Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1898-08-12
save the city and save the land.

this style OF templdllOH 1uuccu II cNth
YOU are naturally strong, you need re-
ligious 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 fash
ioned revival of religion, that it might
break out in congress and the leglsla-
lures and bring many OF the leading
Republicans and Democrats down on
the anxious seat of repentance. That
day will come, or something better. for
the Bible declares that kings and queens
shall become nursing fathers and moth
ers to the church, and if the greater in
authority then certainly the less.
Ny charge also TO parents is, remem-
ber that this evil Of bribery often be-
gins in the home circle, and in the
nursery. Do not bribe your children.
Teach them to do that which is right,
and not because of the 10 cents or the
orange which you will give them.
There is a great difference between re-
warding virtue and making the profits
thereof the impelling motive. 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 a day coming when the most
secret transaction Of private life and Of
public life will come up for public rep
rehension.
Cannot BE Bribed.
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,
"fiel Can't death be bribed? Is money
nothing? Must l 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 re-
gret that they have to leave their money
here when they 90 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 delusion. l
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 resurrection, 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 prin-
ciple. but there it will lie, a hot metal,
burning and consuming your hand for
ever. Or if there be enough of it for a
chain then it will fall over the wrist,
clanking the fetters Of an eternal cap
tivity. The bribe is an everlasting pos
session. You take it for time, you take
it for eternity. Some day in the next
world, when you are longing for SYM
pathy, you will feel on your cheek
kiss. Looking up, you will find it to be
Judas, who took 30 pieces of silver as
bribe and finished the bargain by put
ting an infamous kiss on the pure cheek
of his Divine Master.
Another wrong use Of money Is seen
in the abuse Of trust funds. Nearly
every man during the course Of his life,
on a larger or smaller scale, has the
property of others committed to his
keeping. He is so far a safety deposit
He is an administrator and holds IN his
hand the interest Of the family Of de-
ceased friend, or he is an attorney, and
through his custody goes the payment
from debtor to creditor, or he Is the
collector for a business house, which
compensates him for the responsibility,
or he is treasurer for a charitable instl-
tuition. and he holds aims contributed
for the suffering, or be is an official OF
the city or the state or the nation, and
taxes and subsidies and salaries and
supplies are in his keeping.
1t is rs solemn a trust as God can
make it. 1t is concentered and multi
piled condolences. On that man depends
the support of bereft household or the
morals of dependents or the right move
ment Of a thousand wheels Of social
mechanism. a man may do what he
will with his own, but be who abuses
trust funds in that one act commits
theft, falsehood, perjury, and becomes
in all the intensity Of the word, a mis-
creaut How many widows and orphans
there are with nothing between them
and starvation but a sewing machine o.
held mn ont Of the vortex Of destruction
simply by the thread of a needle, red
with their own hearts blood, who a lit
tie while ago had, by father and hus'
band, left them a competency what Is
the matter? The administrators or the
executors have sacrificed it, running
risk with it that they would not have
dared to encounter in their own private
affairs.
Betrayed Trusts.
How often it is that a man will earn
a livelihood by the sweat OF his brow
and then die, and within a few months
all the estate gees into the stock gam
bling rapids Of Wall street, How often
is it that you have known the man to
whom trust funds were committed tax
ing them out Of the savings bank and
from trust companies and administrs-
tors, turning old homesteads into hapa
cash and then putting the entire estate
into the vortex of speculation Embez-
element is an easy word to pronounce,
but it has 10, 600 ramihcations. There
is not city that has not suffered from
the abuse of trust funds. Where is the
courthouse or the city hall or the jail or
the postoffice or the hospital that in the
building of it has not had a political
lob? Long before the new courthouse IN
New York city was completed it cost
over sl2, 900, 600. Five million six hum
dred and sixty-three thousand dollars
for furniturel For plastering and re-
nairs. AZ. $40. 900. For plumbing and