The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1901-07-27
SIN IN HIGH PLACES.
tendency to Excuse Brilliant Faults
Because They Are Brilliant.


Tn this discourse DR.. Talmage shows
hot there is a tendency to excuse bril-.
liant faults because they are brilliant,
n,hen the same law of right and wrong
orrht to be applied to high places and
,ow. text, Daniel 4:33: "The same
bour was the thing fulfilled upon Neb-
u~cbadnezzar, and he was driven from
men and did eat grass as oxen"
Here is the mightiest of the Baby
,onish kings. Look at him. He did
more for the grandeur of the capital
than did all his predecessors or sue
cessors. Hanging gardens, reservoirs,
aoueducts, palaces, all of his Owl plan
ming. The bricks that are brought up
to-day from the ruins of Babylon have
his name on them, "Nebuchadnezzar,
son of Nabopolassor, king of Babylon"
He was a great conqueror. He
stretched forth his spear toward a ma
tion, and it surrendered. But he plum
dered the temple of the true God. He
lifted an idol, Bel M~erodacb, and COM
pelled the people to bow down before
it. and if 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
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 measure the
humblest captive.
But in our time, you know as we'll as
]. that there is a disposition to put a
halo around iniquity if it is committed
in conspicuous place and if i t 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 a state or city and hardly
a village which has not been called to
look upon astounding forgery or an alb
sconding bank cashier or president or
the wasting of trust fund or swindling
mortgages. 1 propose in carrying out
the suggestion of my text, as far as l
can, to scatter the destinations 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 hat 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, ard 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 professors 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, l want you as plainly to I'M
oerstand 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.
1t seems to me there has not been a
Tin in the last so years when this lat
ter truth needed thoroughly to
be presented in the American churches.
II needs to be presented to-day.
A missionary in the islands of the
Pacific preached one Sabbath on hon
esty and dishonesty, and on Mondayhe
found his yard full of all styles of
goods, which the natives had brought.
lie could not understand 1t until a ma
tive told him: Our gods permit us to
purloin goods, but the God you told us
ABOUT yesterday, the God of Heaven
ana earth, it seems, is against these
PRACTICES, and so we brought all the
goods that do rot belong to us. and
.ney are in the yard, and we want YOU
eohelp us distribute them among their
rightfui owners" And if in all the pull
Pi's OF the United States to-day rous.
'ng sermons could be preached on hon
.s'y ana the evils of dishonesty and the
sermons were blessed of God and ar
engagements could be made by which all
we goods which have been improperly
,aAeh from one man and appropriated
=. ahother man should be put in the
eny nails of the country there is not a
o'y nail in the United States that
would not be crowded from cellar to
.upola' Faith of the Gospel; that we +,
must preach and we do preach. Moral
Ivy OF the Gospel we must Just as Ger.
'ainly proclaim.
Now' look abroad and see the In sci.
iohs that are thrown around differ
styles OF crime. The question that
ty man and woman has been asked
peen' Should crime be excused
;uause j is on a large scale? Is in
guilty and to be pursued of the
so",. proportion as it is on a small
fos onal we have the p%enitentiary
!" He man who steals an overcoat
aom a hatrack and all Canada for a
man to range in if he have robbed the
public OF millions? !
,b rosh ;rpon ali the fascination,
Yon Tn arouAd fraua in this souatry'
made ba. Tor years men have been
,oes OF an tpfctopialized and in
ways Or ..a,4.l a. \ n,h,;a