The Savannah morning news., 1901-10-07
CITIZENS VOTE SHOULD NOT BE
USED FOR SELFISH ENDS.
ON CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP
REV. BAsCoM ANTHONY's ELo-
QUENT SERMON AT TRINITY.

|
Sometimes Calls the Good Citizen
10 Become a Candidate for Public
omce-He VIII Not Gain 1t by I'm
worthy Means.
Rev. Bascom Anthony preached on
Christian Citizenship" at Trinity
Methodist Chruch last night. The bur-
den of Mr. Anthony's argument was
that the suffrage of the citizen is
trust for the benefit of the community
and that he should use it for the adj
vancement of the public veal.
Rev. Mr.. Anthony began his sermon
with the statement that the conscien-
tious citizen, depositing his ballot,
should have in view not only the adj
vantages that would accrue to his own
generation, but those that would ac-
crue to the generations that are to be.
The text was the same from which
Mr.. Anthony addressed his congrega-
ton Sunday night a week ago, Ro-
mans, kill, Let every soul be subject
unto the higher powers. For there is
no power but of God; the powers that
be are ordained of God"
THE question that confronts the
Christian citizen would be vastly diff
ferent one" said Mr.. Anthony, 'if God
had permitted his people to choose be-
| tween law and anarchy. He has not;
the matter is not an open question.
| God has decided, and law and the pow
ers that be, He has said, are of His
appointment.
Upon this subject / addressed this
congregation on last Sunday evening.
| l endeavored to demonstrate these
/ propositions; that law is of Divine
appointment, and that civic duties are
duties which are due to God. This is
the truth. For myself / would not
| bother with anything that hasn't got
| God behind it.
1T becomes the duty of men some
times to become candidates for office
| to put aside for the moment the con-
siderations of private advantage and
to sacrifice private comfort to the pub
lie veal 1 believe that this is the
duty of the Christian citizen to-day in
New York city; 1 believe it is the
Christian citizens duty in almost ev-
cry large city in this country. be-
lieve it is the duty of the Christian
| citizen to himself, to his country, and
to his fellow men.
II can call to your recollection a
time when there was such a duty to
be done in this city. 1t was the time
of the Yazoo frauds, which had re-
ceived the approval of the legislators
of the state. A senator from this
state, Jackson, resigned his seat In the
Senate and returned to Savannah to
become a candidate for the Georgia
Legislature. in order that he
might oppose all the forces
tA he nr0a az
these frauds. 1t was he that burned
up the fraudulent contracts, using a
sun glass for that purpose, because. as
he said, the evidences of the fraud
ought to be destroyed by rays from
heaven. He was willing to sacrifice
his own advantage to the good of the
state; he deserves the gratitude and
the reverence of the present and future
generations.
Every man ought to serve in the
capacity to which he Is called. The
Judge who sits upon the bench of one
of our courts has higher opportunity
to bless the people and purify public
morals than any dozen preachers In
the community. 1 remember that when
Judge Herschel Johnson was presiding
over the Superior Courts of one of the
circuits in this state, which he had
rendered clean by his enforcement OF
law he was accustomed to charge the
grand juries that it was not so much
the severity of punishment as its abso-
lutte certainty that deferred men from
the commission of crime"
Mr.. Anthony named other judges
whose conduct upon the bench had
been a blessing to the community in
which they lived, among them Judge
Hansell of the Thomasville circuit
He said that men of high character
would not descend to low levels in or
der to obtain the offices to which they
aspired. They would not indulge in IN
discriminate mud-slinging in order to
achieve their ambition.
Remember, though" he said, there
is lots of difference between Singing
mud and telling the plain truth. 1t is
sometimes the imperative duty of the
candidate for Office to tell those things
which unfit an opponent to occupy a
public position. If man is bad man
and will corrupt his fellows, and
know it, ii is a duty / owe the COM
munity, to myself and my God, TO tell
what l know about him. But I despise
a man who sings mud merely to gain
votes. l haven't any regard for men
who are cheek by jowl one minute and
mud singing at each other the next.
How many men," Mr.. Anthony ask
ed. ''have been elected to office in this
community who got it clean? There
| have been some, ] know; but, Lord
bless you, ii was a mighty small num-
Der.
1.-THE Christian citizen understands
that public office is a public trust
not a private snap. l grant you it is
| hard for a man to be elected on a
clean platform and by clean methods
l grant you that this is a very hard
thing for any candidate to do. But
| such a candidate can be elected If
every man of you will say to every
candidate who attempts to debauch the
public that he is a rascal from head
to foot and vote the way you talk.
THE duty to vote is a duty you owe
to God You can no more put it aside
than you can the commandment that
says, Thou shalt not kill or the COM
mandment that says, Thou shalt not
steal
And yet there are plenty of men,
and pretty good men, too, who do this.
They are the men who say, when
| things go wrong, that politics is cor
rupt and that they won't have any,
thing to do with it. 1t is not politics
| that is corrupt; it is the dirty gang
that the inactivity of good ciizens per-
mits TO get into office.
There is another thing. The duty
| to vote is not only a duty that is owing
| to God, but II is a duty, under our
form of government, that a man owes
| to his country"
Mr.. Anthony said he had never been
| able TO understand why II was that
women were not allowed to vote He
did not undertake to say whether or
i -