Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1901-08-08

ton OF Fraud.
Copyright lD0l.l
WASHINGTON, d. C.-.In this discourse
DIR. Talmage shows that there Is ten
dency to excuse brilliant faults, because
they are brilliant, when the same law OF
right and wrong ought to be applied to
high places and low; text, Daniel ~, 50,
1.-The same hour was the thing fuinlled
upon Nebuchadnezzar, and he was driven
from men and did eat grass as oxen.
Here is the mightiest of the Babylonish
kings. Look at him. He did more for the
grandeur of the capital than did all his
predecessors or successors. Hanging gar.
his own planning. The bricks that are
brought up to-day from the ruins OF Baby
Ion have his name on them, IN Nebuchad-
nezzar, son of Nabopolassor, king of lsaby-
lon" He was a great conqueror. lie
stretched forth his spear toward nation,
temple of the true God. He lifted an
idol, Bel Merodach, and compelled the
people to bow down before it, and it they
refused they must go through the redhot
furnace or be crunched by lion or lioness.
So God pulled him down.
He was smitten with what physicians
can lycanthropy, and fancied that ne was
wild beast, and he went out and pas
tured amid the cattle. God did not ex-
cuse him because he had committed the
sin in high places or because the trans
gression was wide rosounding. He meas
ured Nebuchadnezzar in high place just as
he would measure the humblest captive.
But in our time, you know as well as |,
that there is disposition to put a halo
around iniquity if it is committed in con-
spicuous places, and it it is wide resound-
ing and of large proportions. Ever and
anon there has been an epidemic of crime
in high places, and there is not State or
"a ,,,l bo, h,ohh has pf,t
been called to look upon astounding iorg-
cry, or an absconding bank cashier or
president, or the wasting of trust fund or
swindling mortgages. l propose, in carry
ing out the suggestion of my text, as far
as l can, to scatter the fascinations
around iniquity and show you that sin is
sin and wrong is wrong, whether in high
place or low place, and that it will be
dealt with by that God who dealt with
impalaced Nebuchadnezzar.
All who preach feel that two kinds of
sermons are necessary-the one on the
faith of the gospel, the other on the mo-
rality of the gospel-and the one is just as
important as the other for you know that
in this land to-day there are hundreds of
men hiding behind the communion tables
and in churches of Jesus Christ who have
no business to be there as professors OF re-
Ggion. They expect to be all right with
God, although they are all wrong with
l.
stand that by the deeds of the law no
flesh living can be justified and a mere
honest life cannot enter us into heaven,
l want you as plainly to understand that
unless the life is right the heart is not
right-grace in the heart and grace in the
life. So we must preach sometimes the
faith of the gospel and sometimes the mo-
raity of the gospel.
1t seems to me there has not been a
time, in the last fifty years when this latter
truth needed more thoroughly to be pre-
sented in the American churches. 1t needs
to be presented to-day.
Look upon all the fascinations thrown
around fraud in this country. You know
for years men have been made heroes OF
and pictorialized and in various ways pre-
sented to the public, as though sometimes
they were worthy of admiration, If they
have scattered the funds of banks OF
swallowed great estates that did not be-
long to them. Our young men have been
dazed with this quick accumulation. They
have said: That's the way to do it.
What's the use of plodding on with small
wages or insignificant salary when we
may go into business life and with some
stratagem achieve such fortune as that
man has achieved?" A different measure
has been applied to the crime of Wall
street from that which has been applied
to the spoils which the man carries up
Rat alley.
So peddler came down from New Eng
land many years ago, took hold of the
money market of New York, Haunted his
denominations in the sight of all the peo
pie and defied public morals every day OF
his life. Young men looked up and said
He was a peddler in one decade, and in
the next decade he is one of the mon
archs of the stock market. That's the
way to do it." TO this day the evil inhu-
ence of that prohigate financier has been
felt, and within the past few weeks he
has had conspicuous imitators.
There has been an irresistible impress.
sion going abroad among young men that
the poorest way to get money is to earn
it. The young man of Haunting cravat
says to the young man of humble apparel:
What! You only get $500 year:
Why, that wouldn't keep me in pin
do you get it?" asks the plain young man
ooh, stocks, enterprises, all that sort OF
thing, you know" The plain young man
has hardly enough money to pay his
! board, has to wear clothes after they are
out of fashion and deny himself all luxu-
ries: After awhile he gets tired of his
plodding. and he goes to the man who
has achieved suddenly large estate, and he
says, Just show me how It is done" And
he is shown. He soon learns how, al
though he is almost all the time idle now
and has resigned his position in the bank
or the factory or the store he has more
money than he ever had, trades off his old
silver watch for gold one with flashing
chain, sets his hat little further over on
the side of his head than he ever did
smokes better cigars and more OF them.
He has his hand in. Now, if he can es-
cape the penitentiary for three or four
years he will get into political circles, and
he will get political Jobs and will have
something to do with harbors and pave
ments and docks. Now lie has got SO far
along he is safe for perditiou.
1t is quite long road sometimes for a
man to travel before he gets into the ro-
nance of crime. Those are caught who
are only in the prosaic stage of it. If the
sheriffs and constab,es would only leave
them alone little while they would steal
as we'll as anybody. They might not be
able to steal whole railroad, but they
could master a load of pig iron
Now, | always thank God when I find an
estate like that go to smash 1t is plague
struck, and it blasts the nation. l thank
God when it goes into such wreck it can
never be gathered up again. I want it to
become SO loathsome and such an insult
ferable stencil that honest young men will
take warning.
If God should put into money or its
representative the capacity to go to its
lawful owner there would not be n bauls