The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1905-04-14

The words of TINS text are exceedingly plain,
and from them | want to draw two or three in
ferences; and first of all we infer that
/. The BUILDING OF TOWNS Is A NATTER OF RE
LlGIoUs CONCERN.
often enforced and important truth that it is u
good thing for a town to be well supplied with
churches and the institutions of religion. But
rather this: One cannot have a hand in the
building of a town without his religious life be-
ing involved thereby. In otner words, the build
Lay vi u town is a religious act. Give your hand
g., .ae uunoing of a town and your action in that
aspect VIII be either in accordance or out OF ac-
cordance with the principles of your religion.
Your act vii other be in accordance or out OF
accordance with the will of God.
Now the Bible has not q little to Say abont the
duty of rulers. behold a king shall reign in
righteousness and princes shall rule in jIdg-
ment." Every ruler is hidden to rule with dill
gence. We see a king sitting upon the throne.
To the extent of his ability he is responsible for
! the enactment of just and righteous laws; HIS
people look TO him to frame and follow such pol
icies as shall guarantee them protection, peace
and prosperity. If he is vicious, unprincipled
and heartless, heaven and earth proclaim him a
tyrant. If he fails to prepare himself for his
! heavy responsibilities because of carelessness,
laziness or seiishness, his kingdom may and
probably VIII be equally badly managed and the
king is scarcely less responsible, Why: Be
cause as a ruler he ought to know his duty and,
to the best of his ability, do it,.
But we live in America. who ls king mere :
Are the mayors of our towns, governors of our
s,ates, the president of our Union; are these our
kings? No, these are but public servants com
then. is king: will tell you. 1t is his majesty
the American citizen. This is not a rhetorical or
sentimental exaggeration. it is the statement or
an exact. logical and strictly scientific fact. The
sovereignty resides in the body of american citl-
zens and in no other place. When L, an Ameri-
can citizen, consider the nomination OF a candl
date, the election of an officer or the adoption OF
a policy, l stand in the kings place. l cit upon
the kings throne. my conscience must answer to
the performance of the kings duty. :,
Note the clear logic OF these words Whlcn 1
quote from DR.. Gladden's. "Ruling Ideas OF the
Present Age.' "'The powers that be are ordain-
ed of God - andt who in the republic are the
powers that bc'-The voters are the eovereigns.
1t is with them that the final responsibility rests.
1t ia they who are ordained OF God to establish
mon welfare. There is no power but of God;
and those with whom the sovereignty rests In
any nation, those who are actually clothed with
it, must know that they are ordained of God TO
rule in his stead, to know his will and to do it
here upon the earth. Citizenship In q repuDlc
can mean nothing less than this. Not more
surely was David. in the olden time. chosen and
amounted by Jehovah to rule Israel than every
American voter, in these days. is chosen and an
nointed by the Lord of Hosts to rule this land"
But if the responsibilities that attend citlzen-
sh ip in the great republic are sacred and religious
duties, certainly the responsibilities and duties
that rect upon each sovereign voter as to the pol
icies that control and the practices that obtain IN
the town or city in which he lives, are not less
sacred. Here the voters interest is supposedly
most closely centered; here his knowledge ls
supposedly most intimate here his personal
power is chiefly exercised; here he is chiefly
engaged. In Other words, the town in which a
voter lives is being built up and established: he,
as sharing the klngly power from God is re-
sponsible, to the extent OF his Abilities, Tor Its
being built Alright. If he is vicious or unprinci-
power and deliberately using it to defeat Gods
ends. If he is needless, careless or selhshly
INDECENT he lie guilty of failing to use a God Civ
en- power to make his town righteous, prosper
Here ISL town with 400 voters: 175 of them
favor a law that provides that every child under
49, Il hall LA.a nc rtnht hand ont of
and his right eye put out. OF the other 225 vot.
