DR. TALMAGE'S SERMON: Wrong Uses of Maney. ul lusts, which drown men and perdition.”—1 Tim. 6 : 9. Tuar is the Niagara Falls over which rush a multitude of souls, name- ly the determination to have money wnyhow, right or wrong. Tell me how » man gets his money and what he does with it, and I will tell you his charac- ter; and what will be his destiny in this world and the next, I propose Lo speak this morning about the ruinous modes f getting money. We recently passed through a na- tional election, in which it has been es- timated that thirty million dollars were axpended. I think about twenty mil- lion of it were spent in out and out brib- ery. Both parties ratsed all they could for this purpose. But that was only on a large scale what has been done on a smaller scale for fifty years and in all departments. Politics from Leing the science of good government has often been bed- raggled into the synonym for trucul- ency and turpitude. A MONSTER SIN, plausible, potent, pestiferous, has gone forth to do its dreadful work in all ages Its two hands are rotten with leprosy. It keeps its right hand hid- den in a deep pocket. The left hand is clenched, and with its ichorous kunue- kle it taps at the door of the court- room, the legislative hall, the congress, and the parliament. The door swings open and the monster enters, and glides through the aisle of the council cham- ber as softly as a slippered page, and then it takes its right hand from its deep pocket and offers it in salutation to judge or legislator. If that hand be taken, and the palm of the intruder cross the palm of the official, the lep- rosy crosses from palm to palm in a round blotch, round as a gold eagle, and the virus spreads, and the doom is fixed, and the victim perishes, Let bribery, accursed of God and man, stand up for trial, The Bible arraignsit again and again, Samuel says of his two sous, who be- came judges, “They took bribes and perverted judgment.’”’ David says of some of Lis pursners, **Their right hand is full of Lribes,” Amos says of some men in his day, “They take a bribe, and turn aside the poor in the gate.” Eliphaz foretells the crushing blows of God’s indignation, declaring, ‘‘Fire shall consume the tabernacles of brib- ery.” If is no light temptation. THE MIGHTIEST HAVE FALLEN under it. Sir Francis Bacon, Chancellor of England, founder of our modern philosophy, author of **Novum Organum,’ and a whole library books, the leading thinker of his century, so precocious that when a little child he was asked by Queen Elizabeth, “How old are you?" he responded, *'I am two years youn zor than your Majesty's hap- py reign; oi whose oratory Ben Jonson wrote, ‘The fear of every man that heard him was lest he should make an end; baving an income which you sould suppose would have put him be- in destruction six thousand dollarsa year, and Twick- enham court a gift, and princely estates in Hertfordshire and Gorhambury—yet under this temptation to bribery, fall- ing flat into ruin, and on his confession of taking bribes, giving as excuse that 8)! Lis predecessors took them; he was fined two hundred thoasand dollars— or what corresponds with our two hun- dred thousand dollars—and imprisoned in London Tower. So also Lord Chan- cellor Macclesfield fell; so also Lord Waterbury perished. The black chapter in English, Irish, French, American politics is the chap. ter of ULribery, Some of you re member Pacific Mail subsidies, Most: of vou remember the awiul tragedy of the Credit Mobilier, Uns der the temptation to bribery Dene- dict Arnold sold the fort in the Highlands for $31,575. For this sin Gorgey betrayed Hungary, Ahithophel forsook David, and Judas kissed Christ. When I see so many of the illustrious going down under this temptation, it makes me think of the red dragon spoken of in Revelation, with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns, drawing a third part of the stars of heaven down after him. Tbe lobbies $ thie trol the country. THE LAND IS DRUNK WITH BRIBERY | “Oh,” says some one, there's no need of talking against bribery by promise his price.” 