The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1901-07-26
SIN In HIGH PLACES.
Tendency to Excuse Brilliant Faults
Because They Are Brilliant.
DIR. Taimage Says the Same Law
Ought 20 he Applied 10 the High
as TO the Low--The Sacred
ness of Life.


that there is a 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 ABB: "The same
hour was the thing fulfilled upon Neb-
uchadnezzar, and he was driven from
men and did eat grass as oxen"
Here is the mightiest of the Baby
lonish kings. Look at him. lie dld
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, "NebuchadneZzar,
son of Nabopolassor, king of Babylon.
He was great conqueror. he
stretched forth his spear toward a 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
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
transgre ssion was wide resounding.
He measured Nebuchadnezzar in high
places just as he would measure the
humblest captive.
But in our time, you know is well as
/, 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 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. l propose in carrying out
the suggestion of my text, as far as
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 will be
dealt with by that God who dealt with
impalaced Nebuchadnezzar.
Alrwho 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
- l. = IL lNa
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 | want YOU to
undcrstasd that by the deeds of the
law no flesh living can be justified and
mere honest life cannot enter us into
Heaven, ! want you as plainly TO I'M
derstand that unless the life is right
the heart is not right. Grace i'm the
heart and grace in the life; SO we must
preach sometimes the faith of the
Gospel and sometimes the morality of
the Gospel.
II seems to me there has not been a
time in the last 50 years when This lat
ter truth needed more thoroughly to
he presented in the American churches.
1t needs 20 be presented to-day.
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 il until a ma
tive told him: Our gods permit MS 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 he 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 al
the goods which have been improperlN
taken from one man and appropriated
by another man should be put in the
city halls of the country there is not q
city hall in the United States tina
would not be crowded from cellar t.
cupola. Faith of the Gospels; that WI
must preach and we do preach. Moral
ity Of the Gospel we must just as Ger
tainly proclaim.
Now, look abroad and see the fasci
nations that are thrown around differ
ent styles of crime. The question tina
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 tn,
law in proportion as it is on a small
scale? Shall we have the penitentiar,
for the man who steals an overcoa
from a hatrack and all Canada for
man to range in if he have robbed tn
public of millions?
Look upon all the fascination
thrown around fraud in this country
You know for years men have bee
made heroes of and pictorialized and il
various ways presented to the publ
asthough sometimes they were worth
of admiration if they have scattere