The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1901-08-16
A MIGHTY TRINITY.
Inoompetency for Office, Intemper
ance, Infidelitv to God.

lnoompetency for Office, lntemper
ance, Infidelity to God.
Preceding his sermon at the First
Baptist church last evening, Pastor
Lyon spoke of the street carnival and
the denominations that were daily ex.
hibited at the places known as "The
Orientals" and 1.-THE Trip to the
Moon"-that they were decidedly
harmful in their influence because OF
their immoral character, and that the
citizens and especially the business
men and the committee had been most
shamefully imposed upon. In justi-
ticatiOn Of his investigation Of these
reported indecencies, the pastor read
the following passage from Ezekiel
S:7-1O
"And he brought me to the door of
the court, and when l looked, behold
a hole in the wall. Then said he unto
me, Son Of man, dig now in the wall;
and when had digged into the wall,
behold door. And he said unto me,
Go in, and see the wicked abomina-
tions that they do here. So l went in
and saw; and behold every form of
creeping things, and abominable
beasts, and all the idols of the house
of Israel portrayed upon the wall
round about"
The pastor said further that when a
knowledge Of these Objectionable feat
ureS Of the carnival was brought to
the chairman of the committee steps
were Immediately taken to suppress
the same which were only partially
successful. 1t is sincerely hoped that
this very deplorable experience may
prove warning in the future.
The pastor then took for his text
Psalms 1911: Except the Lord keep
the city, the Waterman waketh but in
vain!" He said in part as follows:
There are certain things connected
with every city government concern
ing which every citizen should be in
formed and in which he should be
interested, viz: the suppression Of vice,
sanitation, financial economy, and the
intellectual and moral improvement
of the people. But how often these
things are defeated by corruption and
misrule on the part of those who are
committed with these important
trusts. The mighty trinity which
causes such widespread misrule in our
municipal governments is incompetent
cy for office, intemperance and infdel-
ity to God.
Incompetency for office stands first.
For a man to seek and obtain an Office
OF public trust when he is incompetent
is to commit crime against God and
his fellOwmen. 1t is no sin to be ignor-
ant of medical science and incompe-
tent to practice medicine and surgery,
but for such to impose themselves up
on the community as physicians and
surgeons is to commit inexcusable
crime against the community. 1t is
no sin for man to be ignorant of the
art of navigation and incompetent to
pilot ship, but for him to take the
wheel in the tempest or among the
rocks and bars of dangerous coast is
to be guilty Of the blood of all of those
who may be lost through his incompe-
tency. So as to position of public
trust, incompetency should stand as
an insurmountable barrier to Office.
The drink curse with its attendant
social evils comes next. ThiSis ver-
liable octopus in every community
where it exists, and with it's terrible
arms coiling around the body polite it
threatens the destruction of all civil
government.
Inidelity to God stands as the third
cause. This robs the man of all moral
sense and he ignores responsibility and
is ever willing to sell himself and his
country.
Is there any remedy? Yes! The
God OF nations and of cities has indi-
Gated sure remedy. 1t is this:
Repentance Of sin, acceptance of the
Redeemer Jesus Christ, and the appli-
cation Of the Golden Rule. The his
tory Of the world and the Word OF God
both prove that this is the only an
swer. The Lord keeps the city through
his stewards-competent, conscien-
tious, God-fearing men. And except
COD keep the city 1t goes down.