CITIZENSHIP AND RELIGION.

White Ribbon, Volume 19, Issue 226, 18 April 1914, Page 11

CITIZENSHIP AND RELIGION.

At tlie recent Convention a recommendation was made that the Minis tcTs Association in the different New Zealand towns should be asked to arrange for special sermons bearing upon questions of Good Citizenship on the Sunday preceding the muniei pal elections. Su< Iv sermons have been given in some of our < ities, and if it could be made more general throughout the Dominion it might become a force working for the purification and elevation of the moral tone in all c ivic and political matters. I hi-' has been done in London for the last 20 years, the Sunday thus set apart being known as Citizen Sunday, and the object is twofold First, to arouse citizens to a greater sense of responsibility in the matter of recording their votes at the municipal elections; and secondly, and this seems to me the most important aspect of the subject, to secure the definite association of religion with all questions of citizenship and good government. To quote from the “Christian Commonwealth,” October 30th, iqu: “Fven more obviously than in the case of Parliamentary elections, the responsibility of voting is directly related to just, impartial, and intelligent administration of the laws that touch every ndividual in the community, and wi*h the growth of social legislation affecting daily life and personal habits, the need for an alert and instructed citizenship becomes more urgent.” It has been more than once pointed out that, while almost everyone is keenly interested in a General Flection, or in the National Prohibition vote, when it comes to the c hoice u' the men who are to control the local conditions of a particular district, there is a considerable falling off of interest. Still more is this the case

in the election of School Committees, and yet this is 'urely one of the most important of a citizen’s duties. 1 he conditions under which our children are trained for their life work should be a matter of supreme importance to every one who cares for the future welfare of the community, for the education of the young upon right lines and amidst pure surroundings must he* the main factor in the build ing up of a righteous community in the future. On Sunday, October 20th, of last year, 400 sermons were preached in London by ministers of all denominations, including the Anglican Church, on the duties of citizenship, with special reference to the need of establishing one moral standard for men and women. The following quotations are taken from a leading article in the “Christian Commonwealth,” October 2cjth, lyij, which gives a summary of these sermons From the mass of notes before us we believe that the claims of citizenship are recognised by the churches as not less binding upon the conscience than the duties of the individual life. Kev. F. S. Waterhouse told his congregation at Norbury Wesleyan Church that a Citizen Sunday sermon was just as much ‘the Gospel’ as the most evan gelical discourse. . . . Christ came to save, not only persons, but peoples.’ Kev. J. 11. Cardwell, rector of St Anne’s, Soho, dwelt upon the moral question as it challenges the churches in his parish, and urged that all Christian people must range themselves on the side of purity. ‘We must not,’ he said, ‘tolerate bad houses and degrading entertainments, but must take our part in making London morally a cleaner place to live in. London’s misery and vice continue because Christian men and women are too engrossed in their own affairs to bother about these matters.’ Rev. J. L. Thomas, vicar of St. Thomas’s, West Ham, said that a person could be engaged in no higher task than in trying to purify municipal life, and the election of a Councillor gets to the root of the thing. If municipal life is not all that it should he, all the more reason why good men should come forward to take* their share*. :<c*v. H. S. Welsh (Methodist) said 1 rse who affirmed that as men beci.ne More spiritual they became* I *s. patriotic, failed to understand the significance of the life

of Christ, who was the pattern patriot. If every citizen would put religion before self-interest, and patriotism before party politics . . . many things would soon he better than they arc*. The forces of religion must be brought to bear on the social evils which are eating the* very heart out of our national life; our citizenship must be lived in the light of the life of Christ. Dr. W. S. < arttei: “The Kingdom of God involves the* citizenship of all, from which neither race, nor nationality, nor -ex. can permanently debar any one. Fxperience has proved that representative government is the* best form yet devised, and it must be made* more fully representative. Only then can the whole moral force of the* community be used to make the Statute Book agree with the* New Testament, and ensure to all equal justice, freedom, and opportun it\. ’ H. G. Chancellor, If.P . ‘Not all the preac hers speak the same language. But we arc* quite convinced that essentially they all recognise what Kev. B. G. Bourchier, vicar of St. Jude’s, calls the mistake of religionists the* drawing of a distinction between religious and secular, and spiritual and social concerns. Ultimately, he said, every question is religious. Christianity is the religion that moves amongst realities. Its sphere is the street, the home, the business life, the work of the world. May not we in Nc w Zealand take some of these teachings to heart in our efforts to make ti is country of ours a purer and \vt more beautiful one ? MARIAN JUDSON, Supt. of (iood Citizenship Dept.