The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1910-09-13
CHRISTIAN
CITIZENSHIP
BY REV. STEPHEN PAULSON
Pittsburg, Pa.

In founding this republic our faith
ers established five institutions that
seemed necessary to the development
of high order of manhood. Since here
the common people were to be rulers
it was plainly necessary to educate the
multitude. No inventor commits his
invention into the hands of an ignorant
man, and our fathers feared to trust
those powerful political tools, the bal
lot and free speech, into the hands OF
ignorant and unframed men. So they
established the free school.
| .tAey also founded the free press; be-
lieving that the citizen should be made
acquainted with all that goes on in
Gods great world, that our people
should not be ignorant peasants but
citizens of the world. The result Is the
, intelligent unity of hundred million
people and the breaking down Of all
sectional differences.
| They also established liberty and po-
litical equality. Not that all men are
equal in strength Of body or quality of
intellect or power of personality, but
that each man has an equal right to
justice and self-development The
grass. the lily, and the oak are not
equal in station, and, perhaps. not
equal in usefulness. but are equal In
their right to claim from soil and rain
and sun what they need for growth
and sustenance.
Our fathers emphasized the family,
recognizing that all subsequent rela-
tim oh f,r t. ! -
family circle. They looked upon this
home as a miniature republic and they
looked to earnest mothers for the
sturdy and honest citizenship of the
| future.
The founders of the republic also be-
lieved most emphatically in a free
church. They decreed that the Lords
day should be a training day for the
soul and conscience that men might
grow fine and strong, and that great
and true convictions might be devel.
oped. For the measure of power of
republic is not in its resources a1d
wealth, but in the quality of manhood
produced.
We have today many problems he
fore us, as there always will be great
problems before a growing and pro
crossing nation; but our greatest need
is Christian citizenship. We need
men who live and act the principles of
Jesus Christ in our high Offices, in
places of responsibility, in the great
marts Of business. That 1t will be SO.
1t Is not an idealist's dream, but will
be realization of the future to which
present indications point.
In a despotism where one family
rules, the task Of educating the rulers
Is simple. 1t means the teaching Of
the members of a single family. In
monarchy 1t means the education of
few thousand of the upper classes. In
a republic the great peril is moral ig-
norance among millions, many Of them
newly come to our shores. We have
established our public schools for the
training of the intellect, but unfortu-
nately we have eliminated morals and
spiritual knowledge from the class
room. Five or six hours every week
are given to mathematics for years,
because We must count money, and
weigh sugar and salt, compute coal and
measure land. Years for the study OF
mathematics; not one minute for the
training of child's morals and char
acter. The president of the National
Educational association affirmed in his
annual address that there are ten mil
lions Of young people under II who
never cross the threshold of church.
We teach children that two and two
make four, but not that 1t is wrong to
falsify accounts. We teach them that
E burns in science, but not that the
who tries to satisfy his desire for
pleasure with sin. is like one who
eats red-hot Goals. We teach the girl
that hot water scalds, but we do not
tell her that there are passions which
INDUCED in will blight her very soul.
Look at the jails filled with boys whom
we allow to grow up like vandals. Con-
slider the prisons crowded with young
criminals Look at the moral insen.
sibility among our rich men and legis-
lators, to whom truth and justice
should be sacred.
We breed our own dangers through
neglect. We spend vast energy in the
discussion of the tariff on pig iron, as
II with it the republic would survive
Of perish; but we neglect the souls of
men. We spend hundreds of millions
digging mud out of the rivers, while
the mouths of our children spout mud.
] and the tenement houses ooze disease
and crime. Surely there never was
a time in the history of the republic
when the influence and work of the
church was needed more than It is to-
| day. We have well known examples
of how gladly people flock to the
standard Of any man who shows him
self a sturdy, incorporating Chris.
tian citizen. And on the other hand
| we see that man who Is not Chris
tian. though he may be exalted to a
high place. is soon weighted and
found wanting.
Our fathers laid well the founda-
lions. but their work cannot be per.
J fected without the fidelity of the sons.
| We have q marvellous heritage: we