The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1897-07-10

tllCIIls
1 will go further and say that the
religious interests of a city are thus af-
fccted. The church to-day has to con-
tend with evils that the civil law ought
to smite, and, while / would not have
the civil government in any wise relax
its energy in the arrest and punishment
of crime, 1 would nave a thousandfold
more energy put forth in the drying up
of the fountains of iniquity. The church
of God asks no ~pencuniary aid from po-
liticial power, but does ask that in adj
dition to all the evils we must necessar-
lily contend against we shall not have
to fight also municipal negligence. Oh,
that in all our cities Christian people
would rise up. and; that they would put
their hand on the helm before piratical
demagogues nave swamped the shipl
Instead of giving SO much time to ma
tional politics, give some of your atten-
ton to municipal government.
L demand that the Christian people
who have been standing aloof from
public affairs come back, and in the
might of God try to save our cities. If
things are or ave been bad, it is be-
cause good people have let them be bad.
i AAiO I'M IA VIII lllCICl1 CUES
to the polls and casts his vote does not
do his duty. 1t is not the ballot box
that decides the election; it is the po-
litical caucus, and if at the primary
meetings of the two political parties I'M
fit and bad men are nominated, then the
ballot box has nothing to do save to
take its choice between two thieves.
In u churches, by reformatory or
ganization, in every way let us try to
one up the moral sentiment in these
cities. The rulers are those whom the
people choose, and depend upon it that
in all the cities, as long as pure hearted
men stand aloof from politics because
they depise hot craftsmanship, just so
long in many of our cities will rum
make the nominations, and rum control
the ballot box. and rum inaugurate the
officials.
Itake a step further in this subject
Inc ask all those who believe in the
omnipotence of prayer, day by day and
every day, present your city officials
before God for a blessing. If you live
in a city presided over by a mayor,
pray for him. The chief magistrate of
a city is in a position of great response
bility. Many of the kings and queens
and emperors of other days had no such
dominion. With the scratch of a pen he
may advance a beneficent institution or
balk a railway confiscation. By ap-
p~ointments he may bless or curse every
hearthstone in thecity. If in the Episco-
pal churches. by the authority of the lit
any, and in our nonepiscopate churches
we every Sabbath pray for the president
of the United States, why not, then, be
just as hearty in our supplications for
h chief magistrates of cities, for their
guidance, for their health, for their
present and their everlasting morality?
But go further, and pray for your
common council, If your city has a
common council. They hold in their
hands n power splendid for good or ter
rible for evil. They have many temp
tations. In many of the cities whole
boards of m council men have
gone down in the maelstrom of po-
litical corruption. They could not
stand the power of the bride. Corrup-
tion came. in and sat beside them, and
sat behind them, and sat before them.
They recklessly voted away the hard
earned moneys of the people. They
were bought out, body, mind and soul,
so that at the end of their term of Of
flee they had not enough of moral re-
mains left to make a decent funeral.
They went into office with the huzza
of the multitude. They came out with
the anathema of all decent people.
There is not one man out of 100 that can
endure the temptations of the common
council men in our great cities. If a
man in Tint nnSifinn ha va fho @o
of a Cromwell and the independence of
an Andrew Jackson, and the public
spiritedness of a John Frederick Cher
lin, and the piety of an Edward Pay
son, he will have no surplus to throw
away. Pray for these men. Every
man likes to be prayed for. DO you
know how DIR. Norman Mcleod be-
came the queens chaplain? 1t was
by a warm-hearted PRAYER in the
scotch kirk in behalf of h royal fam
lily, one Sabbath when the queen and
her son We're present ipcognito.
Yes, go further, my friends, and
pray for your police. Their perils and
temptations are best known to them
selves. They hold the order and peace
of your cities in their grasp. But for
their Intervention you would not be
safe for an hour. They must face the
storm. They must rush in where it
seems to them almost instant death.
They must put the hand of arrest on
the armed maniac and corner the muir
derer. They must refuse large re-
wards for withdrawing complaints.
They must unravel intricate plots and
trace dark labyrinths of crime and de-
,,--s.~-1 s.1~ .a-kofDtiao fEhnrv
must be cool while others are frantic.
They must be yigilant while others are
i-mpersopating the very vii
Iainy they want to seize. In the po-
lice forces of our great cities are to-day
men of as thorough character as that
of the old detective of New York, ad-
dressed to whom there came letters
from London asking for help ten years
after he was dead-letters addressed to
Jacob Hayes, High Constable of New
York" Your police need your ap-
probation, your sympathy, your graft
tude, and, above all, your prayers. Yea,
1 want you to go further and pray every
day for prison inspectors and Jail keep
ers, work awful and Ibeneticent, Rough
men, cruel men, impatient men, are not
fit for these places. They have under
their ears men who were ones as good as
You, but they got tripped up. Bad
company or strong drink or strange
conjunction of circumstances flung
them %headlong. Go down that prison
corridor and ask them how they got in
and about their families and what their
early prospects in life were, and you
will find that they are very nue. like
yourself, except in this, hat God kept
you while He did not restrain them.
just one false step made the difference
between them and yen. They want
more than prison bars, more than Jail
fare, more than handouts and hop |
piers, more than neutrality-suspicious.
TO reform them. Pray God day by day
that tho men who have these unfoFtp-
mates In charge may be merciful, Chris
tianly strategic and the means OF refor-
nation and rescue.
My word now is to all who may come
to hold any public position of trust in
any city: You r Gods representa-
tives. God. the King and Ruler and
Judge, sets you in His place. oh, be
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