De Queen bee. [volume], July 16, 1897, Image 6

About De Queen bee. [volume] (De Queen, Ark.) 1897-current

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TALMAGE’S SEIiMGN.
fells How t 3 Secure Safety for
Our C.t.oa.
MnalclpHl Government front a Moral
and Krllulouß Standpoint —
lonntel to Those Holding
Public Positions.
Ur. Talmage, in the following sermon,
discusses from a moral and religious
Standpoint tbe welfare of all the towns
and cities of our country. His text is
Ezekiel xxvii, 3: “0 thou that art situ
ate at the « • try of the sea!”
This is a part of an impassioned apos
trophe tothecityof lyre Itwasabeau
tiful city—a majestic city. At tbe east
end of the Mediterianeau it sat with
one hand beckoning the inland trade
and w ith I he other the commerce of for
eign nations. Lt swung a monstrous
boom across its harbor to shut out for
eign enemies, and then swung back
that boom to let in its friends. The air
of the desert was fragrant with the
spices brought by caravans to her fairs,
and ail seas were cleft into foam by the
keels of her laden merchantmen. Iler
markets weie rich with horses ano
mules ami camels from L’ogarmah;
with upholstery and ebony ami ivory
from Dedan: with emeralds ami agate
and coral from by ria; with wine from
Hellion; with finest needlework from
Ashur and Chilmad. talk about the
splendid staterooms of your Conard
and Inman and White Star lines of
international steamers — w by, tiie
benches ol the staterooms in those
'Tyrian ships were all ivory, and instead
ol our coarse canvas on the mast of
tbe shipping, they had the finest linen,
quilted together ami inwrought with
embroideries almost miraculous for
beauty. Its columns overshadowed all
nations. Distant empires felt its heart
beat. Majestic city, "situate at the
entry of the sea.”
But where now is the gleam of her
towers, the .oar of her chariots, the
znasts Al bei shipping'.’ Let the tisber
meu who d.y their nets on the place
where she once stood, let the sea that
rushes upon the barrenness where she
once challenged the admiration of all
nations, let the barbarians who build
their huts on the place where her pal
aces glittered, answer the question.
Blotted out forever! She forgot God,
and God forgot her. And while our
modern cities admire her glory let
them take warning at her awful doom.
Cam was the founder of the first city,
and 1 suppose it look after him in mor
als. It is a long while before a city can
get over the character of those who
founded it. Were they criminal exiles,
the filth, and tbe prisons, and the de
bauchery are tbe shadows of such
founders. New York will not for 200
or 300 years escape from the good in
fluences of its founders, the pious set
tlers whose prayers went up from the
very streets where now banks discount,
and brokers shave, and companies de
clare dividends, and smugglers swear
customhouse lies, and above the roar
of the drays and the crack of the au
tioneers’ mallets is heard the ascrip
tion: "We worship thee, O thou al
mighty dollar!" The church that once
stood ou Wall street still throws its
blessing over all the scene of traffic
and upon tbe ships that fold their
white wings in the harbor. Originally
men gathered in cities from necessity.
It was to escape the incendiary’s torch
or the assassin s dagger. Only the very
poor lived in the country, those who
Jiad nothing that could be stolen or
vagabonds who wanted to be near
their place of business, but since civili
zation and religion have made it sate
for men to live almost anywhere men
congregate in cities because of the op
portunity for rapid gain. Cities are
nut necessarily evils, as has sometimes
been argued. They have been tbe
birthplace of civilization. In them pop
ular liberty has lifted up its voice.
Witness Genoa and Pisa and Venice.
The entrance of the representatives of
tbe cities in the legislatures of Eu
rope was the deathblow to feudal king
doms. Cities are the patronizers of
art and literature —architecture point
ing to its British museum iu London,
its Royal library m Paris, its Vatican in
Rome. Cities hold the world's scep
ter. Africa was Carthage, Greece was
Athens, England is London, France is
Paris, Italy is Rome and the cities in
wnicb God lias cast our lot will yet de
cide the destiny of the American peo
ple.
At this season of the year 1 have
thought it might be useful to talk a lit
tle while about the moral responsibility
resting upon the office bearers in all our
cities, a theme as appropriate to those
who are governed as to the governors.
The moral character of those who ruie
a city has much to do with the char
acter of the city itself. Men, women and
children are all interested in national
politics. When the great presidential
election comes, every patriot wants to
be found at the ballot box. We are all
Intelested iu the discussion of national
finamc, national debt, and we read the
law s of congress, and we are wondering
who will sit next in the presidential
chair. Now, that may be all very well
—is very well. But it is high time that
we took some of the attention w hich we
have bcui devoting to national affairs
tud brought it to the stu Jy of municipal
(overt.l’leiil. This it seems to me now
Is the chief point to be taken. Make
the cities neut and the oat’on will Lie
right. I have noticed that, according '
to their opportunities, there ha* really
been more corruption in municipal .
governments ia this country than in ;
the state and national legislatures.
