The Portland daily press., 1893-03-13
THE PRESENT SITUATION.
1t Was a Subject in the Pulpits
Yesterday.
SERMONS BY DRS. w. HI. FEM AND
JAMES G. MERRILL.

A Cali for Swift and Condign Punishment
to Offenders, But Charity Towards
Those who Are Inundated.
The profound excitement of tho week
just passed was recognized in Portland
pulpits yesterday. Dr.. Fem at High
street, DR.. Merrill at Second Parish, and
Rev. Mr.. Woodland, of the, Advent
church, referred in their sermons to the
election troubles.
DIR. Fem
for his sermon last evening chose the
very appropriate text lis this the city
men call the perfection of beauty, the JOY
of the whole earth?''
1t is to be presumed, he said, that every
citizen among us in his secret heart, de-
sires the public good. Yet certain ones
of our citizens are continually swerving,
employing unrighteous methods to Sc
cure purely personal ends.
The cities in which we live assume at
times the positions of individuals. They
assume ideas and issue DEGREES. 1t is
not stretch of the Imagination to as
sumo that our city Dis at this time taking
such a posture and making certain { de-
mands upon us.
1t first asks for kind of administration
Of our affairs which shall be economical
and effective. 1t wants its affairs COM
Quoted on safe business principles. we
are gradually working towards such a
condition. In other lands, cities like BIZ
mingham, Glasgow, Berlin, are being adj
ministered after business principles. We
demand that our police, our streets, our
schools shall be managed by
men whose business and life work
it is to do such things. The city
in which we live is often wastefully,
even criminally administered.
The time will come when national pol
| itics will not enter info municipal affairs,
and when local questions will be settled
| by local parties.
But of all the city wants, much may
| be impracticable at once. The obvious
reform which is possible is for public
officials to look to the good of the public,
not to the building up of a party.
What do you think of a man rising in
court and SAYING, s'Such and such a de-
| cision will transfer power to the other
party How far men get away? How
! far they forget that our laboris for men
| and women.
| What do we think Of our good temper
ance people, who sometimes, by a rigid
| adherence to single idea, throw their
influence onto the side of evil.
To beat the Republican party is not an
aim of such Importance. That party
holding an nnconsiderable vote should
| hold just the number Of votes to pro
T duce a situation which might have
thrown us into temporary anarchy. We
are to stand first for the interests of the
| home not of the party.
| Our city asks her public men to cult
| waite higher ideal of public duty. Parties
areoften necessary, sometimes indispens-
/ able. There are many questions that
have two sides, but God help the people
| who demand two sides to question that
| has only one.
There is no other side as against honor
virtue and the public good. We see
both parties alike pursuing the basest
methods. One secures a majority ano
feels bound to maintain it by any means.
| The other then comes in and pursues the
| same policy. So we edge along in a zig
zap course towards the methods Of great
cities.
Let us remember, in our judgment Of
one another, that, being human, we are
| ~ Liable to Temptation.
Let us, in the case of the party just
now held UP to public Reproduction, have
charity towards those leading men who
| exnress sorrow for the position in which
they find themselves.
You do not know in what department
| Of activity the honor of yourself, youl
sons, or your city, may be involved by
the developments OF tomorrow,
I do not know the name of the ware
clerk of Ward 3, but with his littleIpenci
l>he stood up and kept back what might
have been an avalanche against us. zone
shall chase thousand and two shall
put ten thousand to flight
God put you and me in the right and
we are in the majority. The power o
simple. often unconscious rectitude, il
inestimable.
But for all our charity, when men ar
detected in crime, let there be NJ
weakness and no hesitation in having
A Swift and Condign Punishment.
And let there be no hesitation in with
holding our personal confidenceIfrom tn
4 men who have been instigators of tn
wrong. !,
| The greatest crime among us is tn
i classifying of the returns of the publi
/ will. 1t is wrong that is fundamental.
| We live in city where acquiescenc
in law is a primal principle. The ide'
that we and our fellows make law, ant
therefore that we and our fellows cal
break it, is pernicious. :
| DR.. Merrill at the Second Parish.
II. Samuel &c to 8. f s =
But the thing displeased Samuel /. n an
Samuel prayed unto the Lord and the Lord sail
unto Samuel harken unto their voice, howbei
yet protest solemnly unto them
1t is safe to say that at no time in thu
history of Portland has there been more
profound agitation as far as municipal
politics is concerned then during the pas
L I..a j I,n4 ~