The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1901-10-14
The Pastor of Adams Square
Congregational Church Names
the Qualities Necessary to
Make a City Ideal
WORCESTER HEADED
FOR THE DISTINCTION
1t is the Best City in Civic, Moral
and Religious Tone in Which
Mr.. Seibert Has Resided But it
Cannot Yet Write "The Lord is
There" Over Its Citadel

What makes an ideal city,"
This was the subject of sermon
| preached last night by Rev. ]. Addison
Seibert at the Adams Square Congre-
| gational Church. In the course of his
address Mr.. Seibert argued for civic
righteousness, a patriotic, public spirit
ed class of people, an intelligent body
| of officials and fuller realization of the
fact that public institutions are for the
! public good.
The text was Ezekiel, 4S:35: "And the
name of that city from that day shall
! be The Lord is There Mr.. Seibert
spoke, in substance, as follows:-
"In speaking of matters relating to
national. state and city laws and gov
eminent people are so apt to conclude
that we are bringing politics into the
pulpit The Old Testament Hebrew
knew of no politics except Gods law,
taught and enforced by a religious in
stitution that had its centre in the tenn
pie of Jehovah. In this text, Ezekiel,
in his splendid vision, sees restored
people inhabiting their holy city with
such quiet rejoicings of heart, that he
SeiA oCdICCIy llIQ NOtuS " SAPl COS lllllA-
self, but Is content to call it The Lord
is There If that be true Of any city,
1t Is ideal. Conditions in the main have
not changed so much since Ezekiel S
day that the elements in a citys
strength and greatness are not similar.
The elements of a city's greatness and
strength are strikingly set forth in a
poem which Rev. Charles NJ. Sheldon,
the famous author of I'm His Steps,
has recently written.
while we can easily point to cities
like New York city and Philadelphia,
whose distinguishing characteristic for
few years back has been civic I'M
righteousness, it is not so easy to find
city that will make a good example
of civic righteousness scrupulously adj
hered to. l know of none at the pres
ent time, not even Worcester, though
l must hasten to say that Worcester is
the best city in its civic, moral and re-
ligious tone, in which 1t has ever been
my privilege to reside. But it is still.
no doubt, far from the ideal, and we
may not yet write, The Lord is
There over its citadel.
There are certain things that must
be facts to make an ideal city.
II. First of all, there must be pat
riotic, public-spirited class of people,
that consider the city their home, and
treat its interests accordingly. They
must not be like too many hired rent
ers Of farms-expecting to stay only a
short time and, therefore, taking all
the good out Of the land for themselves,
then moving on to repeat the process.
We cannot always receive and never
give, if we want to contribute quality
and strength to human soil. The He
brew peOAe were a nation whose pat
riotism was strong. Some such strength
should exist in the unity of the public
spirit Of a city's inhabitants. We
should be jealous of our city's good
name careful of its institutions. proud
of its public officials, If we have put
good men in office and, untiring in our
efforts to put them there If we have
not. To make a city ideal requires pa
tient work on the part of its citizens
to infuse into the mass the public spir-
1t which is in them.
III. A second want felt in the NAL
ing of anS ideal city is that it must
have an Intelligent body of officials.
You sayEhat is an OH story. But we
haven't learned it yet in this country.
By this we mean officials who are at
the heads of their departments on ac-
count of recognized ability. Some
times it seems that men have been
placed at the head of departments on
account Of their recognized unfitness,
or they are mere figure heads. The
city government may be run by cote
rie of political gamesters, as is the
case in New York. Glen Allen gives
a very effective illustration Of the
state of things in New York city in
Harper's Weekly by photographs rep
resenting vices at which the antiTam-
many platform hurls It's righteous at
tacks The first of these photographs
represents line of police with the
platform plank, that the man who
wear this uniform shall give and re-
ceive protection in the honest dis
charge of their duties;' and the last is
a picture of the City Hall and mayors
office with this plank of the anti-Tam-
many platform. 'I1eSshorb that this city
henceforth and forever. shall be gov
erned from here, and not from Tam
many Hail. sincerely hope that Seth
Low will be elected mayor of New
York, and that he will show us how to
make an ideal city out of our national
metropolis.
III Very naturally, an ideal city
will be one where public institutions
are for the publics benefit. When pub
lie money is absorbed by political
tigers, while city's streets are dirty,
street signs missing from the posts,
poor classes left to crowded and con-
Tested corners, no proper provision for
public Fairgrounds and baths, made
quate equipment and room for children
in the public schools, it is time to
awake
CIV Finally, It is civic righteous
ness, in all that means, that makes an
ideal city. Civic righteousness means
personal piety put into public action
by officials and a strong backing on
the part Of all good citizens. 1t cannot
exist without good people. and a ma
jority of good people, and then it can
not be realized unless that majority
of good people assert their civic rights.
insist on a clean administration of all
public interests, and turn out every
usurper Of the peoples rights. OF such
an ideal city Nand public-spirited citi-
zens, the basis of which must be the
Ten Commandments and the Golden
Rule, it could truly be said, The Lord
is There
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