Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-05-09

voting age, would make total of more
than 5000, 900, or number equal to more
than a per cent of the total number OF
voters at the Presidential election in 1883.
Christians Who Are Not Communicates.
The number of regular attendants upon
church services, not communlcants, put
whose lives are coufessedly subject to relig-
ious influence, will add not less than 90 per
cent to all of these figures, making total
OF 32, ,239, 800 (including Roman .Catholicsl
under church influence, of whom IL, 56l 600
were over the age of 81, and of whom 6, 446,-
500 we're males OF voting age. In other
words, in the year 1890 the number Of those
who may be supposed to have been In full
sympathy with the doctrines of duty in So
ciety as set forth in the teachings of the
church, was in the whole population consid-
erably more than 81 per cent; In the male
population over the age of q, nearly 80 per
cent, and in the male population which ex-
ercised the right OF suffrage in 1855, not
less than 75 per cent.
1T is plainly evident that If Christian citi.
zens were united and persistently devoted to
the work of exemplifying In citizenship the
principles OF their faith-without the intru-
sion Of ecclesiasticism in affairs Of State, but
by individual devotion TO duty-they could
at once exercise o power for the publication
Of politics which would be simply irresisti.
BILE. In the light Of these facts, religious
men are not to be omitted in taking the
census of political sinners, and the reforms
ton Of the citizen as q Christian" becomes o
pertinent question.
Shame on the Recrean4Christiani
Present conditions, regard them as We
may, are calculated to put to shame the
teachers and pro fessors of faith which de-
i. ~ll s..a a11 20 h. hAut
precepts of truth and duty. There can be
no other inference when more than G, 200, 900
of adult citizens SO regularly listen to the
teachings of religion, and so miserably fail
In that united and faithful application Of
these teachings which is alone needed to
make them potent in the councils of the
nation.
The audacious declaration OF conscience
less politician on the floor of the Senate
chamber that the Decalogue and Golden
Rule have no place in politics, borrows its
warrant from the attitude of Christians; and
has in it enough of truth to carry sting to
the church people whose failures in duty
afford opportunity for the supremacy Of the
mercenary and mean.
There is need that altars of Christianity
shall be sltars of patriotism; and that
women, as well as men, prove their devotion
to the truths embodied in Christian doctrine,
by loyal efforts to secure their application,
above and apart from any narrowness of
creed or sect, in affairs Of citizenship; need
that mothers point the way to truth in
action, and enjoin their children to forget
not their teachings. because they are
To Be Citizens and Sovereigns;
need that Christian men, including
"young citizens" prove their sincerity in
the service of heaven-and furnish an OBJ
ject lesson of priceless value-by their
earnestness and honesty In the service of
their country; need that the pulpit empha-
size the fact that religion "pure and unde-
fled" consists in life, and not profess
sion; need that the church be set before the
world as a representative, NOT OF mems ideas
of truth as written in the creed forms of the
sixteenth or the nineteenth century, but of
the truth that changes not - the
truth that brightens the pages OF
the Book divine, and that springs
eternal in the God-illumined souls of
men. The religion that shall live in the
hearts of the men, and rule the world of to-
day. must he thing of to-day, presented in
the light of to-day. and applied to the needs
of to-day. Under the influence of such
religion, in the name of no sect or creed,
but with the spirit that moves all to serve
all, in the brotherhood OF man under the
Fatherhood of God, republican citizenship
and republican government will find their
highest realization.
HENRY RANDALL WAITE.