1 do not believe it, Even heathenism «od the Dark Ages have furnished specunens of incorruptibility, A cadi of Swyrna bad a case brought before him on trial. A man gave him five hundred ducats in bribery. The case came on. The briber had many witnesses, The poor man on the other side had no witnesses, At the close of the case the cadl said: man bas no witnesses, he thinks; I shall produce in Lis bebalf five hun- dred witnesses against the other side.” And then pulling out the bag of ducats from under the ottoman, he dashed it down at the feet of the briber, saying, “I give my decision against you.” Epaminondas, oifered a bribe, said: *'1 will do this th.ug if it be right, and if it be wrong ail your goods cannot per- suade me,’ The president of the American Con- gress during the American Revolution General Reed, was offered ten thousan guineas by foreign commissioners if he would betray this country. He replied: “Gentlemen, I am a very poor man, but tell your king he is not rich enough to buy me.” But why go so far, when you and J, if we move in honorable society, know men and women who by all the force of earth and hell COULD NOT BE BRIBED, They would no more be bribed than you would think of tempting an of light to exchange heaven id ‘0 offer a bribe is villainy, but itis a very poor compliment to the man to whom it is offered. Bute Boh, oti alc tu ho ve w W nue) on if they would only sell out. Those women who complain that are very often insulted, need to pi Bo A that there is something iu — is — their carriage to Invite insult, There are men at Albany, and at Harrisburg, and at Washiogton, who would no more be approached by a bribe than a pirate boat with a few cutlasses would dare to attack a British man-of-war with two banks of guus on each side loaded to the touch-hole. They are in- corruptible men, and they are the few men who are to save the city and save the land, Meanwhile, my advice is KEEP OUT OF POLITICS unless you are invulnerable to this style of temptation, Indeed, if you are nat- urally strong, you need religious but- tressing, Nothing but the grace of God can sustain our public men, and make them what we wish, I wish that there might come an old-fashioned re- vival of religion, that it might break out in Congress, and in the legislatures, and bring many of the leading liepubli- cans and Democrats, down on the anxi- ous seat of repentance, That day will come, or something better, for the Bible declares thal Kings and queens shall become nursing fathers and moth- ers to the Chureh, and if the greater in authority, then certainly the less, My charge also to parents 18, rem«in- ber that this evil ot bribery often begins in the home circle, and in the nursery, Do not bribe your children, Teach them to do that which 18 right, and not because of the ten cents or the orange you will gave them, There is a great difference between rewarding virtue, and making the profits thereof the lm- pelling motive. That man who honest merely because ‘honesty is the | best policy,” is already a moral bank- | rupt, My charge is to you, in all depart- ments of life, steer clear ot bribery, all of you, Every man and woman at some time will be tempted to do wrong for compensation. The bribe may not be offered in money. It may be offered mm social position, let us remember that there is a day coming when the most secret transaction of private life, and of public life, will come up for pub- lic reprebension. We CANNOT BRIBE DEATH, we cannot bribe sickness, we cannot bribe the grave, we cannot bribe the judgments of that God who thunders against 1 . Beaufort, * can’t death behired? is money nothing? must 1 die, aud so rich? if the owing of the whole realm fit or by purchase—by money.” No, death would not be hired then, he will not be hired now. Men rom the world. You can tell from lone of thelr chief sorrows is that they { have to leave their money. I break i that delusion. I tell that bribe-taker | that he will take lus money with him, | God will wrap it up in your shroud, or | put it in the palm of your hand in res. | urrection, and there it will lie, not the i cool, bright, shining gold as it was on | the day when you sold your vole and | your moral principle, but there it will i | ing your hand forever. Or, if there be | fall from the wrist, clanking the fetlers AN EVERLASTING POSSESSION, You take it for time, you take it for eternity. Some day in the next world, when you are longing for sympathy, you will feel on your cheek a Kiss Looking up you will find it to be Judas, | ting an infamous kiss on the pure cheek | of his divine Master. i { | Another wrong use of money is seen in the abuse of trust funds. Every man 1 or smaller scale, has the property of | others committed to his keeping. He | Is, so far, a safety deposit, he is an ad- ministrator, and holds in his hand the jinterest of the family of a deceased ifriend. Or he is an attorney, ‘though his custody goes the payment { from debtor to creditor, or he is the col- | lector for a business house, which com- | pensates him