THE STANDARD OF MORALITY by C. C. L.

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Tuesday, November 25, 1884

FromThe Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 61, No. 47

THE STANDARD OF MORALITY

By C. C. L.

Sunday morning, Nov. 2, in the Tabernacle at Brooklyn, Mr. Talmage preached a characteristic sermon on the moral character of candidates for office. With the politics of the sermon the readers of the REVIEW would be little concerned; but they will be interested to know that the speaker took for his text the ten commandments, and proposed to test by this standard the character of persons nominated for office in the city, State, and nation. The sermon as a whole is one of the best utterances upon political duties and dangers that I remember having read, inasmuch as it omits all personalities, and aims “to lay down certain principles which will stand the test of the Judgment day.” I select a few of the most striking passages, especially those that refer to the law of God:—

“The decalogue forbids idolatry, image-making, profanity, maltreatment of parents, Sabbath desecration, murder; theft, incontinence, lying, and covetousness. That is the decalogue by which you and I will have to be tried, and by that same decalogue you and I must try candidates for office.”

Speaking of candidates whose lives are known to be out of harmony with these commandments, he says, “In no such case let us chop off the ten commandments. Let them stand as the everlasting defense of society and of the church of God.”

Here is another passage which is worth reading because of some wholesome truths which it states, such as the fact that “the commission of one sin opens the door for the commission of other sins,” and that no man has a right to say which commandment he will keep and which he will break. It will also be noticed with interest that Mr. Talmage considers the breaking of the fourth commandment as bad as the violation of any one of the rest, and further that he considers the desecration of Sunday a violation of the fourth commandment. He protests against the attempt to revise the decalogue, which was given on Mount Sinai; but when that instrument reads one day, and is interpreted to mean another, what is that but an attempt at revision?—

“The committing of one sin opens the door for the commission of other sins. You see it every day. Those Wall Street embezzlers, those bank cashiers absconding as soon as they are brought to justice, develop the fact that they were in all kinds of sin. No exception to the rule. They all kept bad company, they nearly all gambled, they all went to places where they ought not. Why? The commission of one sin opened the gate for all the other sins. Sins go in flocks, in droves, and in herds. You open the door for one sin, that invites in all the miserable segregation. The campaign orators this autumn, some of them bombarding the suffering candidates all the week, think no wrong in riding all Sunday, and they are at this moment many of them in the political headquarters calculating the chances. All the week hurling the eighth commandment at Mr. Blaine, the seventh commandment at Mr. Cleveland, and the ninth commandment at Mr. St. John—what are they doing with the fourth commandment? Breaking it. Is not the fourth commandment as important as the eighth, as the seventh, as the ninth? Some of these political campaign orators, as I have seen them reported, and as I have heard in regard to them, bombarding the suffering candidates all the week, yet tossing the word of God from their lips, the name of God from their lips, recklessly guilty of profanity. What are they doing with the third commandment? Is not the third commandment, which says, ‘Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain,’—is not the third commandment as important as the other nine? Oh, yes, we find in all departments men are hurling their indignation against sins perhaps to which they are not specially tempted—hurling it against iniquity toward which they are not particularly drawn. I have this Book for my authority when I say that the man who swears, or the man who breaks the Sabbath, is as culpable before God as either of these candidates is culpable if the things charged on him are true. What right have you and I to select which commandment we will keep and which we will break? Better not try to measure the thunderbolts of the Almighty. Better not handle the guns, better not experiment much with the divine ammunition. Cicero said he saw the Iliad written on a nutshell, and you and I have seen the Lord’s prayer written on a five-cent piece; but the whole tendency of these times is to write the ten commandments so small nobody can see them. I protest this day against the attempt to revise the decalogue which was given on Mount Sinai amid the blast of trumpets and the cracking of the rocks and the paroxysm of the mountain of Arabia Petrea. I bring up the candidates for city, State, and national power—I bring them up and try them by this decalogue.”

“Herodotus said that Nitocris, the daughter of Nebuchadnezzar, was so fascinated with her beautiful village of Ardrica, that she had the river above Babylon changed so it wound this way and wound that, and curved this way, and curved that, and though you sailed on it for three days, every day you would be in sight of that exquisite village. Now, I do not care which way you sail in morals, or which way you sail in life, if you only sail within sight of this beautiful group of divine commandments. Although they may sometimes seem to be a little angular, I do not care which way you sail, if you sail in sight of them you will never run aground, and you will never be shipwrecked. I never felt more impressed from God than I do this moment of the importance of what I am saying to this audience. Society needs toning up on all these subjects. I tell you there is nothing worse to fight than the ten regiments with bayonets and sabres of fire, marching down the side of Mount Sinai. They always gain the victory, and those who fight against them go under. There are thousands and tens of thousands of men being slain by the decalogue. What is the matter of that young man of whom I read? Dying in his dissipation? In his dying delirium he said: ‘Now fetch on the dice. It is gone. No, no! It is gone, all is gone! Bring on more wine! Bring on more wine! Oh, how they rattle their chains! Fiends, fiends, fiends! I say you cheat! The cards are marked! Oh, death! Oh, death! Oh, death! Fiends, fiends, fiends!’ and he gasped and was gone. The ten commandments slew him. Let not the ladies and gentlemen of this nineteenth century revise the ten commandments, but let them in society and at the polls put to the front those who come the nearest to this God-lifted standard. On Tuesday morning next read the twentieth chapter of Exodus at family prayers,” etc.

Thus we have another testimony from an eminent and popular preacher confirming the immutability and perpetuity of God’s holy law; and yet this eminent doctor of divinity does not seem to see the inconsistency of protesting against any revision of the decalogue, while he contends for the revision offered by the papacy, which makes the fourth commandment of the decalogue enforce sabbatizing upon the first day of the week.

C. C. L.