The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1898-08-19
MONEY-MAD MORTALS.
Rev. DR.. Talmage on the Ruinous
Modes of Acquiring Wealth.
bribery In Politics and Business-Th
Abuse of Trust Funds-Men Should
Know Where Their Weak
Points Are.

Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage, in the fol-
lowing sermon, arraigns the various
methods resorted for the acquisition of
other peoples money, and shows the
triumph of fair dealing. The text is:
They that will be rich fall into temptation
and snare, and into many foolish and hurtful
luSts, which drown men in destruction and per-
dition.-I Timothy, vi, 9.
That is the Niagara Falls over which
rush multitude of souls, namely the
determination to have the money any
how, right or wrong. Tell me how a
man gets his money and what he does
with it, and L will tell you his char
acter and what will be his destiny in
this world and the next. | propose to
speak to-day about the ruinous modes
of getting money.
In all 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 turpitude. A monster
sin, plausible, potent, pestiferous, has
gone forth to do it's dreadful work in
| all ages. It's two hands are rotten
with leprosy. 1t keeps its right hand
hidden in a deep pocket. The left
hand is clenched, and with its ichorous
| knuckle it taps at the door of the court
room, the legislative ball, the congress
and the parliament The door swings
open and the monster enters and glides
| through the isle of the council cham
Der as softly as a slIppered page, and
then it takes it's right hand from its
1 4 col. 1fat
to juge or legislator. Ii that hand be
taken, and the palm of the intruder
cross the palm of the official the lep-
rosy crosses from palm to palm in a
round blotch, round as a gold eagle,
and the virus spreads, and the doom is
| fixed, and victim perishes Let brib-
cry, accursed of God and man, stand up
| for trial
| The Bible arraigns it again and
| again. Samuel says of his two sons,
who 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
| bribe and turn aside the poor in the
gate" EIiphaz foretells the crush
| ing blows of Gods Indignation,
declaring: "Fire shall consume the
tabernacles of bribery
| 1t is no light temptation. The
mightiest have fallen under it. Lord
| Bacon, lord chancellor of England,
founder of our modern science, author
of "Novum Organum," and a whole
library of books, the leading thinker
of his century, so precocious that when
asked by Queen Elizabeth, How old
are you?" he responded: 81 am two
years younger than your majesty's
happy reign" of whose oratory Ben
Jonson wrote: "The fear of every man
that heard him was lest he should
make an end;' having an income which
you would suppose would have put
| him beyond the temptation of bribery
$50, 900 a year, and Twickenham
court, gift, and princely estates in
| Hertfordshire-yet under this tempta-
ton to bribery, falling fat into ruin,
| and on his confession of taking bribeS
giving as excuse that all his predeces-
sors took them; he was fined 5000, 600
or what corresponds with our $500, 900
and imprisoned in London tower.
The black chapter in English, Irish,
French and American politics is the
chapter of bribery. Some of you re-
member the Pacific Mail subsidies.
| Most of you remember the awful
| tragedy of the Credit Mobilier. Under
the temptation to bribery Benedict
Arnold sold the fort in the highlands
for S31 ,575. For this sin Gorgey be-
trayed Hungary. Ahithopel forsook
David, and Judas kissed Christ. When
7 4
down under this temptation, it makes
me think of the red dragon spoken O
in revelation, with seven heads and
ten horns and seven crowns, drawing
third part of the stars of Heaven
down after him.
The lobbies of the legislatures Of this
country control the country. The land
is drunk with bribery! oh" says
some one, ''there's no need of talking
against bribery by promise or by dol
lars, because every man has his price.
| do not believe it. Even heathenism
and the Dark Ages have furnished
specimens of incorruptibility. A cadi
of Smyrna had case brought before
him on trial. A man gave him 500
ducats in bribery. The case came on.
The briber had many witnesses. The
poor man on the other side had no wit
nesses- At the close of the case the
cadi said: This, poor man has no wit
nesses, he thinks. 1 shall produce in
his behalf 500 witnesses against the
other side" Then pulling out the bag
of ducats from under the ottoman, he
dashed it down at the feet of the
briber, saying: II give my decision
against you" Epaminondas, offered
bribe, said: Il will do this thing if it
be right, and if it be wrong all your
goods can not persuade me-"
The president of the American con-
gress during the American revolution,
Gen. Reed, was offered 10, 900 guineas
by foreign commissioners if he would
betray this country. He replied: Seen
tlemen, am a very poor man, but tell
your king he is not rich enough to buy
me-" But why go SO far, when you
and /, if we move in honorable society,
know men and women who by all the
forces of earth and hell could not be
bribed. They would no more be bribed
than you would think of tempting an
angel of light to exchange Heaven for
tue pit. To offer bribe is villainy,
but it is very poor compliment to the
man to whom it is offered.
1 have not much faith in those people
who go about Dragging how much they
could get if they would only sell out.
Those women who complain that they
sre very often iasulted need to under