with our tw
/ hundred thousand dollars-and i'm
prisoned in London Tower.
J The black chapter in English, Irish
! French, and American politics is tn
i chapter of bribery. Some of you re
member the Pacific mail subsidies
5 Most of you remember the awfu
, tragedy of the Credit Mobilier. Unde
! the temptation to bribery Benedic
r Arnold sold the fort in the Highland
, for $31,575. For this sin Gorgey be
trayed Hungary, Ahithophel forsoo
David and Judas kissed Christ. Whe
I see so many of the illustrious goin
down under this temptation, it make
, me think of the red dragon spoken @
in Revelation, with seven heads an
! ten horns and seven crowns, drawin
4 a third part of the stars of heave
down after him.
The lobbies of the legislature of tn
country control the country. TIL
y land is drunk with bribery! "Oh,
saws some one, there's no need c
talking against bribery by promis
G or by dollars, because every man ha
: his price" do not believe it. Eve
T heathenism and the dark ages hay
a furnished specimens of incorruptibi
n ity. A cad of Smyrna had a cas-
S brought before him on trial. A ma
O gave him five hundred ducats
bribery. The case came on. TIL
;. briber had many witnesses. The poo
O man on the other side had no witnes
y es. At the close of the case the cat
a said: "This poor man has not wi
, nesses, he thinks; l shall produce
= This behalf five hundred witnesst
against the other side" Then pullin
= out the bag of ducats from under IL
J. Ottoman, he dashed it down at IL
! feet of the briber, saying: 81 give m
decision against you" Epaminonda
offered bribe, said: 81 will do tn
! thing If it be right, and if it he wron
all your goods cannot persuade me-"
The president of the American co
J gress during the American revolutio
!, Gen. Reed, was offered 10000 guinei
by foreign commissioners if he wou
betray this country. He replied: "Ge
! tleman, am very poor man, but te
your king he is not rich enough to br
me-" But why go so far, when yo
J and l, if we move in honorable societ
know men and women who by all II