Now, is there no hope? With the might
iest agent in our hand, the glorious ,
gospel of Jesus Christ, shall not all our
cities be reformed and purified and re- ,
deemed? 1 believe the day will come.
1 am in full sympathy with those who
are opposed to carrying politics into
I religion, but our cities will never be re
formed and purified until we carry re-I
iigion into politics. 1 look over our .
' cities and 1 see that all great inter- I
ests are to be affected in the future,
| as they have been affected in the past,
; by the character of tho>e who in the
different departments rule over us, and
1 propose to classify some of those iu
i terests.
In the first place, I remark commer
cial ethics are always affected by the l
moral or immoral character of those i
who have municipal supremacy. Otfi- !
cials that wink at fraud and that have ■
neither censure nor arraignment for
glittering dishonesties always weaken
the pulse of commercial honor. Every
shop, every store, every bazar, every
factory in the cities feels the inoral
character of the city hall. If in any city
there be a dishonest mayoralty, or an
unprincipled common council, or a
court susceptible to bribes, in that city
there will be unlimited license for all
kinds of trickery and sin, while, on the
ether hand, if officials are faithful to
their oath of office, if the laws are
promptly executed, if there is vigilance
in regard to the outbranebings of
crime, there is the highest protection
for all bargain making.
A merchant may stand in his store
and say: "Now, I’ll have nothing to do
■ with city politics. I will not soil rny
hands with the slush.” Nevertheless
i the most insignificant trial in the police
court will affect that merchant direct
ly or indirectly. What style of clerk is
sues the writ? What style of constable
‘ makes the arrest? What style of attor
ney issues the plea? What style of
judge charges the jury? What style of
sheriff executes the sentence? These
are questions that strike your counting
i rooms to the center. You may not
1 throw it off. In the city of New York
i Christian merchants for a great while
■ said: “We’ll have nothing to do with
j the management of public affairs,” anJ
they allowed everything to go at loose
I ends until there rolled up in that city
j a debt of nearly $120,000,000. The mu
| nicipal government became a hissing
i and a byword in the whole earth, and
then the Christian merchants saw their
I felly, and they went and took posses-
■ sion of the ballot boxes. I wish all com
j mercial men to understand that they
, are not independent of the moral char
acter of the men who rule over them,
but must be thoroughly, mightily af
fected by them.
So also of the educational interests of
a city. Do you know that there are in
i this country about 70.000 common
schools, and that there are over 8.000,-
000 pupils, and that the majority of
those schools and the majority of those
pupils are in our cities? Now this great
multitude-of children will be affected
by the intelligence or ignorance, the
I virtue or the vice of boards of education
and boards of control. There are cities
where educational affairs are settled in
. the low caucus in the abandoned parts
of the cities by men full of ignorance
and rum. It ought not to be so, but in
many cities it is so. I hear the tramp of
i coming generations. What that great
multitude of youth shall be for this
i world and the next will be affected very
much by the character of your public
schools. You had better multiply the
moral and religious influences about
the common schools than to subtract
from them. Instead of driving the
Bible out. you had better drive the
Bible further in. May God defend our
glorious common school system and
send into rout and confusion all its
sworn enemies.
1 have also to say that the character
of officials in a city affects the domestic
circle. In a city where grogshops have
their own way and gambling hells are
not interfered with, and for fear of los
ing political influence officials close
their eyes to festering abominations —
in all those cities the home interests
need to make imploration. The family
circles of the city must inevitably be af
fected by the moral character or the im
moral character of those who rule over
them.
1 will go further and say that the
‘ religious interests of a city are thus as-
I fueled. The church to-day has to con
tend with evils that the civil law ought
to smite, and. while I would not have
, the civil government in any wise relax
its energy in the arrest and punishment
I of crime, 1 would have a thousandfold
more energy put forth in the drying up
i of the fountains of iniquity. Tbe church
‘ of (iod asks no pencuniary aid from po
liticial power, but does ask that in ad
| diticn to all the evils we must neeessar-
I ily contend against we shall not have
to fight also municipal negligence. Oh,
| that in all our cities Christian people
would rise up, and that they would put
their hand on the helm before piratical
demagogues have swamped the ship!
Instead of giving so much time to na
tional polities, give some of your atten-
■ tion to municipal government.
I demand that tbe Christian people
who have been standing aloof from
public affairs come back, and in tbe
might of God try to save our cities. If
things are or have been .bad. it is be-|
i cause good pe -p-.e Lave let them be bld.
