The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1898-08-10

of politics unless you are invulnerable
to this style of temptation. Indeed, If
even you are naturally strong, you
need religious buttressing. Nothing |
but the grace of God can sustain our |
public men, and make them what we
wish. l wish that there might come |
an old-fashioned revival of religion,
that it might break out in congress
and the legislature, and bring many
of the leading republicans and demo-
Gratis down to the anxious seat of re-
pentence. That day will come, or
something better, for the Bible de-
clares that kings and queens shall be-
come nursing fathers and mothers to
the church, and if the greater in au-
thority, then certainly the less.
My charge also to parents is, re-
member that this evil of bribery often
begins in the home circle, and in the
nursery. Teach them to do that which
is right, and not because of the ten
cents or the orange which you will
give them. There is great difference
between rewarding virtue and making
the profits thereof the impelling mo-
tive. That man who is honest merely
because honesty is the best policy"
is already a moral bankrupt.
My charge is to you, in all depart
ments of life, steer clear of bribery all
of you. Every man and woman at
some time will be tempted to do wrong
for compensation. The bribe may not
be offered in money. 1t may be offered
in social position. Let us remember
that there is day coming when the
most secret transaction of private life,
and public life, will come up for public
apprehension.
We cannot bribe death, we cannot
bribe sickness, we cannot bribe the
grave we cannot bribe the judgments
of that God who thunders against this
sin. "Fie!" said Cardinal Beaufort,
"fie! Can't death be bribed? Is money
nothing? Must I die, and so rich? If
the owning of the whole realm would
save me, l could get it by policy or by
purchase-by money" No, death
would not be bribed then; he will not
be bribed now. Men of the world often
regret that they have to leave their
money here when they go away from
the world. You can tell from what
they say in their last hours that one of
their chief sorrows is that they have
to leave their money. [ break that de-
lusion. I tell that bribe-taker that he
will take his money with him. God
will wrap it up in your shroud, or put
it in the palm of your hand in resur-
rection, and there it will lie, not the
cool, bright, shining gold as it was on
the day when you sold your vote and
your moral principle, but there it will
lie, hot metal, burning and consum,
|. ing your hand forever. Or, if there be
enough of it for a chain, then it will
, fall over the wrist, clanking the fet
, ters of an eternal captivity. The bribe
is an everlasting possession. You take
it for time, you take it for eternity
Some day in the next world, when yor
are longing for sympathy, you viii
, feel on your cheek kiss. Looking up
YOU will find it to be Judas, who tool
:. 30 pieces of silver as a bribe, and fin
ished the bargain by putting an in
famous kiss on the pure cheek of hi
: divine Master.
Another wrong use of money is see1
, in the abuse of trust funds. Nearl!
every man during the course of hi
life, on larger or smaller scale, ha
the property of others committed t.
. his keeping. He is, so far, safety de
post, he is an administrator, ant
i holds in his hand the interest of tn
4 family of deceased friend; or he i
i an attorney, and through his custod,
goes the payment from debtor to cred
itor; or he is the collector for busi
ness house, which compensates hin
+ for the responsibility; or he is treas
l urer for charitable institution, an,
: he holds aims contributed for the sui
4 fering; or he is an official of the cit,
5 or the state or the nation, and take
and subsidies and salaries and supple
are in his keeping.
l. 1t is as solemn trust as God ca
make it. 1t is concentrated and multi
|, piled condolences. On that man depend
e the support of bereft household, o
= the morals of dependents, or the righ
5. movement of thousand wheels @
Il social mechanism. A man may d
r what he will with his own, but he VIII
It abuses trust funds, in that one ac
s commits theft, falsehood, perjury, an
= becomes, in all the intensity of tn
k word, miscreant. How many widow
n and orphans there are with nothin
q between them and starvation but
IS sewing machine, or held up out of tn
# vortex of destruction simply by tn
d thread of needle, red with their ow
g hearts blood, who little while ag
n had, by father and husband, left thel
competency? What is the matter
is The administrators or the executor
e have sacrificed it-running risks wit
!" it that they would not have dared
If encounter in their own private affair
"a Another remark needs to be mad
IS and that is that people ought not to G
n into places, into business, or into p'
% sitions where the temptation !
l. mightier than their character. If thel
20 be large sums of money to be HANDLED
n and the man is not sure of his own il
N tegrity, you have no right to run a
,e unseaworthy craft in hurricane.
,r man can tell by the sense of weakness
s. or strength in the presence of ba
Al opportunity whether he is in sal
+ place. How many parents make a
IN awful mistake when they put the
4s boys in banking houses and stores an
10 shops and factories and places of Sc
10 emn trust without once discussin
,e whether they can endure the tempt
|