Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1898-12-01
APPEAL TO TIE CHURCHES.

IN MS speech IN Harrison Street
Methodist Episcopal Church on Thurs
day night, Lewis G. Vandegrift said
While 1t has been my good fortune
on previous occasions to be invited to
address church congregations III this
State, it has very rarely occurred that
have availed myself of the oppor-
tunities thus so kindly extended to me.
My failure to embrace these oppor-
tunities has not been from want Of ap-
probation, but because the time can
call my own is very limited, and also
because am in my daily life so much
semblages than this the causes / an,
interested in, that l actually shrink
from making public addresses unless
some duty points that way. In this
case | fear have been overpersuaded
by desire to oblige your good pastor,
and l also fear that before have fin
ished, you will wish / had been less
pliable in his hands. l shall not de-
tain you long, however, as it is but a
single subject desire to present for
your consideration.
The subject desire you to think
about isWhat ought to be the rela-
tion of tho churches Of this State to
its government? Think for a moment
what these churches represent. They
are organized societies representing a
larger membership numerically than
| MI other societies in the State com
bincd. Tho mon and women who be-
long TO these church organizations are
as whole among the very best men
and women in the State. In saying
| this, do not intend to underrate the
many good men and women who do not
feel the necessity of identifying them
selves with such organizations. All /
mean to say is that those who do feel
called upon to identify themselves have
| publicly set for themselves a high
standard which they are endeavoring
to live up to.
Again, these organizations, covering
the State as they do, have for their
leaders intelligent and educated men,
who have put away the ambitions of
| this world, who have turned their faces
to the higher light and are trusting to
| tho hereafter for the rewards which
many OF us seem to think can be obtain
ell in this life. The leadership of these
men is growing in strength year by
year. | know that within my own
time have seen the general personnel
of the men who fill your pulpits in
crease greatly in strength. And this
must be so, for we all know that I'M
selfish devotion to duty brings u
strength and power which comes in no
other way. Your good pastor will prob
| ably be surprised to hear me say that
often as l watch the work he and
| others like him are doing, / envy
them. The strife for worldly success
| is so strenuous and the results so I'M
| ticfnrt that nopfor,, tIntiop IF tho
peace which comes from unselfish de-
votion to duty presents an inviting
| picture. But this is DEPRESSION.
You have the organizations, the
membership and the leadership which
| will make the churches of this State a
means of resurrection if properly di-
rected.
Turn your thoughts and endeavors
for few years to our own condition as
| a State and great good will result.
| Sweep within our own borders but for
little while and / believe an ideal
commonwealth will arise. Congrega-
| tions meet week after week in this
State, but what are the practical results.
Have we a better State, county or
municipal government today than we
had 25 years ago? Is the moral tone of
| the public better or worse? Have we
in our public offices and places of trust
and confidence men who meet in these
places from Sunday to Sunday, or the
opposite? These questions we can each
and all answer without difference of
| opinion. Why is it?
Men and women all over this State
gather Sunday after Sunday and
through their services of prayer and
praise their spiritual lives are uplifted.
Their own individual consciences are
quickened, and they. are each and all
better for the communion they have
so celebrated. But what of the general
publicP What of the affairs Of their
government? The agencies through
which all the people of the State are to
be reached and touched? Does the
| service of prayer and praise reach
them? Is spiritual light kindled
within them and are they taught to
aspire to better things?
Some, of course, but not many.
II your previous policy had resulted
in general good, q different class of
men would today control your public
affairs, in this State, and there would
be an entirely different spirit mani
tested by. those entrusted with the per-
formanceN of public duties. The
ShuiNiltS VI tlllS ObdtS HdNb Wlblin
themselves unequalled possibilities for
advancing the public welfare, if they
would but utilize their opportunities
My plea to them would be to forget for
u time the individual and address
themselves to the public. Quit pray
ing for themselves and go to work for
their less fortunate brothers. Make
their churches the centre from which
shall emanate plans for advancing the
general welfare.
But, say some of you,, il we quit
looking after our individual future and
try to help the masses of our fellow
man we will be in politics and no good
can come to the church in that way.
but on the contrary much harm. |
would not, of course, have the church
interest Themselves in politics in the
sense that term is generally understood.
| would have them interest themselves
in questions touching the general good
rather than that Of any individual.
For example: Suppose the churches of
this State would interest themselves in
the condition of its iails. That need
not take them into the realms of prac-
teal politics, and yet field would be
opened for them in which they could
labor with great results. If the men
and women who compose the church
congregations in Delaware would bring
about prison reform they would save
more souls than their own, and their
own would suffer no detriment by
being temporarily obscured from their
personal attention.
Suppose the churches of the State
should each elect delegate to con-
vention, which convention would have
for its object a consideration of the