The Indianapolis journal., 1895-11-11
GOOD CITIZENS DUTY
SERMON BY REV. FRANK o. BALLARD
ON ALLEGIANCE TO PARTIES.
The Duty OF All who Love Their
County to Attend Primaries ana
Help Make Up Party Tickets.

| took for his text: And the children OF
| Issacher were men who had under
standing Of the times TO know what Israel
ought TO do.' Chr. xii, s2
| L am going to speak this morning upon
| good citizenship. deem this a favorable
time, just when the excited passions of the
campaign are subsding." he said, ito dis
cuss some Of the deeper principles that af-
feet our existence as a people The revela-
| tons of general election are always more
| or less startling; the capture of certain
States and cities always stimulates the
successful party and shadows the losing one,
while different men are quick to read in the
| result either the doom or the redemption
Of the Republic, according as they are
| blindly attached TO this or that party. Mean
| time there is a deep and far-reaching foun-
dation being laid in which we can all re-
| joice. / refer TO the mighty rise on every
hand of new patriotism, superior to par
tisanship, which is beginning to study afresh
and from new points of view the questions
| that lie most at the root of national exist
ence.
IF you ask for the signs Of this move
ment, they are on every hand. We behold 1t
in a new phraseology which is current.
The term good citizenship itself, while not
new. has obtained a new significance. We
see 1T in the flood of maeazine articles de-
voted to the moral aspect of good citizen
ship. This class of articles, it Is safe to
say, has multiplied five-fold within the last
two years. and I merely mention it as a
straw showing the direction of the political
wind. We notice it in the springing into
existence of tens OF thousands of clubs Of
young men and women. under the general
designation of good citizenship clubs or
committees in city, village and country. We
see it in the existence of an almost unusual
new endeavor to educate the juniors in the
duties Of citizenship, both In the common
schools and In the churches-a thing un-
heard Of few years ago. We behold it
again in those great leagues like the Civic
Federation Of Chicago, the Municipal League
OF philadelphia and the Committee of Fifty
OF New York, the object Of which is TO de-
liver these cities over to moral righteous
ness, and to this end they seek to band all
roguery, violence and fraud. We decern il
in the less noticeable, but more far-reaching,
conferences OF prominent citizens which are
held with increasing frequency, like the re-
cent conference for good city government
held in Philadelphia 1t is interesting to
note that when the call for This conference
was made preparations had already begun
by the workers for good city government in
Minneapolis to call a similar national gath
communication or understanding upon the
subject, the necessity for the movement was
felt in the East and West simultaneously.
And again we see the evidence OF the move
ment In the spontaneous rally CT all the
younger members of the church as repre-
sented in the Christian Endeavor rocieties
era In that general uprising of gooi people
which, not long ago. delivered Chicago the
city least liable TO reform, to the clyil-serv-
ice-reform idea by majority of 30 442, and
the other uprising, two years ago. when
TaInmany was buried under fifty thousand
white ballots in New York city.
SIGNS OF THE TIMES.
"All these signs mean, If they mean any
thing, a tremendous rekindling of the con-
sciences Of men with respect to civil and
political affairs; it means new belief in
and respect for honesty in government; it
means a sickening sense Of disgust with
being blindly led and meekly slaughtered;
Ii means wholesome revolt against ini-
guilty in places where once men bent the
supple knee to it in worship, or, whimper-
ing, bowed their craven neck to its fiery
lash.
II remark in the next place that as this
beneficent movement did not originate with
the professional politicians, 1T is there
fore, a thing not to be committed to their
care. 1t is a notable fact that needed
reforms are rarely ever enacted by those
people who are in the business of ruling
on the contrary they begin with agitation
tician will generally be found to have long
ago forgotten the contention between right
and wrong; his only struggle is to obtain
him to see any system to be Objectionable
which gives him authority and control The
present struggle then is a. a struggle m between
Machine politics is the enemy of public
freedom and resistance to it is strife for
After reviewing a number OF the evils
that are allowed to exist by the silence of
the good citizens. the. speaker continued:
IF this be SO, what Is the duty OF the
people? 1t is your duty TO. make. good
citizenship your first concern by study, by
conduct by inusnSe snSs BY every power Of
will say, are we not to serve God?' In
reply, yes, and there is no way in which
and besides the family there is no other
part of the social order of duties which
are so grave as those of citizenship: Some
cedence of the State. know good many
think so, but what does the church exist
for but to bring ABOUT ON this Use eaT,n TN an an
save itself, but to save the world There
is no higher service OF God than is COM
his duties therein may call himself Chris
tian and may think he has escaped from the
world, but Ichabod is written on him IN
You ask, How am to be a good citi-
zen?' You must think and read about the
country It is your duty sh,t to know sh ss what
and failure of forms OF government. You
should acquaint yourself with the expert
ments that are made in foreign cities, as
Manchester and Berlin, many of which are
better governed and enjoy more freedom
than our own. There is a wonderful new
literature concerning the problems of wu-
nicipal government and a good citizen< is
one who uses his head to understand some
of the concerns of the present civilization,
and is making daily some conquest, how
ever small. of the literature OF the subject.
1t is your duty to vote with the broadest
is weapon in the hands of every man
above twenty-one years of age more pierre
ing than the bayonet. I rejoice in the in
creasing sense OF the sanctity OF the ballot.
The suggestion has been made that the 9Th
of March, the anniversary of the martyr
dom of Albert Ross for defending the bal
lot box. be hallowed as Christian citizen
ship day by all Christian Endeavor socie-
ties. Funeral flowers have sometimes of
late taken the form or a ballot-box which
the dead died TO defend. This was not on
the coffin of Christian Endeavorer. but of
a brave Swedish saloon keeper in Chicago,
who lost his life rather than surrender the
tho demand OF murderous gang.
POWER OF THE BALLOT.
MEN who vote have access to every sin
gle element of power in society, and II
they organize wisely and skillfully, if they
understand themselves, they will be strong
er than throne. Every government
stands on votes; every administration
stands on votes; every policy stands on
votes; the security of property, of order, of
life itself stands on votes, and the great
mass of the common people have, in enor-