The time was, not long ago, when it
was not respectable to be interested in politics. The time is coming,
and I do not believe it is far ahead, when it will not be respectable
not to be interested in public affairs. Few changes can mean so much.
Among the first duties of every man is to help in bringing the Kingdom
of God on earth. The greatest human power for good, the most efficient
earthly tool for the future uplifting of the nations, is without
question the United States; and the presence or absence of a vital
public spirit in the young men of the United States will determine the
quality of that great tool and the work that it can do. This is the
final object of the best citizenship. Public spirit is the means by
which every man can help toward this great end. Public spirit is
patriotism in action; it is the application of Christianity to the
commonwealth; it is effective loyalty to our country, to the brotherhood
of man, and to the future. It is the use of a man by himself for the
general good.
Public spirit is the one great antidote for all the ills of the Nation,
and greatly the Nation needs it now. In a day when the vast increase in
wealth tends to reduce all things, moral, intellectual and material, to
the measure of the dollar; in a day when we have with us always the man
who is working for his own pocket all the time; when the monopolist of
land, of opportunity, of power or privilege in any form, is ever in the
public eye--it is good to remember that the real leaders are the men who
value the right to give themselves more highly than any gain whatsoever.
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