ers 100 try to down the infamous measure and
the other 15 are too selfish or too INDECENT to
go to the polls and the measure carries by a ma
jority of IS. In your judgement how many mer
are responsible for the mutilation OF those In
nocent babees God will hold every man respon
sible for the way he uses or fails to use his Coo
given power of citizenship to baild up his town
in righteousness.
on the importance of Bible, church and prayer
meeting: no man had more to say about HEAVIER
and heavenly things. but there was TO be ar
election in East Northfeld, his home. and he
gave up his engagements az an evangelist ant
set to work with all his enormous might tt
Danish the saloon. Meeting a good and godl!
him what he was doing in politics. He blandly
replied, ooh, l take no interest in these things
You know my citizenship is in heaven ;
"Well." bluntly. replied the great evangelist
"You better get down to earth for the next q
days, take OF your coat and do a little goo'
lighting"
It IudhC oul hlGL ELK RC1oOhuA W"
takes an interest in the way towns are built
You and | as citizens are building a town. 1t Il
not at present a very large town and it ough
not to be very hard for it's builders to control it
destiny. 1t ls a town that has q future. ] do no
know that Milbsnk will ever be a great metropo
lie. | don't know that its population will ev
er 90 beyond it's present Unite. l suppose ant
| surely hope that it will. but though it's popu
lation and its material growth should remain
a fasaIs ,hs. n mSss e considered sa'it, | 'f Hers 1t a ns
let us cay, In round numbers, 2nO0 people II
Milbapk besides those who live nearby and ar
largely Influenced by the character Of the town
! These people are going to be good citizens, goo'
parents, and good Christians, or not. And thei
characters are going to turn largely upon tn
way this town is built.
For as Dr.. Josiah Slrong has said: sCommun
tiles and commonwealth, like men, have thei
childhood, which is the formative period. 1t
the first permanent settlers who impress them
selves and their characters upon the future
Powerful influences may, in later years, pro
duce important notifications; but it is earl,
= influence which is farthest reaching, and j
) generally decisive. 1t is easier to FORM than t.
REFORM; easier to mould molten iron than t.
file the cold cast
l Think of that, fathers. mothers, young me
+ in business, Citizens OF America, and moulder
: of the future. Think of that when you ar
+; asked to help support a church, or to provid
! adequate ~ftcilities to educate the rising genera
l ton, or to lend your hand to deal a death bloN
I TO a monster evi, that gluts itself upon huma
:. blood. We are in the formative period. w
2 are still at the foundation stage. God is intel
, ested in how towns are built Beware, tho,
l builder, WOE to him that buildeth a tow,
with blood. and establisheth a city in iniquity.
But as a second inference from this text
would remind you that
!. II. GOD HAS PRONOUNCED A CURSE UPON CEH
TAIN METHODS OF TOWN BUILDING.
= fear that there Is one thing which our faith
ers, aud still more our grandfathers han whlcl
] we have, to q large degree, lost, and that is
, wholesome fear of God. We have done we'll t
l look at some sides Of Gods nature that on
fathers talked about but little, but in our effor
to read large the love side of Gods nature WI
I have to a great degree lost the habit of fearin'
God. Remembering that God is love. W.. hav'
, assumed that the wrath of God must be a mis-
0 conception. Our experience of human wratl
has been SO mixed with violence and sin tina
, we have tried to explain away the wrath of Coo
+ as u figure of speech, but when the great NAM
of Cod lost its terror for us in our sinfulness W
losta mighty aud wholesome restraint to keeI
us back from sim. We surely have done wron!
five have set aside all that the Bible has sal
about the wrath of God. To be sure, God
wrath is never the sinful, vindictive wrath tina
we condemn in our own and others lives. j
is never Inconsistent with his deep and absolut,
Q love. vet the fact remsins that II Is burnins
r wrath, aud men like Paul and John who haC
the deepest conception of Gods love had als1
the de epest. the most awful conception of hi
wrath. Indeed, were God not very an. ry will
~