for the responsibility, or | he is treasurer for a charitable Institu- | tion, and he holds alms contributed for | city or the state or the nation, and taxes | and subsidies and salaries and supplies {are in has keeping, It | trust as God can make | centred and | MULTIPLIED CONFIDENCES, | On that man depends the support of a | bereft household, or the morals ot de- | pendents, or the right movement of a | thousand wheels of social mechanism, A man may do what he will with nis i own, but he who abuses trust funds, in | that one act commits theft, falsehood, | perjury, and becomes, in all the inten- | sity of the word, a miscreant, How | many widows and orphans there are it. It is con. | tion but a sewing machine, or held up | out of the vortex of destruction simply by the thread of a needle, red with their own heart's blood, who a little wiule ago had, by father and husband, left them a competency. What is the matter? The administrators of the ex- ecutors have sacrified it—running risks with it that they would not have dared to encounter in their own private af- fairs. How often it is that a man will earn a livelihood by the sweat of his brow, and then die, and within a few months all the estate goes into the stock-gambling rapids of Wall Street, How often it is that you have known the man to whom trust funds were committed taking them out of the sav- ing bank and from trust companies and administrators, turning old homesteads into hard cash, and then putting the entire estate into the vortex of specula- tion. Embezzlement is an easy word to pronounce, but it has ten thousand ramifications, There is NOT A CITY THAT HAS NOT SUFFERED. not and that is that people ought not to go into places, Into business, or into posi- tions WHERE THE TEMPTATION 18 MIGITIER : than their charwcter, Lf there be suits of moey to be ban bak, and the wi - man is not sure of his own integrity, you have no right to run an unsea- worthy craft in a euroclydon, A man san tell by the sense of weakness or strength in the presence of wu bad op. postusity whether he is in a safe place, Tow many parents make an awful mis. take when they put their boys in bank- ing houses and stores and shops and factories and places of solemn trusts, without once discussing whether they can endure the temptation, You give the boy plenty of money, and have no account of it, and make the way down become very easy, and you may pul upon him a pressure that he cannot stand, There are men who go into positions full of temptation, consider- ing only that they are lucrative posi Lions, An abbot wanted to buy a piece of ground, and the owner would not sell it, but the owner finally consented to let it to him until he could raise one ¢rop, and the abbot sowed acorns, A CROP OF TWO HUNDRED YEARS! And I tell you, young man, that the dishonesties which you plant in your heart and life will seem to be very in- significant, but they will grow up until they will overshadow you with horrible darkness, overshadow all time and all | eternity, It will not be a crop for two es ing ages, I stand this morning { who have trust funds, It is a compli- {ment to you that you have so intrusted, but 1 charge you, In | the presence of God and the world, be | careful; ve as careful of the proparty of { others as you are careful of your own, | Above all, keep your own private ac- i count at the bank separate from your before many | tee of an institution { at which thousands of people make shipwreck, They get the properly of | erty, they put it into investment, ana | away it all goes, and they cannot return i that which they borrowed, Then comes | the explosion, and the money market is | shaken, and the dress denounces, and You of nor withoul consent, unless they are minors, many their possession, therefore it is Lheirs You have A SOLEMN TRUST in this vast be assemblage thers may SONG them back, or, if you have so hopelessly to those wWiil have What from the were nol the account-books, or hat you Oh! is it not high time that we preach TINE MORALS OF THE GOSPEL right beside the faith of the gospel? Mr. Froude, the celebrated Eoglish try these remarkable works: **From the great house in the city of London to the village grocer, the commercial You can po longer trust that any article you buy is the thong which it pretends to be. We have false weights, false measures, cheating, and shoddy every- where, And yet the clergy all this grow up in absolute indifference, Many hundreds of sermons have | beard in England, on the divine mission of the clergy, ou bishops, and justifica- tion, and the