The herald., 1895-11-12

of men and women who believed in the
kind of righteousness that Jesus taught,
and who were bound together by love.and
who tried to get the world 10 belieye as
they did and to live as they did ia the
law of loving service. Ii has become too
much a doetrinaire institution Dent on
proselytin the world To its peculiar dog
mas, and has withdrawn from the lie OF
the world into an exclusive atmosphere
OF ecclssiasticsm. If there has grown up
arouDd the various forms OF belief form
of ecclesiastical government den andlng
the allegiance of its adherents, yet this
ecclesiastical government ia not Chris
tianity, or an integral part of it. 1t is a
false and fatal view that maintains that
two masters, Christ ard Caesar, strive tor
the service of society.
civil government il not the rival,
| much less the antsgonist of Christianity.
There are not TWO thrones set up in the
world each claiming the sovereisnity ana
each exclusive of the other. The church
was never intended to legislate for
humanity. but to live for humanity.
Christian'ty and citizenship are not two
distinct spheres. 1t is the devlrs Eolitics
ana bastard Christianity that divides lite
into sacred and secular, and chases Goa
and good and Justice and holiness cut OF
the ma or part of human activity and re-
lation, and tries to pen them up between
the four walls of a chuicl. religion
center of human affairs is too weak to
retain the respect of men. And a state
| that Is SIM ply the organized greed OF the
strong and the tool of the selfish few is
| too diabolical to retain its place in the
| earth.
| THE Christian state will not be the
| ultimate control of government by the
church; it will be the inspiration OF gov
eminent by the spirit of Christ. Let no
one fear that those who are looking Tor
| and working for Christian citizenship are
seeking the union Of church and state.
| True Christian citizenship does not imply
the censorship of the government by the
clergy. II does not anticipate nor does
it tolerate priestly oictation or interior
ence in the affairs of state. The church
and the clergy in the perfect common
wealth must always stand as the mere
Interpreters of morals. Their power is
declarative and advisory. 1t should never
be n. ore. The church and the state have
their own peculiar functions. One can
not take the place of the other. Both are
| divine. One is not more divine THAI the
other. Both, when they fulfill their
mission. are ministers to the same end.
Whatever union there is bewteen them
should be in the line of cooperation, not
OF absorption. Yet if eitner is to be alb
sorped, it is not the state, but the church.
| The ultimate form of organization is
| not a church, but a commonwealth. In
the kingdom of God that was perfected
the seer saw no temple. But here and
now the church and the state, while
working toward a common end, viz, the
| development of perfect society. each bias
its own peculiar function. A perfect
society is made up of perfect individuals.
The work OF the state in on society. Inc
church furnishes. when true to its proper
work. the units out OF which the state
forms its perfect organization. The
church has no more business to dictate to
the state its form of government than
| has the state to dictate to the chucrh Its
form OF belief. They are both twin in
st-nments in one divine process. The
church is in the world to create the
moral ideals OF the people in harmony
with the ethics of Jesus Christ. The
state is in the world to realize these
ideals by becoming the expression of the
organized moral sense of the people.
ITO the man who has grasped the
meaning of Christianity and citizenship,
to the man who recognizes the divine au.
tnority for government as we'll as church,
certain things in respect to the state and
his relation to it will burn themselves on
his convictions. 10 him the state will
stand, for the organized political con-
science of the people and not as the organ
whereby the party in power satisfies its
greed for political spoils. He will, as a
Christian citizen, believe that legislation
is the means whereby the people shall ut,
ter their highest conceptions OF social
righteousness and justice, and not the
mask behind which political trluksters
and thieves shall rob the people and de-
oauch the nation. He will regard citi-
zenshiT' not as the exploitation Of success
full partisanship not conclusion OF pro-
TESS .onal patriotism, but ne will guard the
duties of the caucus and the ballot as the
Hebrews of old guarded the tables OF
stone in the sacred ark. Christian citizen
ship is not the concealment of an itching
for office under the salve of Pecksniffiian
ic ut I'M n n
tremor of sumptuary legislation. 1t does
not waste its energies in making speeches
against d specific evil. 1t gets down be-
meath the surface ana plants principle
at the heart of goveinment that makes
fraud and wrong cease to be respectable
or renumerative. Christian citizenship
helives that there is en- absolute divine
standard of right to which states must
conform as we'll as individuals. 1t re-
jects the Old fallacy that questions OF
morals can be determined by show of
hands. 1t insists that there are not two
kinds of right, one for men acting singly
nd one for men acting IN the aggregate.
It. insists that what is wrong in the in
dividual is wrong in family, church,
a corporation or state. 1t believes that
city council has no more right to lob
man than tramp ha'.
christian citizenship regards that the
state is organized for service and not
to des poll the people. 1t believes that no
| man has @ rlgnt 10 ONCE WHO uOtS nOu
look upon that office as an opportunity
for service. 1t believes that the state is to
concern itself less about the servation
and development of property than about
the preservation and development of
meiI. 1t looks upon politics as a holy
thing, the organization Of society in right
eousness, justice and truth. 1t believes
in making voting a divine service. and
the ballot-not a thing of merchandise TO
be bought and sold-but a social sacra-
meut, sacred communion in spirit OF
equality, fraternity and justice.
"And this is Christian citizenship. 1t
is no welding together of a corrupt state
with dogmatic church. 1t is the iegin
in politics as well as in all our life of the
principle laid down long ago by Jesus
Christ: If any man will be chief among
you let him be your ser ant and that
other word that is higher than all other
words ever uttered, This is my COM
mandment that ys love one another as
have loved you.
DR.. J. S. Thompson was the next
speaker. He said in part: Christian
citizenship is simply the practical CHRIS
tian life, or the practical life of real
| Christian. The public is a donkey. IL
will bear all sorts of burdens; it will pay
G1rSlE5Sss