Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1901-07-22

course DR.. Talmage shows that there
Is tendency 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 iv, 33, ''The same hour was the
thing fulfilled upon NebuchadneZzar,
and he was driven from men and did
eat grass as oxen"
Here is the mightiest of the Baby
1onish 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
today from the ruins of Babylon have
his name on them, ''Nebuchadnezzar,
son of Nabopolassor, king of Babylon"
He was great cOnqueror. He stretch
ed forth his spear toward a nation, 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 it, and if
they refused they must go through the
redhot furnace or be crunched by lion
or Honess. So God pulled him down.
He was smitten with what physicians
call lycanthropy and fancied that he
was q 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
IL,
5ust as be would measure the humblest
captive.
But in our time, you know as well as
I, that there is q disposition to put
halo around iniQuity if it is committed
In conspicuous places and if it is wide
resounding and of large proportions.
Ever and anon there has been an cpl
demic of crime in high places, and
there is not q state or city and hardly
q village which has not been called to
look upon astounding forgery. or an
abSconding bank cashier or president,
or the wasting Of trust fund or swim
ding mortgages. [ 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
viii be dealt with by that God Who
dealt with impalaced Nebuchadnezzar.
Morality OF the Gospel.
All who preach feel that two kinds
Of sermons are necessary-the one on
the faith of the gospel. the other on the
morality of the gospel-and the one is
Just as important is the other for you
know that in this land today there are
hundreds of men hiding behind the
communion tables and in churches Of
Jesus Christ who have no business to
be there IS professors of religion. They
expect to be all right with God. al
though they are all wrong with man.
And, while l want you to understand
that by the deeds Of the law no flesh
living can be justified and q mere hon
est life cannot enter US into heaven. l |
want you as plainly to understand that
unless the life is right the heart is not
right-gr2ce 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
time in the last 80 years when this lat
ter truth needed more thoroughly to
be presented in the American church /
es. 1t needs to be presented today.
a 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 a ma
tive told him, Our 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 prac- |
tees, 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 to distribute them among their right I
full owners" And if in all the pulpits |
OF the United States today rousing ser
mons could be preached on honesty and |
the evils OF dishonesty, and the SER
mons were blessed of God. and ar
rangement should be made by which
all the goods which have been improp- |
erly taken from one man and appro- I
priated by another man should be put I
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. t
Morality Of the gospel we must just as
certainly proclaim.
Now, look abroad and see the fasci- |
nations that are thrown around diff |
ferent styles of crime. The questions |
that every man and woman has asked I
have been: Should crime be excused be- |
cause it is on a large scale? Is iniquity |
guilty and to be pursued Of the law in
proportion as it is on a small scale? !
Shall we have the penitentiary for the