Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1901-07-26
SIN IN HIGH PLACES.
Or. Talmage Says the Same Law OF
Right and Wrong Should Apply to
Both Rich and PO0rs
THE FASCINATION OF FRAUD.
Copyright 1901.

copyright 1eO11
WASHINGTON, d. C.-In this discourse
DR.. Talmage shows that there ls, ten
dency to excuse brilliant faults, because
they are brilliant, when the same law OF
right and wrong ought to be applied 10
high places and low; text, Daniel ~, 81
THE same hour was the thing fulhlled
upon Nebuchadnezzar, and he was driven
from men and did eat grass as oxen.
Here is the mghtiest of the Babylonlsh
kings, Look at him. He did more for the
grandeur of the capital than did all his
predecessors or successors. Hanging gar.
dens, reservoirs, aqueducts, palaces, all OF
his own planning. The bricks that are
brought up to-day from the ruins OF Baby
Ion have his name on them, 'Nebuehad-
nezzar, son Of Nabopolassor, king of Baby
lon" He was great conqueror. de
stretched forth his spear toward a nations
and it surrendered. But he plundered the
temple of the true God. He lifted an
idol Bel Merodach, and compelled the
people to bow down before 1T, and II they
refused they must go through the redhot
furnace OF be crunched by lion or honess.
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 pas
tured amid the cattle. God did not ex-
cuse him because he had committed the
sin in high places or because the trans
erosion was wide rosounding. He meas
urcd 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 halo
around iniquity if it is committed in con-
spicuous places, and if it j. wide resound-
ing and of large prom. lions. Ever and
anon there has Zen an epidemic of crime
in high places, and there is not State or
a city and hardly village which has not
been called to look upon astounding fors-
cry, or an absconding bank cashier or
president, OF 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 1T 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 copeland 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-
ligion. They expect to be all right with
God, although they are all wrong with
man. And, while / want you to under
stand that by the deeds of the law no
flesh living can be justified and a mere
honest life cannot enter us into heaven,
! 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-
ralty 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-
scented in the American churches. 1t needs
to be presented to-day.
Look upon all the destinations 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, II they
have scattered the funds of banks or
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 ~ do 1T:
What's the use of plodding on with small
wages or insignificant salary when we
may 60 into business lie and with some
stratagem achieve such a fortune as that
man has achieyed?" 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 PEG:
pie and de6ed public morals every day OF
his life. Young men looked up and said:
"He was peddler in one decade, and i'll
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 infiu-
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
money. l spend $4,000 year" "Where
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
Dodlu mas W veal CiOtheo dlIcl Inoy dio
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, Gust 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 pcnitentiary 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 he has got so far
along he is safe for perdition.
1t is quite long road sometimes for
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 constables would only. leave
as well as anybody. They might not be
able to steal whole railroad, but they
could master load of pig iron.
Now, always thank God when find an
estate like that go to smash. 1t is plague
struck, and it blasts the nation. I thank
God when it goes into such q wreck it can
never be gathered up again. / 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 bank