The Savannah morning news., 1903-10-26
PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT
FROM SCRIPTURAL TEXTS
nrew Lessons to Point the Way of Intelligent
Service to God and to the State.

I bed sometimes OF all and sometimes
OF more than all it's benefit. So, in
serving the Lord, if we serve him. if
we serve the cause of decency, the
cause of righteousness in a way that
impresses others with the fact that we
are sad in doing il, our service is rob-
bed OF an immense proportion of it's
efficacy. Life is so instituted that the
man or the woman who has not got
some responsibility is thereby deprived
of the deepest happiness that can
come to mankind, because each and
every one of us, If he or she is fit
to live in the world, must be conscious
that such responsibility rests on him
or her-the responsibility of duty to-
ward those dependent upon US; to-
ward our families, toward our friends,
toward our fellow citizens; the re-
sponsibility of duty to wife and child,
to the state, to the. church. Not only
can no man shirk some or all of those re-
sponsibilities, but no man worth his
salt will wish to shirk them. On the
contrary he will welcome thrice over
the fortune that puts them upon him
to carry.
I'm closing, I want to call your at
tention to something that is especially
my business for the time being, and
that is your business all the time. or
else you are unfit to be citizens of
this republic. In the seventh hymn
which we sung, in the last line, you
all joined in singing. God save the
state Do you intend merely to sing
that, or to try to do it? If you intend
merely TO sing it, your part in doing
1t will be but small The state will
be saved, if the Lord puts it into the
nearl OF the average man SO to shape
his life that the state shall be worth
saving. and only on those terms.
Civic brightness Needed.
eve need civic righteousness. The
nest constitution that the wit of man
has ever devised, the best institutions
that the ablest statesmen in the world
have ever reduced to practice by law
or by custom, shall be of no avail if
they are not vivified by the spirit
which makes state great by making
1t honest, just and brave in the first
place.
II do not ask you as practical be-
levers in Christianity to take part
one way or the other in matters that
are merely political There are plen-
ty of questions about which honest
men can and do differ very greatly and
very intensely. about which the tri-
umph of either side may be compatible
with the welfare of the state-a lesser
degree of welfare or a greater degree
of welfare-but compatible with the
welfare of the state. But there are
certain great principles, such as those
which Cromwell would have called
fundamentals. concerning which no
man has a right to have but one opin-
ion. Such question is honesty. If
you have not honesty in the average
private citizen or public servant then
all else goes for nothing. Not only
the honesty that keeps it skirts tech
hically clear, but the honesty that is
such according to the spirit as well as
the letter of the law; the honesty that
is aggressive, the honesty that not
merely deplores corruption, but that
wars against it and tramples it un-
der foot.
Cries Out Against Wrong.
Il ask then that our people feel
quickened within them the burning in
dignation against wrong in every
shape which shall take effect in con-
demna ton, especially condemnation of
that wrong whether found in private
or in public life at the moment. Sure
ly in every movement for the better
ment of our life, our life socially In
the truest and deepest sense, our life
political we have a special right to
ask, not merely support, but leader
ship from those of the church. We
ask that you here to whom much has
you rightly much will be expected in
return. For all of us here, the lines
have been cast in pleasant places.
Each of us has been given one talent
five, ten; and each of us is in honor
bound to use that talent or those
talents right. and to show that at
the end he is entitled to the praise
as having done well as a faithful SER
want.
Il greet you this afternoon and am
glad to see you here, and trust and
believe that after this service each and
every one of you will go home feel
ing that he or she has been warranted
in coming here by the way in which
he or she. after going home takes up
with fresh heart, with fresh coura ge,
and with fresh and higher purpose
the burden OF life as that burden has
been given to him or to her to carry"