That Christian man who merely goes
to the polls and casts his vote does not ,
do his duty. It is not the ballot box [
that decides the election; it is the po
litical caucus, ami if at the primary
meetings of the two political parties un
fit and bad men are nominated, then the
ballot box has nothing to do save to
take its choice between two thieves.
In our churches, by reformatory or- ,
ganization, in every way let us try to .
tone up the moral sentiment in these
cities. The rulers are those whom the
people choose, and depend upon it that ,
in all the cities, as long as pure hearted
men stand aloof from polities because I
they depise hot partisanship, just so
long in many of our cities will rum
make the nominations, and rum control
the ballot box, and rum inaugurate the
officials.
1 take a step further in this subject .
and ask all those who believe in the
omnipotence of prayer, day by day and |
every day, present your city officials I
before God for a blessing. If you live
in a city presided over by a mayor,
pray for him. The chief magistrate of '
a city is in a position of great responsi
bility. Many of the kings and queens
and emperors of other days had no such
dominion. With the scratch cf a pen he
may advance a beneficent institution or
balk a railway confiscation. By ap
pointments he may bless or curse every
hearthstone in thecity. If in the Episco
pal churches, by the authority of the lit
any. and in our nonepiscopate churches
we every Sabbath pray for the president
of the United States, why not. then, be
just as hearty in our supplications for
the chief magistrates of cities, for their
guidance, for their health, for their
present and their everlasting morality?
But go further, and pray for your
common council, if your city has a
common council. They hold in their
hands a power splendid for good or ter
rible for evil. They have many temp
tations. In many of the cities whole
boards of common council men have
gone down in the maelstrom of po
litical corruption. I’hey could not
stand the power of the bribe. Corrup
tion came in and sat beside them, and
sat behind them, and sat before them.
They recklessly voted away the hard
earned moneys of the people. They
were bought out, oody, mind and soul,
so that at the end of their term of of
fice they had not enough of moral re
mains left to make a decent funeral.
They went into office with the huzza
of the multitude. They came out with
the anathema of all decent people.
There is not one man out of 100 that can
endure the temptations of the common
council men in our great cities. If a
man in that position have the courage
of a Cromwell and the independence of
an Andrew Jackson, and the publie
spiritedness of a John Frederick Ober
lin, and the piety of an Edward Fay
son. he will have no surplus to throw
away. Fray for these men. Every
man likes to be prayed for. Do you
know how Dr. Norman McLeod be
came the queen’s chaplain? Lt was
by a warm-hearted prayer in tbe
Scotch kirk in behalf of the royal fam
ily. one Sabbath when the queen and
her son were present incognito.
les, go further, my friends, and
pray for your police. Their perils and
temptations are best known to them
selves. They hold the order and peace
of your cities in their grasp. Hut for
their intervention you would not be
safe for an hour. They must face the
storm. They must rush in where it
seems to them almost instant death
They must put the hand of arrest on
the armed maniac and corner the mur
derer. They must refuse large re
wards for withdrawing complaints.
They must unravel intricate plots and
trace dark labyrinths of crime and de
velop suspicions into certainties. They
must be cool while others are frantic.
They must be vigilant while others are
somnolent, impersonating the very vil
lainy they want to seize. In the po
lice forces of our great cities are to-day
men of as thorough character as that
of the old detective of New Y ork, ad
dressed to whom there came letters
■ from London asking for help ten years
' after he was dead —letters addressed to
"Jacob Hayes, High Constable of New
York.” Your police need your ap
preciation, your sympathy, your grati
tude, and, above a'l, your prayers. Yea,
1 want you to go further and pray every
day for prison inspectors and jail keep
ers, work awful and oenefieent. Rough
' men, cruel men. impatient men, are not
tie for these places. they have under
their care men who were once as good as
you, but they got tripped up. Bad
company or strong drink or strange
conjunction of circumstances flung
them headlong, (jo down that prison
corridor and ask them how they got in
and about their families and what their
early prospects in life were, and you
will find that they are very much like
yourself, except in this, that God kept
you while He did not restrain them
Just one false step made the difference
between them and you. They want
more than prison bars, more than jail
fare, more than handcuffs and hop
piers, more than a vermin-covered couch
to reform them. Fray God day by day
that the men who have these unfortu
nates in charge may be merciful, L'hris
tinnly strategic and the means of refer
mafion ami rescue.
Some years ago a city pastor in New
York was called to the city prison to
attend a funeral. A young woman had
committed a crime and was incarcer
ated, and her mother, came to visit her.
and died on the visit. The mother, hav
ing no home, was buried from her
daughter’s prison cell. After the serv
ice was over tbe imprisoned daughter
came up to the minister of Christ and
said: "Wouldn’t you like to see my
poor mother?” And while they stood
at the coffin the minister of Christ
said to that imprisoned soul: "Don’t
you feel to-day, in the presence of your
mother’s dead body, as if you ought to
make a vow before God that you will
do differently and live a belter life?
