CITIZENS' SUNDAY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 197, 20 August 1900, Page 4

CITIZENS' SUNDAY.

We trust that Citizens Sunday has come to stay—and that it will more and move become the happy means of promoting the unity of the churches and of Inculcating' civic virtues and duties. A considerable proportion of our citizens have no high appreciation of Sunday—and do riot seem to be making the best use.of it merely as citizens. They take it as a matter of course as something convenient that comes in their way. Why there should be such a day; how came it to have its present character; and by what means is this beneficent institution main-' tamed they do not pause to inquire. "Carpe diem," they say, and so they do, and very often think no more about it. But then there are others in the community who do think and feel, seriously on the subject—and' the very fact of their doing so stirs a feeling of opposition on the part of some^ who do not consider the question at all. And it is an easy matter to charge the narrow people with "other worldliness" as' George Eliot did when in a like frame of mind toward her contempoi'arie.s. Kosseau affirmed that Christians could not make good citizens or good soldiers, "because their hearts being fixed upon another World they must necessarily be indifferent to the success or failure of such enterprises ns they take up here." That was M. Rousseau's opinion and no more. There is nothing in it, for the facts of history and of experience witness to the contrary. That is a perverted and shallow religion which would neglect the duties of the present or could1 possibly be indifferent to the responsibilities of good citizenship. There.may be that type here and there, seeking to keep itself alive. Of the name of religion such is not worthy.; it deserves to die out of a world it seeks not to serve. To leave it alone is enough. The spirit of the age is a solvent against which nothing can sfand but what is vital and progressive. For applied Christianity there is a wide field and an unsatisfied demand. An open door -will be found sometime through which specialised activities will enter the field and achieve astonishing results. The dreams will come true, and the visions and longings of to-day become the facts and common heritage of to-mor-row. What are the conditions and the call of larger service? They are these. An infant nation with the foundations or outlines of future <h-eat cities. We are living in a new •world, into which we have brought with us many of the methods and ideals of the old world. An eager,

restless,, daring democracy, not unready for all kinds'of experiments in government and modes of life —with a wider and -more open eyed suffrage than the .old world knows of, and in the nature of-things our. civil and social organism has the defects of its good qualities. For us as a people there are . some perils from which others less favoured are exempt through their backwardness. An ideal type of government in the State and in city life requires the very best kind of people, for dts successful working. A prosperous democracy is impossible with an ignorant or unprincipled constituency. A monarchy may endue with ignorant and vicious subjects, provided the rulers are wise and strong—but- a democracy must have trained citizens/for the citizens are its kings. And, moreover, the education must be ethical as well as intellectual; it must.bea training into the love of virtue and righteousness as well as into the perception and knowledge of facts. To rear and train.clean, self-re-specting and truth-loving citizens is an achievement worthy of the. noblest ambition—and a task for the best energies of a devoted people. Such is the ideal of the best foi-ma-tive and creative agencies in the nation-, of the school and the home, the church and public life. But there is enormous waste, and with our present methods it seems to be unavoidable. The breadth, of , this movement, or which citizen Sunday is an ,expres-i sion, is considerable, but that, is not! its chief significance.',.. Practically' all the religious bodies, take a part in It in some form or another. .They all •look toward the one ideal, they respond to a common and deep impulse. As it is.the formal arrangements are of the simplest and scantiest. The movement is not ecclesiastical, but moral and spiritual. .Hence its value and its great possibilities. What might not these bodies accomplish for the community for the higher citizenship and the'young nation were they to become of one accord and of one mind more often and more thoroughly? When for a moment they come somewhat into line the mind is thrilled with a vision of what might be, as citizen Sunday opens the door but slightly towards a new state of things, in which all. who love their, countiy and love their kind unite to render strenuous and whole-hearted service in the. sacred cause of humanity, which is tne cause of God.