Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1901-07-26
SIN IN HIGH PLACES.
Tendency to Excuse Brilliant Faults
Because They Are Brilliant.
Dr. Talmage Says the Same Law
Ought to BE Applied to the High
as to the Low-The Sacred
ness of Life.

In this discourse DR.. Talmage shows
that there is tendency to excuse bril-
liant faults because they are brilliant,
when the same law of right and wrong
ought to be applied to high places and
low; text, Daniel 4:33: "The same
hour was the thing fulfilled upon Neb-
suchadnezzar, and he was driven from
men and did eat grass as oxen"
Here is the mightiest of the Baby
.lonish kings. Look at him. He did
more for the grandeur of the capital
than did all his predecessors or sue
cessors. Hanging gardens, reservoirs,
aqueducts, palaces, all of his own plan
ming. The bricks that are brought up
to-day from the ruins of Babylon have
his name on them, 'Nebucha dneZZar.
son of Nabopola ssor, king of Ba bylon.
He was great conqueror. lie
stretched forth his spear toward ma
ton, and it surrendered. But he plum
.dered the temple of the true God. He
lifted an idol, Bel Merodach, and com
PEELED the people to bow down before
it, and if they refused they must go
through the redhot furnace or be
scrunched by lion or ioness. So God
pulled him down.
He was smitten with what physicians
call lycanthropy and fancied that he
was a wild beast, and he went out and
pastured amid the cattle. God did not
excuse him because he had committed
the sin in high places or because the
transgression was wide resounding.
He measured NebuchadneZZar in high
places Just as he would measu the
humblest captive.
But in our time, you know a s we'll as
I, that there is disposition to put
halo around iniquity if it is committed
in conspicuous place and if it is wide re-
sounding and of large proportions.
Ever and anon there has been an cpl
demic of crime in high places, and
there is not state or city and hardly
"A village which has not been called to
2 look upon astounding forgery or an alb
sconding bank cashier or president or
the wasting of trust fund or swindling
mortgages. I propose in carrying out
the suggestion of my text, as far as
can, to scatter the ia scination 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, and the other on
the morality 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 be-
hind the communion tables and in
churches of Jesus Christ who have no
business to be there as profe of
religion. They expect to be all right
with God, although they are all wrong
with man. And, while 1 want you to
understand that by the deeds of the
law no flesh living can be justified and
a mere honest life cannot enter us into
Heaven, 1 want you as plainly to un
sderstand 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 morality of
the Gospel.
It seems to me there has not been a
time in the last SO years when this lat
ter truth needed more thoroughly to
be presented in the American churches.
1t needs to be presented to-day.
missionary in the islands of the
Pacific preached one Sabbath on hon
'esty and dishonesty, and on Monday he
found his yard full of all styles of
goods. which the natives had brought.
He could not understand it until ma
tive told him: sour gods permit us to
purloin goods, but the God you told us
about yesterday, the God of Heaven
and earth, it seems, is against these
practices, and so we brought all the
goods that do not belong to us. and
they are in the yard. and we want you
to help us distribute them among their
rightful owners" And if in all the pull
pits of the United States to-day rous-
ing sermons could be preached on hon
esty and the evils of dishonesty and the
sermons were blessed of God and ar
rangements could be made by which a II
the goods which have been improperly
taken from one man and appropria ted
by another man should be put in the
city halls of the country there is not
city hall in the United States that
would not be crowded from cellar to
-cupola. Faith of the Gospel: that we
must preach and we do preach. Moral
ity of the Gospel we must just as GER
tainly proclaim.
Now, look abroad and see the ia sci
nations that are thrown around differ
ent styles of crime. The question that
every man and woman has been asked
has been: Should crime be excused
because it is on large scale? Is in
Equity guilty and to be pursued of the
law in proportion as it is on a SINAI,
scale? Shall we have the penitentiary
for the man who steals an overcoat
from a hatrack and all Canada for a
man to range in if he have robbed the
public of millions?
Look upon all the fascina tions
thrown around fraud in this country.