She stood fora few moments, and theu
the tears rolled down her cheeks, and
she pulled from her right hand tbe
wornout glove that she had put on in
honor of the obsequies, and, having
bated her right hand, she put it upon
the chill brow of her dead mother and
said: "By the help of God, I swear 1
will do differently! God help uie!
And she kept her vow. And years
after, when she was told ot the inci
dent, she said: “When that minister ol
the Gospel said: ‘God bless you and
help you to keep the vow that you have
made,’ 1 cried out, and I said: 'lou
bless me! Do you bless me? Why,
that’s the first kind word I’ve beard
in ten years.' And it thrilled through
my soul, and it was the means of my
refol motion, and ever since, by the
grace of God, 1 ve tried to live a ( hi is
tian life." Oh. yes, there are many
amid the criminal classes that may be
reformed. Pray for the men who have
these unfortunates in charge, and who
knows but that when you are leaving
this world you may hear the voice of
Christ dropping to your dying pillow,
saying: "1 was sick and in prison
and yon visited me." Yea, 1 take ’.he
suggestion of the Apostle Paul and ask
you to pray for all w ho are in authori
ty, that we may lead quiet and peaceful
lives in godliness and honesty.
My word now is to all who may come
to hold any public position of trust in
any city: You are God’s represenla
- fives. God, the King and Rule: and
Judge, sets you in His place. Oh. be
faithful m the discharge of all yourdu
; ties, so that when all our cities are m
ashes and the world itself is a red scroll
:of tlame, you may be in the mercy
and grace of Christ rewarded for
| your faithfulness It was that feel
ing which gave such eminent
J qualifications for office to Neal Dow,
mayor of Portland, and to Judge
McLean, of Ohio, and to Benjamin F.
Butler, attorney general of New York,
and to George Briggs, governor of Mas
sachusetts. and to Ibeodore Freling
huysen, senator of the United States,
and to W illiam Wilberforce, member of
the British parliament. You may make
the rewards of eternity the emoluments
of your office. W hat care you for ad
verse political criticism if you have God
on your side? Ihe one, or the two. or
the three years of your public trust will
pass away, and all the years of your
] earthly service, and then the tribunal
will be lifted before which you and 1
must appear. May God make you so
faithful now that the last scene shall be
to your exhilaration and rapture! 1
wish to exhort all good people, whether
they are the governors or the governed,
to make one grand effort tor the salva
tion, the purification, the redemption ot
our American cities. Do you nut know
that there are multitudes going duwu
to ruin, temporal and eternal, dropping
quicker than words drop from my lips?
Grogshops swallow them up. Gambling
hells devour them. Houses of sbameare
damning them. Oh, let us toil and pray
and preach and vote until all these
wrongs are righted! What we do we
must do quickly. With our rulers, and
on the same platform, we must al lust
come before the throne of Gud to an
swer for what we have done for the
bettering ol our great towns. Alas, if
on that day it be found that your hand
has been idle and my pulpit has been
silent! O, ye who are pure and honest
and Christian, go to work and help to
make the cities pure and honest and
Christian!
Lest it may have been thought that 1
am addressing only what are culled the
belter classes, my final word is to some
dissolute soul to whom these words
may come. Though you may be cov
| cred with all crimes, though you may
be smitten with all leprosies, though
I you may have gone through the whole
catalogue of iniquity and may not
have been in church foi 20 years, you
may have your nature entirely recon
structed. and upon your brow, not
with infamous practices and besweated
with exhausting indulgences, God will
place tbe flashing coronet of a Saviour's
forgiveness. “Oh, uol” you say. "If
you knew who I am and where 1 came
from, you wouldn’t say that to me.
I don’t believe the Gospel you are
preaching speaks in my ease.” Yes. it
does, my brother. And then, when you
tell me that, 1 think of what St. leresa
said when reduced to utter destitution.
Having only two pieces of money left,
she jingled the two pieces ot money in
her band and said: "bt. leresa and
two pieces of money are not lung, but
St. Teresa and two pieces of money and
God are all things." And I tell you
now that while a sin and a sinner are
nothing, n sin and a sinner and an all
forgiving and all compassionate God
are everything.
Who is that that I see coming? L
know his step. 1 know his rags Who
is it? A prodigal. Come, people of
God; let us go out and meet him. Get
the best robe you can find in all IJiq
wardrobe. Let the angels of God fiff
their chalices and drink to his eter
nal rescue. Come, people of God; let
us go out to meet him Ihe prodigal
is coming home. Ihe dead is aliv«
again, and tbe lost is Lou ud.
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