The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-11-23

election Of natural endowment. and u
truth he must proclaim a. . glad bat aol
ought to bs done for tho blasaing OF ii
world, and goes forth TO do II. has bee
touched by the spirit Of God ~ truly 40 wa
Peter or Paul.
Whoever in response to an imperative in
pulse Of an enlightened COINCIDENCE d,
which will give tho people more iustic
and less hsartachs,-he 10 Us truly ordaine,
of God as the first apostles of Christianity
For we believe, not that God was, but tina
God is; that the divinest day 10 not behint
us. but before us; and that the divine iii,
abounds in the world to-day as never ba
fore, because history ia a progressive edu
cation of humanity, 40 that divinity itsel
ever becomes more largely organized amonI
men. We believe that the WORD Of tn,
Lo d. is now being spoken among US a.
truly as it was ever uttered by human life
and We venture to say that GODS messag.
to America may now DO read IN Emsrson'i
1.-The Fortunes of the Republic" in Low
ellis Democracy" and in John Fiske'!
"American Political Ideas" 5
And / think that II plea OF the spirit
addressed to American oitizens is tina
we cultivate q deeper consciousness,
of the essential divineness of our national
life. 1t ia a great misfortune that the bane
of political Pharisees has bsen rapidly
growing among us in these later years-mer
who affect great political s~anctity them
selves, while assuming thar the great Amer
lean public is corrupt beyond measures; men
who give themselves up to an unmanly POI
litical asceticiam, Withdrawing from the
great field of political action because it il
SO base; mon who have a sneer for every
mention of politics rs something necessarily
vile; men Of scholarship who begin to des-
| pise the masses and who believe that the
world is to be saved, if at all, by. q holy
men who delight in calling every poll.
tician d~emagogue because some political
measure does not, perhaps. reach
an ideal standard; men who sac
nothing good or great in the present polit-
ical life of our commonwealth-political
Pharisees. who scold and pass by on the
other side, absorbed in the sacramental
task of cynical self-perfeotion.
But the illust, ious founders of our ma
tional government were not PhRrisess; they
vera not men who withdrew themselves
from the masses and looked upon public
affairs as too mean and too low for their at
~tention. but they were men who had great
public spirit, who believed in tho people,
who felt that they were engaged In a holy
and momentous undertaking, hi h were
nerved to action by tina conviction that here
was to be d civilization grander than the
world had ever ssen-men like Franklin,
our first cosmopolitan citizen. always
in sympathetic touch with human
life as a whole: men like Jefferson.
whose love for the people arose to a relig-
ious passion; men like Washington, who,
with all their severity of conscience, felt
the inwoyen sanctity OF public affairs and
addressed themselves to statssmanshlp as q
divine vocation. These men made our an
uals glorious. because they felt themselves
laborers in Il glorious task; patriotism was
to them n form of piety.
Let us remember that we must hold our
public men to high ideals and anticipate
things of them if we would reach a
high level OF public life. If we treat a boy
as though we expect hin to be mean. we III
this way do very much to mako him grow
into a base man, for by this course we
take way that stimulating environment of
hope that expects noble things of him and
that really prompts him to nobility. So
the most etfectual means toward the
DEGRADATION OF cur national NE is
and corrupt. We help to
public life base by assuming that
there is no longer any grand national des-
tiny to fulfil; that political affairs are
wholly given over to the devil; that no
of manhood is left among politicians.
that We will be detled If we NEEDLE
with politics. The sursst way to degrade
as a nation ia to build up a politi-
cal oynicism which treats our public ser
wants as knaves and which takes it for
that patriotism is only another
for s%slfishness. And the misfortune
l sea is that SO many citizens are
our political life base and meaning
less by cultivating ths belief that our gov
has become permanently corrupt,
that We have ceased to HAYS any ma
destiny worthy Of self sacrifice or
of inspiring heroic patriotism.
There are a good many indications of a
of public sentiment in this direction.
.ens have already abandoned politics as a
.ealm too filthy for q decent man to ap-
and 30, they renounce their Citizen
ship, reduce the army of the Lord, and
make it easy for base men to climb into
POSITIONS of influence. The press. also, by
ia systematic defamation of officials and
ts repeated imputation of evil motives to
Ill political opponents creates in the minds
# the rising generation the impression that
man must be a rascal to succeed in poll
les. which goes a long way toward making
'ascals. Moreover, a certain part
If our American clergy are Just
very loud in their denun-
late and our Goddess schools, because
here is no mention of GOD in tho constitu-
ion and no reading of the Bible in the
school; and ell this tends to produce
low estimate of our civil institutions and
'ur national life. A minister of religion
do hardly ANYTHING more unpatriotic.
aore i%rrellgious, or more ruinous of the
letter int testa of our nation than to con-
Iemn our government as Goddess because
ocular, or our educational system as ire
lgious because free from dogmatic t g.
logy. 1t is q shame that some of hur
hurchcs in this way deepen the public ON
~ression that our civil government is biase
undivine, for this course tends to de-
troy that civic order of protecting Justice
githout which these churches themselves
ould not exist.
| take it that the Word of the Lord" to
Imerica commands that we think more
of ourselves as a nation, in no vain
lorious fashion, but in q spirit of solemn
We need a great increase of
piety, a clearer appreciation of the
randeur of our destiny as a people, a
eeper understanding that political func-
ions are in their essence divine obligations,
keener consciousness of the inherent
and infinite importance of our
life, though rogues may often
lold office and unjust legislation may some
ines be enacted, a stronger civic sentiment
fhich will impol US to use our citizenship
o its fullest extent aB a noble privilege and
8 a holy duty. Am / told that
here are many base men in politics?
Fery true, but they are there largely
you have not done your
|uty. Am 1 told that bribery and Doodle
ro everywhere supreme? Doubtless there
8 much truth in the statement; but your
nd your political indifference have made it
possible for bribery and Doodle to lay hold
the machinery of government. If you
,ad eXerteQ Yourselves in righteous ~DRtriot-