The Monitor-register., 1897-07-09

w UAf7O VI bAO 1ulbTpSlS OI
city. Do you know that there are in
this country about 10000 common
schools, and that there are over s, 900, 900
pupils, and that the majority of those
schools and the majority of those pupils
are in our cities? Now, this great mul-
titude of children will be affected by
the intelligence Or ignorance, the vir-
tue or the vice, of boards of education
and boards of control. There are cities
where educational affairs are settled in
the low caucus in the abandoned parts
of the cities by men full of ignorance
and rum. 1t ought not to be so, but in
many cities it is so. hear the tramp
of coming generations. What that great
multitude of youth shall be for this
world and the next will be affected very
much by the character of your public
schools. You had better multiply the
moral and religious influences about the
common schools rather than subtract
from them. Instead of driving the BIZ
BILE out you had better drive the Bible
farther in. May God defend our glori-
GUS common school system and send in
to rout and confusion all its sworn enc
mics!
have also to say that the character
of officials in city affects the domestic
circle. In city where grogshops have
their own way, and gambling hells are
not interfered with, and for fear of los
| ing political influence officials close
| their eyes to fostering abominations-in
all those cities the home interests need
| to make imploration. The family cir
| cles of the city must inevitably be af
! fected by the moral character or the
| immoral character of those who rule
over them.
Twill go further and say that the re-
Iigious interests of city are thus affect
ed. The church today has to contend
with evils that the civil law ought to
smite, and while I would not have the
civil government in any wise relax its
energy in the arrest and punishment of
crime | would have thousandfold
more energy put forth in the drying up
of the fountains of iniquity. The church
of God asks no pecuniary aid from po-
litical power but does ask that in ad-
dition to all the evils we must necessa-
rily contend against we shall not have
to fight also municipal negligence. Oh,
that in all cur cities Christian people
would rise up, and that they would put
their hand on the helm before piratical
demagogues have swamped the shipl
Instead of giving so much time to ma
tional politics give some of your atten-
tion to municipal government.
1 demand that the Christian people
who have been standing aloof from pub
lie affairs come back, and in the might
of God try to save our cities. If things
are or have been bad, it is because good
people have let them be bad. That
Christian man who merely goes to the
polls and casts his vote does not do his
duty. 1t is not the ballot box that de-
cides the election; it is the political eau
Gus, and if at the primary meetings of
the two political parties unfit and bad
men are nominated then the ballot box
| has nothing to do save to take its
choice between two thieves. In our
churches, by reformatory organization,
| in every way let us try to tone up the
moral sentiment in these cities. The
rulers are those whom the people choose,
and depend upon it that in all the cit
! les, as long as pure hearted men stand
aloof from politics because they despise
hot partisanship, just so long in many
of our cities will rum make the nomi-
| nations, and rum control the ballot box,
| and rum inaugurate the officials.
/ take step further in this subject,
| and ask all those who believe in the
omnipotence of prayer, day by day, and
every day, present your city officials be-
fore God for blessing. If you live in
city presided over by mayor, pray for
him. The chief magistrate of city is
in a position Of great responsibility.
Many of the kings and queens and en-
perors of other days had no such domin-
ion. With the scratch of pen he may
advance beneficent institution or balk
a railway confscation. By appoint
ments he may bless or curse every
hearthstone in the city. If in the Epis-
copal churches, by the authority of
the htany, and in our nonepisoopate
churches, we every Sabbath pray for the
president Of the United States, why not,
then, be just as hearty in our supplica-
tions for the chief magistrates of cities,
for their guidance, for their health, for
their present and their everlasting NOR
ality?
But go further and pray for your COM
mon council if your city has common
council. They hold in their hands a
power splendid for good or terrible for
evil. They have many temptations. In
many Of the cities whole boards of COM
mon councilmen have gone down in the
maelstrom of political corruption. They
could not stand the power of the bribe.
Corruption 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 office
they had not enough of moral remains
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 hundred that can
endure the temptations of the common
| councllmen in our great cities. If man
in that position have the courage of a
Cromwell, and the independence of an
Andrew Jackson, and the public spirit
edness of John Frederick Oberlin, and
the piety of an Edward Payson, he will
have no surplus to throw away. Pray
for these men. Every man likes to be
prayed for. Do you know how DR.. Nor
man Mcleod became the queens chap
lain? 1t was by warm hearted prayer
in the Scotch kirk in behalf of the roy
al family one Sabbath when the queen
and her son were present incognito.
Pray For the Police.
Yes, go further, my friends. and pray
for your police-their perils and temp
tations, best known to themselves They
hold the order and peace of your cities
in their grasp. But for their interven-
ton 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 cor
ner the murderer. They must refuse
large rewards for Withdrawing COM
plants. They must unravel intricate
plots and trace dark labyrinths of crime
and develop suspicious into certainties
They must be cool while others are
frantic. They must be vigilant while
others are somnolent, impersonating the
very villainy they want to seize. In the
police forces of our great cities are to-
day men of as thorough character as
that of the old detective of New York
addressed to whom there came letters
from London asking for help ten years
after he was dead-letters addressed to