theory of good works, and verbal inspiration, and the efficacy of but, during all these thirty wonderful years, never one that I 3 Now, that may be an exaggerated ial am very ceriain that in all parts of the earth we need to preach the moralities | faith of the Gospel, | My hearer! What are you doing with | that fraudulent document in your pock- | et? My other hearer! How are you get | ting along with that wicked scheme you have now on fool? Is that a “‘pool | ticket’* you have in your pocket? Why, | 0 young man, were you last signature? WHERE WERE YOU LAST Niout? Are your habits as good as when you left your father’s house? You bad a have had tov many prayers spent on you to go overboard, Dr. Livingstone, the famous explorer, ,was descended from the Highlanders, and he said that one of his ancestors, one of the High- landers, one day called his family around him, The Highlander was dy- ing; be had lus children around his death-bed. He sald: “Now, my lads, I have looked all through our history as far back as I can find it, and 1 have never found a dishonest man in ail the line, and 1 want you to understand you inherit good blood, You have no ex- cuse for doing wrong. My lads, be Lo " Ah, my friends, be honest before God, be honest before your fellow-men, be honest before your soul, If there be those here who have away, down part of a railroad bridge. A freight train came along and it crashed into the ruin, and the engineer and con- ductor perished. There was a girl liv- ing in her father’s cabin, near the dis- aster, and she heard the crash of the freight train, and she knew in a few moments an express train was due, She lighted a lantern, and clambered up on the one beam of the wrecked bridge on to the main bridge, which was trestle work, and started to cross amid the thunder and the lightning of the temp- est, and the raging of the torrent ben- eath, One misstep and it would have been death, Amid all that horror the lantern went out, Crawling sometimes, and sometimes walking over the slippery rails, and over the trestle work, she came to the other side of the river, She wanted to gef to the telegraph station, where the express train did not stop, so that the danger might be telegraphed to the station where the train did stop. The train was due in five minutes, She was one mile off from the telegraph station, but for- tunately the train was late, With cut and bruised feet she lew like the wind, Coming up to the telegraph station, panting with almost deathly exhaus- tion, she had only strength to shout, “The bridge is down,” when she drop- ped unconscious, and could hardly be | resuscitated, The message was sent from that station to the next station, and the train halted, and that night, dreds of passengers, and saved many homes from desolation, | track, and multitudes under the power | of temptation come sweeping on, and | sweeplug down toward perils raging and or 5 territle. | the train! Let us i throw | Jet us give some warning. all warning: “He, that, being often | denly and that i be destroyed, i remedy.” - a Literal Answers, on the side-walk to the salt, “Now, that's benevolence.” “No it ain't, said the boy, somewhat indignant, “it's salt.”’ So when a lady asked servant if | the hired man cleaned off the snow { with ulacrity, she replied: “No. ma'am, he used a shovel.” The same literary turn of mind which we have been illustrating used intentionally, and perhaps a little maliciously, id thus becomes the property of wit Instend of blunder, Thus we hear of a very polite and im- who said to a youlh her #1 | pressive gentiemna i in the street, “Poy, may I inquire soni’s drug store is?’’ “Certainly, sir,” very respectfully, “Well, sir,” said the gentleman, | after waiting awhile, “where 18 it?" replied the boy, said the urchin, There was another boy who was ac- costed by an ascetic with: “Well, ma'am,” sald the boy, “why | don’t you go there?" One day at Lake George, a party of gentlemen strolling among the beautli- ful Islands on the lake, with bad luck, espled a boy with a red shirt and straw hat, dangling a line over thesideof a boat. “Halloo, boy,” said one of them, “what are you doing?"’ “Fishing.” came the answer, “Well, of course,” “but what do you catch?” “Fish, you fool; what do you sup- man, pose?’’ “id any of you ever see an ele phant’s skin?” inquired a teacher of an infant class.” “1 have,” exclaimed one. “Where,” asked the teacher, “On the elephant, *‘said U | laughing, boy, Sometimes this sort of wit degener- | ates or rises, as the case may be, into | punning, as when Flora pointed pen- sively to the heavy masses of clouds in the sky, saying: “1 wonder where those clouds are go- ing ?'’ and her brother replied: **1 think they are going to thunder,” Also the following dialogue: “Halloo, there, how do you sell your | wood?" “By the cord.” “How long has it been cul?” “Four feet.” “1 mean how long has it been since | you cut it." **No longer than it is now.” And also when Patrick O'Flynn was seen with his collar and bosom sadly begrimmed, and was indignantly asked by his officer: “Patrick O'Flynn! how long do you wear a shirt?” *wenty-eight inches, sir.” This reminds me of an instance which is said to have occurred recently in Chatham street, New York, where a countryman was clamorously besieged by a shopkeeper, “Have you any fine shirts?’ said the countryman, “A splendid assortment, sir, Everystyleand price. The cl sir." in “Then," sail the countryman with great gravity, “you had better put one on, for you need it."* INSTRUCTIONS TO Come, -A little boy complained that his mster had pur. she denied, to San- that wrong » you “We haven't got so far as thas," she interrupted, It not sn SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON, Suspay Manon 31, 1530, QUARTERLY REVIEW. TITLES AND GOLDEN TEXTS, GoLDEX TEXT vor THE QUARTER: Belweve me that I am in the Father, and the Futher in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake.—Jolin 14 : 11. I. THE MISSION OF JOHN THE BAPTIST, I'he voice of one erying in the wilder- ness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, Mark 1 : 3, 11. A BABBATH IN THE LIFE OF As his custom was, he went synagogue on the sabbath day.~ 4:16, 111. HEALING OF THE LEPER. As soon 4s he had spoken, immediate. ly the leprosy departed from him, and he was cleansed. — Mark 1 : 42. IV. FORGIVENEFS AND HEALING, Who forgiveth all thine iniguities; who healeth all thy Psa, 103 : 8. i Vv. THE PARABLE OF THE BOWER. If any man have ears to hear, let him | hear. — Mark 4 : 23. VI. THE FIERCE DEMONIAC, Go home to thy friends, and tell them things the lord hath: done | had on JESUS, into the Lule diseases, and hath Mark 5 : 19. Vil. THE TIMID de not afraid, COmMpassion WOMAN'S TOUCH, Mark believe, only Vill, THE GREAT TEACHER TWEILYE, went out, 1 id repent, — Mark 6 : THE MESSIALL come aller me, if, and take up his ~-Mark 8 : 54. X, THE CHILD-LIKE SPIRIT. Whosoever shall not dom of God little child, 1 — Mark 10 : CHRIST'S LOVE TO THE YOUNG, iffer the little ch ind forbid them not; Mark 10 : XI, BLIKD BARTIMEUS. Thou Son of David, Mark 10 : 48, Ar BIBLE LIGHTS, Superintendent: The of Jesus Christ, | Even as it is written send ARD THE preache Xx. JESUS receive tl as a .h 1a, Xi. » ildren to con for of such 18 | 14. me, have mercy on REVIEW Lesson 1. ba- the orp] Son of God, prepare thy way (Mark 1. 23%. Scholars: The cry One ing ir (REE | the way of e i : bo 5 1 ut how may abide the day of srl who sl i 1 t1 ve qh (AA oO : Ma stand whe ~ nt: And they + and straight he entered uperintends into Capernaam Way on | tie yuagogue and tanght. And they were « f 13 . th 4 vy hu abimill Gay no having authority, and net Mark 1 As them as “a 1 wt 29) HAS Cusom he went sath day scholars sail Let us the house e Lord (Psa. 122:1). All: Teachers go unto I had rather be a doorkeeper in | God, than to dwell the tents of wickedness (Psa. 84 : 10). Lesson 3. Superintendent: And there | cometh to him a leper, beseeching him, | EER | unto him, If thou wilt, thou canst make | ing i i And being moved wit he stretched forth his h com- | hand. + hou made clean {Mark 1 1 Ag soon as he had spoken, him. and he was cleansed (Mark 1:42), Teachers: OO let us worship and bow down; let kneel before Lord our Maker: he is Pea. 95:6, 7). All: The Lord our God will we Josh, 24 : #4). Superintendent : cote, ae God us for Mal serve And they | Cone, iz unto him a man sick of the palsy, of four. And when they could not cone nigh unto him for the crowd, they uncovered the roof where he was: and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed whereon the sick of the palsy lay. And faith saith unto the faogpom 4 orings DOThe given (Mark 2 : 3-5). Scholars: Who forgiveth all thine Teachers: If we confess our sins, he All: Cleanse me from my sin. Ford acknowledge my transgressions: and my sins are ever before me Psa, 51 : 24 3), Lesson 5.