The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-02-18

which only comes once a year, and 1 |
think it is our duty to adjourn this prayer |
meeting and all go down and attend that |
caucus"
A motion was made and carried to
that effect and they all went down and |
controlled the caucus in the interest of
| good city officials. That was practical
politics and practical religion. How
many of our city pastors would do any
! thing like that, and how many would
deem 1t sacrilege to suggest such thing?
how many of our pastors, in the bewil-
dering burden of reading church notices
every Sunday morning for sociables and
fairs and picnics and candy pulls and
straw rides, ETC., have ever once thought
OF reading notice calling the attention
of the voters in the congregation to the
important fact that unless they go down
to the city building and register before
the 23rd day OF March they cannot vote
at the city election on the End day of
April, and urging them all to do sof
| How many Of them would think it sacri-
legious to do such thing and yet they
| boldly preach from the pulpit for whole
year against malfeasance and misfeas-
ance in office and the corruption of poll
| ticians and the crime of party politics
and not even go to the polls and vote on
election day? How many of our sixty
pastors would go out and work for days
|
ting the voters to register and urging
| them to be sure and vote and then spend
their time on election day getting
the voters to the polls and seeing that
| they vote in favor of morality and
decency and good government?
Some men work for years in paving the
way for carrying an election and then
some other people will rouse up and
wonder how in the world the election
happened to go that way.
In the legal profession there is a sort
of maxim that when dissatisfied with
decision the lawyer can either take
appeal or go down on the street and
swear at the court. The city pastor is
debarred from both of these methods of
consolation. But he can preach from
his pulpit for whole year against evils
which he took no active measures to
prevent, and which evils only laugh and
} sheer at his preaching for they know
} from all past experience that he will not
} come any nearer to them than his
own pulpit. And they also know full
we'll that at the next municipal election
the pastor will be too busy looking after
his little flock to give any personal at
tention to practical politics and that the
! same old political machines will run on
} as before
The sixty pastors in this city have
church membership of about seven
l thousand. What grand army for fight
) ing the battle of reform in any direction.
, With united efforts and proper zeal no
. evil on earth could withstand them. The
devil and all of his imps would fee afar
of.
If five thousand dollars in gold were
, placed on the top of Burnett mound
? four miles away, to be given to the
church which would get the greatest
; number of church members, on foot,
/ starting from the state house at a given
3 hour, to that prize in the quickest time,
3 what grand race there would be. Plans
) would be skillfully laid, distances care
fully measured and men and women and
r children put in training for weeks to
l harden their muscles and develope their
2 speed
The sixty pastors and seven thousand
D church members would keep awake
: nights to devise ways and means and
9 they would all turn out and scram BILE
i for that money. Fences, trees, creeks,
5 orchards, gardens, nothin would be
t spared in the wild crusade. What are
i churches working for, money Or the saliva
3 ton of men? Isn't one poor, little out
a cast, hayward, sinking soul of infinitely
a more value than that bag of gold? Scores
3 of such immortal prizes are offered to
a you every day in the year have not
j heard of any stampede of rivalry among
q in driving out the infamous, damnable
4 dens of temptation which menace your
2 families and mine and drag the innocent
and unwary down to hell. This is all
r left to the officers of the municipal gov
n eminent which many of the pastors take
g no active personal part in trying to elect,
d and perhaps some wonder why the off
r GERS of the city have not enforced the
/ laws.
/ How much sleep did the pastors lose
d because of the two hundred fallen woIn-
y en-, who were plying their vocation in
|. this city last year, or because of the forty
q joints and gambling dens that were de-
d family running at the same time? I am
% forced to say that I have not heard OF
any who were in the least troubled with
% somnambulism, and yet the seeds of dam
e nation sowed by these dens of iniquity
o during that time will linger and bear
J, sorrowful fruit for years and years
o to come. Perhaps some may won
It der why their preaching does not have
q more influence over the conduct of pub
2 lie officials than it seems to have.
n 1t may be because the pastors do not
y take an active part in the elections which
s place the officials in power. Don't be
g afraid of attending a polictical caucua
l. or primary election. Don't be afraid of
1T taking a hand in practical politics
10 Y GU will find that your preaching will
IL be Tar more euectlVe Wnere the puDll(
g officials are in sympathy with you
1t teaching than it is where they wink a
n crime and shield the evil doors anc
e. breakers OF law. The good people il
i every city outnumber the bad many
e times over, and the good people car
70 always have just such municipal gov
70 eminent as they desire if they will only
,e take hold aud control the local politics
IS If they will not do it somebody else surely
e will and the good people will then BIZ
to obliged to endure the results. I have
Of unbounded faith in the masses of thu
3. people They believe in what is right
=. The only difficulty lies in getting then
o. to take sufficient interest and express