Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1895-07-18


The following extracts from the Rev.
Joseph Brown Turner's sermon on "The
Ideal Citizen" were obtained from the
Deiaudredn, which published the dis
course In full last Saturday. The sermon
was preached in the Dover Presbyterian
Church the preceding Sunday. Mr..
Turner's text was ii Samuel X, 12; "Be
of good courage aud let us play the man
for our people, and for the cities of our
God; and the Lord do that which
seemeth Him Good"
After defining citizenship he said ut
is Of the voting citizen, and to the
voting citizen, that shall speak. What
the United States needs to-day, more
than anything else, is not more citizens,
but better citizens. We have too many
mere voters, while good citizens are far
too few. Never has the need been
greater for citizens without fear and
without reproach, who dare stand
against all evil, and speak and do the
right, though the heavens fall. We
need citizens in moral reforms who will
not hesitate TO say OF this great and
growing Democracy of ours that it is no
and develop Its virtues, or it will de-
generate into awful anarchy. We need
citizens in the pulpit, who, when they
preach 10 Fellx-the sovereign with the
ballot--will dare to put righteousness,
and temperance, and future judgment
together, and will have power so to do
II as to make Felix tremble. We need
citizens in the State who will care more
for principle than for place; who will
understand that this growing Republic
can never outgrow law, for it will never
outgrow God, and who will inter-
pret TO it the voice of God. We
need citizens in the press who will not
measure success by any such miserable
standard as the extent of their circula-
ton, but by the moral grandeur of
their teachings; and whose newspapers
will not be merely the echoes OF de-
PRAYED public opinion, or the organs of
corrupt parties, but real instructors in
!. righteousness; not flatterers Of prejudice
And passion, but noble leaders, teaching
Soa's eternal truth. Evidences Of this
ne9h multiply on every hand. Tho reek-
ing corruption of our whole political
system is proof sufficient Unsctupu.
lous ambition, cupidity and venality
have attained most pDftentous magni-
tude. Entire departments of our gov.
ernment seem to be administered with
the prime intent to buttress party and re-
ward adherents. The integrity of the
suffrage is constantly assailed, elections
nre carried by almost open bribery,
Offices are bought and sold, and every
political triumph is succeeded, or oftener
preceded ana effected, by scramble for
the spoils. Instead Of Il government Of
and by and for the people, we are threat
ened with an oligarchy of demagoguos,
from which decent constitutional mon
archy would be a welcome refuge and
relief.
''The two great parties which claim
each of them to carry the salt of the
nation, both of which need badly to be
salted, are controlled largely by men
who do not scruple to defraud the com
munity of its right to honest elections.
The boss and the booty man have the
best of the bargain; and the great
battle in politics often seems to be which
set of maggots shall eat the cheese. In
State and national affairs, matters are
not very much better. In our own
State, during the past winter and spring,
we have seen and heard that which
brought rain snd shame to the hearts
of all truly discerning and patriotic
men. A man with no fitness for the
position pushed himself forward for an
honorable office that was once reserved
for the best and the worthiest. His
single. qualification for the place was
( that he was successful money grabber.
His sole claim was that ne had con-
tributed large sums of money to carry
elections, the purchase OF votes, and the
degradation of voters being a part of
the process. He had bought the scat,
he intimated, and he meant to have it.
Some men who seemed to put cash above
character and money above manhood,
in politics, shouted for him. Other
men, good men, some of them Christian
men, said that he should have the place,
since he had paid the price. OF all
the rest, their great majority held their
peace while the disgraceful fight went
on That such a contest was pOssi-
bility anywhere in this land, ought u
make 1t plain to any thinking mind
that wa are on the edge of the pit and
must retrace our steps. That men who
would not for the world themselves re.
sort 10 bribery are ready, for the sake
of party advantage, to condone il in
other men, and allow the bad to profit
by their iniquity, is fact full of nor.
tent. / have said before-l repeat it
and shall continue TO say it-that the
rich man who attempts to buy his way
into public office is a more subtle and
dangerous enemy to the public welfare
"a worse traitor to free Institutions
than the man who fred the first gun on
Sumter, or than the man who incites
others To open insurrection; for he who
corrupts the ballot in any way thereby
undermines the whole fabric of Ameri
can institutions. That all thinking
men do not see this fact clearly, ano
act upon it promptly, would seem tc
give sanction to the assertion some
times made that Christian citizenship
has abdicated its rights, and stand!
guilty of unfaithfulness to the nobles
trust ever committed by Providence t
men. II is too true that men who, II
military defence of our institutions
would count no cost of blood or treasur,
too great, will, when those same insti
tutions need civic defence, play til,
part of partisans or towards. Deser
ton from the battle field is no wors
than the Sinking Of civic duties. l
ought 10 be understood by every citizel
of this republic that he is a man wh'
must give account TO God for tn,
manner in which he discharges BIZ
public duties. Under a governmen
like ours every mans voice and ever.
mans influence counts, and woe be u