The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-02-18
GO INTO POLITICS.
Mayor Harrison's Advice to the
Pastors of Topeka.
A GENUINELY FINE ESSAY READ

At the meeting of the Ministerial
Union this morning, Mayor T. w. Har-
rison read the following paper on sEThe
City Pastor and Municipal Government"
was invited and urged to read pa
per that should be s'intensely practical"
fear that it may be disappointment to
my hearers and myself. / am frank to
say that / know but little about munich
pal government and still less about the
city pastor. Separately they have been
known to exist for many years. What
the consequence would be if they should
conclude to join hands is hard to fore
tell. Whether the pastor would be
dragged down to the supposed level of
the ward politician, or whether the city
government would be brought up to the
high moral plane of the pulpit, or
whether a happy medium would be the
result where pastor and city and citizen
would unite with laudable and unset
fish ambition to secure and maintain an
ideal government, are questions which
cannot be answered from precedent nor
solved by the light of experience.
Congested centers of population call
ed cities, have existed for ages. In the
onward march of time they rise and fall
bubbles on the water. Where was
desert yesterday may today be teeming
In them are always found the good, the
bad and the Indifferent classes, those who
pray and those who prey and those who
do neither. The pastor is there with his
! little flock, and the sower of tares with
his legions, while the great majority of
people are SO engrossed with business
that they heed neither the pastor nor the
sower of tare5.
At the present time a great wave in
favor of municipal reform is sweeping
| over the country. This would seem to
indicate that those who prey have be-
| come more powerful than those who
pray, and that some of those who have
| been absorbed with business cares have
reused up to a sense of danger from
overshadowing evil. These spasms for
reform are periodical and we may expect
! that the contending classes will eventual
| ly settle down again to their old ways;
the pastor will go on with his preaching
at long range and to his little flock, who
are already pious and, perhaps, do not
need his phillipics against sin; the sons
of satan will go on with their tricks and
snares and evil ways, and the great mass
of the people will be engaged in the
headlong race after the almighty dollar.
Then the doors of evil, those who prey,
will take new courage; they will gradu-
ally creep back into poPulous and re-
spectacle districts; they will invade the
administration of public affairs; they
will sit in the councils of city govern
ment; they will control the public funds:
they will go into the box with
the juryman; they will sit beside
or behind the Judge upon the
bench, and they will tilt the scales
of justice in favor of their wishes and
desires. When this becomes no longer
endurable another spasm for reform will
seize the people and the same old story
again be told.
What can or should the city pastor dc
to avert the evil which creates the neces
sity for these spasms of reform? He
should preach less to Christians anG
more to sinners. He should preach lesE
at long range and more in close contact
with evil and wrong. He should pound
his pulpit less and the devil more. He
should be more of citizen and less of E
recluse or monk. He should come dowI
and out of his exalted theory of being
holier than others and mingle more with
the common masses of men. He should
lay aside the fear that he might soil the
skirts of his holy garments and take ar
active personal part in the ways anC
methods for directing and controlling
pnblic affairs.
The devil is not under the pulpit no
in the church, but down in the dram
shop, the brothel, the dance house, tbs
joint, the gambling den and kindred
places. He don't have very much fea
of pulpit preaching. He is always ad
vising the preachers to stick to their pull
| pits. to attend to their own business ant
he will attend to his, and by far too man,
of them follow his advice in that regard
The place to match the devil is where b.
is getting in his work. He is not afrait
of a searchlight unless it shines int
some corner of his den.
What is the use of pastor trying t.
reform the world by always preaching
to three or four hundred followers VIII
already believe the same as he does
while Just outside are thousands VIII
never go to church and who could no
get in if they shall all try to go at tn
same time? What is the use of try
ing to push back the Niagara river whel
it would be far better to get in harmon
with the powers and try to utilize it
force. What is the use of denouncinG
at long range all party politics and politi
cal machinery, and then take no interes
! in trying to remedy their evils and n
part in the elections which they contro
Topeka is splendid city. We all Low
, it, and would not live anywhere else. ]
) is better in many, aye most respects tha
any other city within our knowledge
We have about forty thousand industri
. Gus, peaceable, law abiding people W
have more to be proud of and less to
ashamed of than any other city in tn
land We have many fine, larg
churches, not equalled in other cite
of greater population And yet if tn
people should all undertake to go t
church at the same time, how many c
them would be obliged to stay out doors
More than two thirds of them, probably
We have sixty pastors in Topeka, ele
vuent, Jealous, conscientious, industr
GUS preachers, who cry aloud and spar
| not. How many of these pastors tax
: an active, personal part in city politics
! They will shit the devil a clip" ever
: time they get a chance, and denounc
. evil wherever they know or imagine thu
it exists, and yet how many of ther
would adjourn a prayer meeting an
take their whole congregation dow