The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-08-06
HOW TO VOTE.
DR.. COuntremine Says Ballot
Should Go With Conscience.
1t is the Crucial Test of Good
Citizenship.
DENOUNCES POLITICS.
Modern Politicians Resort to
Most Sordid Methods.
Right of Conscience Most Sacred
Of All Human Rights.

Prefacing his sermon with the an
knouncement that the theme of his dis
course Sunday evening, christianity
and Good Citizenship" was by request
of a number of voters, though he was
perplexed to know why" Rev. ]. D.
Countermine, pastor of the First Pres
byterian church, gave a thoughtful
and nOn-partisan discussion. 1t was
! not his personal opinion, he stated. but
the truth shown by Gods word.
Good citizenship has no sympathy
with the new party called the Christian
party, because it believes in the union
of church and state" was the limit of
craftsmanship expressed apparently as a
rebuke to the habit of dragging politics
into the pulpit.
Dr. Countermine said: 1T has lately
been affirmed, not openly, but sneering-
1y insinuated, that Christianity is not
q friend and advocate of good citizen
ship The assertion is taht christian
1ty is in very spirit revolutionary, be-
cause it is continually turning the
world upside down. In this statement
there is a kernel of truth because man
and human society is wrong side up.
There are even some people who sug-
geSt the withdrawal of all missionary
work from China and leaving those
poor people to Buddhism and other
false religions.
What is good citizenship? What are
its principles? Its basal elements. On
what does it rest? What is its spirit?
Its motive power? The source of it's
strength and the secret of it's endur-
ance? What are its methods, it's mo-
dus operandi? What is its object and
how does it seek to obtain that object?
What agents does it employ, and of
what helps does it avail itself? If
good citizenship should accomplish its
purpose what effect would it have on
the individual, the home, the church,
the state. the nation? These five in
quir1es will be seen to lie along the
text by their fruits We shall know
them" Matthew 1920.
How would it influence business?
Social order, law, progress, and every
thing else that is good? The word
good suggests its oppoSites, bad, evil.
corrupt. wicked. Bad citizenship, evil
citizenship, corrupt citizenship, wicked
citizenship? Did these things ever ex-
list? If so, what effect had they on the
individual and public affairs? Was life
safe? Property secure? Business
fiourishing? Good order and truth
regnant?
Good citizenship is not the highest
citizenship. Good. better best. Such is
the Interchangeable law of life, substan-
tia1 progress, permanent growth. We
from the better to the best Absolute
perfection, either in its spirit. plans,
methods, or operations, is not, therefore,
one of the claims of good citizenship.
Its position is an intermediate position
between the best and the worst, the
corrupt. Good, better, best. Such is
the ascending scale which good citizen
ship would have every individual to
climb. 1t starts with the good that al
ready exists. 1t finds it wherever it can,
picks it UP, Eliminates, emphasizes and
Incorporates it into its own existence;
and then with its magical wand points
o. that which Is still higher and more