Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1901-08-01
SIN IN HIGH PLACES
DIR. TALMAGE'S SUNDAY SERMON.
The Same Standard of Morality That
Treasures the Poor and the Lowly
Ought to Be Applied to the Rich.
Downright 1901. |

| right and wrong ought to be applied to
| high places and low; text, Daniel ", 80,
| "The same hour was the thing fulfilled
| upon Northumberland, ana ne was o,lFen
| from men and did cat grass as oxen.
Here is the mightest 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 runs ms OF bf.oy-
| lon have his name on them. Nebucnad-
nezzar, son Of Nabopolassor, king OF Baby
lon.' He was a great conqueror. He
stretched forth his spear toward nation,
and it surrendered. But he p.undered 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 90 through the redhot
furnace or be crunched by hon or honess.
So God pulled him down.
He was smitten with what physicians
can lycanthropy, and fancied that he 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
erosion was wide rosoundIng. He meas
ured Nebuchadnezzar III high place just as
he would measure the humbiest captive.
But in our time, you know as we'll as l.,
that there is a disposition to put halo
spicuous places, and if 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 city and hardly a village which has not
been called to look upon astounding forg-
cry, or 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 | 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 1t Will be
dealt with by that God who dealt with
impalaced Nebuchadnezzar.
All who preach feel that two kinds of
sermons are necessdry-thc one on the
faith of the gospel, the other On the MOI
rahty Of the gospe!-and the one is just az,
important 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 havs
no business to be there as professors OF rel
ligiOn. They expect to be all right with
God, although they are all wrong with
man. And, while [ want you to undert
stand that by the deeds OF the law MOI
flesh living can be justified and a Nero
honest HE cannot enter us into heaven
l want you as plainly to understand tina :,
unless the life is right the heart is not
right-grace in the heart and grace in the
life. SO we must preach sometimes th.
faith OF the gospel and sometimes the mo-,
rallty OF the gospel.
1t seems to me there has not been a
time in the last fifty years when this latten
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-
scented to the public, as though sometimes
they were worthy of admiration, if 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 to do it.
What's the use of plodding on with small
wages OF insignificant salary when We
may go into business life and with some
stratagem achieve such a fortune as that
man Eas 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 a peddler came down from New Eng
land many years ago, took hold of the
money market of New York, Haunted his
nominations in the sight of all the peS-
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
ence of that profigate fnancier has been
felt, and within the past few weeks he
has had conspicuous lmItatOrs.
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. | spend $4,000 year" "Where
do you get IT, asks the plain young man.
oh, 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-
RES; After awhile he gets tired of his
Ploddng, and ne 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
cham, sets his hat little further over on
the side of his head than he ever did,
lie has his hand in. Now, if he can es-
cape the penitentary for three or four
years he will get into political circles. and
he VIII get political jobs and will have
something to do with harbors and pave
nentS ana docks. Now he has got SO far
a49ng 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
ssiherltts, and constables would only leave
ohem 9!one httle while they would steal
able to steal i. whole railroad, but they
could master load of pig iron.
NOW, always thank God wher I find an
estate like that 60 to smash. It Is plague
struck and 1T blasts the nation I thai:
600 when 1t goes into such wreck it can
become so loathsome and such an insuf-
terabe stencil that honest young men will
take warning va
If God should put into money or its
representative the capacity to go to its
lawful owner; there would not be bank
whose walls would not be blown out and
mortgages wouidrlp and parchments would
rend, and gold would shoot, and beggars
would get on horseback, and stock gamb- |
Iers would so to the almshouse
How many dlshonesties in the making
out OF invoices. and in the plastering of |
false labels, and in the flching of custom
erS OF rival houses, and in the making and |
breaking of contracts. Young men are in |
doctrlnated in the idea that the sooner
they get money the better and the get.
ting OF 1t on larger scale only proves to |
them their greater ingenuity There is a |
gutter thrown around all these things. |
loung men have go5 to find out that God |
looks upon sin in very different light.
And remember that the man who gets
his gain by iniquity will soon lose it al
One moment after his departure from life
he will not own an opera house, he will
not own a certificate of stock, he will not
own one dollar of Government securities,
and the poorest boy that stands on the
street with a penny in his pocket looking
at the funeral procession OF the dead cheat |
as it goes by will have more money than
that man who one week previous boosted |
that he controlled the money market.
SO there has been great deal of fasci-
nation thrown around hbertinism. So
ciety is very severe upon the impurity that
turks around the alleys and low haunts |
of the town. The law pursues it, snites
it. incarcerates it, tries to destroy it.
You know as we'll as | that society be- |