—Superintendent: Unto you is given the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all things are done in parables: that see- ing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not under- stand; lest haply they should turn again, and it should be forgiven them (Mark 4:11, 13). Scholars: If any man have ears to hear, Jet hit hear (Mark 4 : 23), Teachers: Take heed therefore how ye hear (Luke 8 : 18). All: Make me to hear joy and glad- ness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice (Psa. 51 : 8), Lesson 6.—~Superintendent: And they began to beseech him to depart from | their borders. And as he was into the boat, he that had been with devils besought him that he might be with him. And be suffered him not, but saith unto him—(Mark 5 : 17-19). Scholars: Go home to thy Sratudss ad and the bad oom. looked round about to see her that Lad done this thing. But the woman fear- ing and trembling, knowing what had been done to her, came and fell down be- fore him, and told him all the truth, And he sald unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague (Mark 5: 32.54). Beholars: De not afraid, only believe (Mark 5: 96). Teachers: All things are possible him that believeth (Mark © : 23). All: 1 believe; help thou mine wm lief (Mark 9: 24). Lesson B.-—Superintendent: And he called unto him the twelve, and began to send them forth by two and two; and he gave them authority over the unclean spirits, .... And he said unto Lo Aud whatsoever piace shall not receive you, ye go forth under feet for a testimony unto them 10, 11). Aud they went out, and preached that men should repent (Mark (Mark 6 : 7 scholars: Teachers: Except ye repent, ye shall : 1 (Luke 13:38 All: we perish (Matt 5 5 add Lesson 9, —-5u doth it profit a man, to gain the world, and forfeit his lite? For 35-37). VW hos ‘ me, let him deny hi his and foll Teacher Meholars: Cross Phere HOUSE, or children, the receive y & i ny iE, but rose] gospel’s oa Lhonse, he now in i sake, stad all is Lime, And with in the world WwW come persecutions; and eternal All: We will the Lord (Josh seTVEe T.ssom 10.—Superintendent: And he took a little child, and set him the : taking him in his then, Whosoever Little « and iveth not me, but me (Mark 9 : 36, 37). Whosoever shall not receive fiom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein (Mark 10 : 15). Teachers: Let us fear therefore, he haply, a promise being left of rest, any one of you should seein rt of it (Heb, 4:1) therefore give diligence into that rest (Heb, 4 : 11). 11. indendent: And thes ittie children, that he and the disciples re- But when Jesus saw it, lu with indignation, and said Mark 10: 135, 145. suffer the listle children to ne, and forbid them not; f Kit of God (Mark in unto one of such fie said arms, ive hildren w hoso- ever receivell me, rece Lim that sent Scholars: king than SELLE SHEL entering into nis Lo Lave « All Orne iu I 41 us Ls bre ghiou X80 Super abit Bilis u id touch them: buked them. wiito them DCHOLATS 1" of such is the 10 : 14). Teachers: Be ve therefore imitators of (Eph. 5:1), Thou art my father, my God, and ™ wwdow Ali: the rock of my salvation (Psa. 89: Lesson 12 Superintendent: The son of Timeseus, Bartimaeus, a blind beguar, was sitting by the way side. And when began to cry out, and say—{Mark Scholars: Thou Son of David, have mercy on me {Mark 10:48), Teachers: Mercy unto you and peace All: Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I for ever (Psa. 20 : 6). —— The “Drop Game.” A well-known “drop game,” recently ried with success on a Brooklyn bank of Ju David Davis. The a re bank, and stoed counting a A well- up, and, “Judge, Sure en- with a bow and a smile, said: “Thank the judge, £2 bill at the depositor’s feet. you,” blandly answered The sharper, taken aback by the coolness of the proceeding, disappeared, and the judge was $2 ahead by the transaction. Left His Address at Home. An old farmer named Kent was a He had many peculiarities and : ecoentrici- ties which earned for him a variety of nicknames, at which, by the way, he never took any offence. In some way this old fellow had some claim to a pension. lle went down to Augusta to be examined by the physician there tor that He was found to have disabilities that warranted his ob- taining » pension, but he was very much excited at the length of the ex- amination and the variety of questions put to him, Finally he was asked his address, **Ol, yes, of course,” he re- plied, “you'll want my address, but bless me what did 1 do with it?" After fumbling in all his pockets, be looked up helplessly and “By gracious, I must have left my address at howe.” Lottery Superstition. jobtery ticket craze devel all manner of superstitions. of several staid oitizens of for the purchase =R5> fhe 5 §
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers