New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-11-24
GOD BLESS OUR OFFICE. "

a
a man.
GOD BLESS OUR OFFICE"
Do you wonder that am speaking to you in |
this strain? If you and were to go to and fro |
among these streets to-day and look UP with |
the disciples of old at the great buildnes we
saw IL Won should go in and out Of the Homes
of men the palaces which modern wealth has |
built and greater palaces that modern |
splendor and OF power and of triumphant |
achievement in it all! Yes, but the misery of !
every note of splendor and OF power of kind |
like that is that. unless somewhere other in |
the moral conscience of the people it is balanced
bv a greatness of spiritual perception and keen
ness Of moral obligations and profound persua- |
sion OF the being Of God and of His essential |
nearness to all prosperity or greatness in any
ewes as It ought to be in our own
sirorIe woman have been told lately went
into a shop here in New-York and had her eyes
canpht bv a familiar legend in the place which
we find on sale everywhere. God Bless Our
Home" Yes" she said in humble pety. II
should like that. should like to put It up In my
little home and to have my husband and my
cbi5ren see it. And then, her mind following
tho thread of the family love, it shot away over
the nath whittier her husband had gone in the
me pI 70 his task downtown; and, turning to
the shopman, she said: Il wonder II you nave
oIher texts and legends like this? 1 wonder If
bone would like to have. that had on it the
words God Bless Our Ofhce'?' The shopman
locked at her for moment. ana witno9t
shadow of sarcasm in his voice said: Madam,
isn't that rather large order
rink of IT for a moment Think Of the active
business and commercial life of great city as
eTis+inrr in the mind of that young man under
such conditions that II was absolutely impos,
sihle for him to concede that anynoay sao tha
want TO put up IN any otf!ce IN the "orlo Tie
nrayer God Bless Our ONCE"
BI-sY LIFE NOT APART FROM GOD.
Cod forbid that you should imagine from
that that ] believe that n life and business
.1d "a life of service and a life of faith ana
the tasks of the great industrial world
hoy
God and the consciousness of His thought
and responsibility to His throne that the
combining of the two in the mind of any In
teIligent man is uncomfortable.
God forbid I say, that any one Of US should
believe in any such thing. The disassociatlon OF
God and Office. of God and the street, or COO
house of God and the Police Department. should
be inconcevable-
No What you and want IN this great, busy.
wicked, self-seeking, modern, material lie OF
ours is to get back to the primal consciousness
and realize that the first cry for any man or
woman in the face OF the dangers that threaten
our world to-day is not that we would be richer,
not that we may be better organized. not that
we may have a finer for evil or evildoers'
but first of all. the cry Of blind Barumeus oy
the wayside: Lord. that my eyes may De
opened blind I am, that l may have borne
into my spiritual consciousness me sense OF
relation OF the world that is to the larger world
of righteousness that is to be, the relation OF the
powers of men TO the sovereignty and the love
and the service of God, the recognition that in
whatever task is performed, however loWly or
humble or seemingly remote from the thought
Of God God is if it is honest task and He
NAV come If it is a dishonest task. an impure
task a base task, and by the presence OF HIS
grace and power ennoble and transform II 1or-
ever. 80
And so. the one word that would leave with
you as you go out Of this holy house IS TINS
Lift I'D your head and cry, Lord, that my
ewes may be opened and then remember that
next to the awakening and enlargement OF the
spiritual vision Of man as the founoauon OF al4
as,.; al ovod 10
Nobody who has awakened sense, as many
men and women have in this church to-day, OF
a great and grave situation, will discharge their
obligations to 1t by talking about It, by wrltlng
about it, by debating II, somewhere or other;
for every man and woman to whom am speak
inging at this moment there is place In the
Igreat alignment OF service.
VIGILANCE COMMITTEE PROPOSED.
You must find That place; you must recoE-
nize your relation to it, and then in the
strength of God you must put your shoulder
to the wheel. And in that service 1 would
like, If 1 may suggest supremely i'm
pOrtant at this precise moment three par
ticular expressions of it, the first of which
finds its expression in organized service.
We shall not redeem New-York, men and
! brethren, by emotions. We shall not redeem 1t
| by denunciation; shall not redeem 1t by pes
| sinistic temper that wraps its garment around
| il and turns tts back upon 1t. There are burn
! ing with zeal and enthusiasm and a high pur-
pose Of sacrifice in this great city to-day great
multitudes Of and women; they of
! different religions they must forget that; they
! are Of different nationalities, they must for
get that; they are of different political associa-
| tons most Of all, they must forget that, and IT,
| having reached that point, could find three
| or five men whom all of US trusted and believed
| in (there are hundreds of them and say TO
| these three or five men, Now then, tell US what
| you want US TO do. where you want me to stand,
| what relation you want our party, our Church,
! our organization to bear to the betterment of
! NeWNOrk; will trust your Judgment, we will
| follow your lead" and the work is done. And
next TO that in this service Of the enlightened
| soul we want vigilance. Again say the city
which you and love, and in whose service we
are ought to be- will not be redeemed by
emotion.
If in New-YoTx tomorrow there could be
organized a Vigilance Committee, such
was in San Francisco of twenty-five thou
sand men sworn to service for three years
md pledged by night and day, when their
business and their opportunities gave them
the freedom for it, to see for themselves
whether our soul had been smitten with the
sorrow of that little victim of i've years
who was picked up in the street the other
day in broad daylight and ravished by some
be possible in a decent and Godfearing COM
munity:
MEMBERS MUST ENLIST FOR LIFE.
scoffer said to yesterday: Bishop, the
interest in what you are concerned to-day will
last for exactly eighty-f3ve days"
God forbid, Goo forbid that il should be said
10 you ana me sensible men. of what is de-
manded Of US in our day and generation toward
God and His charge. toward His little ones in
New-York that our service to Him should be
exhausted by eighty-fVe DAYS work or by
elghty-fve hundred days,
No; I'm this warfare. men and brethren. If
1T is TO be n triumphant warfare, must
enlist for life. Get yourselves then. on your
knees In the monday meetings of this