Facts Worthy of Consideration.
It is a fact that our large cities are becoming every year more and more morally and politically corrupt. It is a fact that the proportion between the property-holders and the voters in our large cities is every year becoming larger and larger, and, as a consequence, unprincipled men find it easier to obtain office, and reckless expenditures of money obtained by taxation is the result. The city of New York furnishes the fullest example of these facts. According to the public prints, the debt of that city is now some seventy-six millions—about $82 to every man, woman, and child, in the city. The great mass of the voters own little or no property, and having less moral principle, it is a matter of no importance to them how large the taxes are. And worse still, as a leading Presbyterian minister writes: “It is a terrible fact that human life is becoming fearfully insecure, and justice is bought and sold in the city court-rooms, and that the laws for closing dens of debauchery on God’s day are openly set at defiance.” We do not believe that the condition of things is so bad in any other city; but we cannot close our eyes to the fact that in proportion as the other cities increase in population, in the same proportion is this same goal of wickedness being reached. What can be done to remedy this fearful evil? The question is one for the patriot, as well as for the Christian; for it cannot be gainsaid that if all the population of our land were in the condition of the city of New York, we could not maintain our Republican institutions for three years. We repeat it, therefore, it is a question for both patriots and Christians, What can be done to save our land from moral and political ruin? We answer, The only adequate remedy is to bring the masses of our population under the power of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the only way to make men honest, sober and industrious, and to lead them to follow right, truth and humanity. Other measures, such as the banding together of good men in all political parties to elect to office only men of principle, is proper and right; but it can only dam up the stream for a time, it cannot purify the fountain—it cannot correct the principles and purify the motives of men. The religion of the Lord Jesus Christ alone can do this; and, therefore, we submit that the facts we have named call loudly on all interested in the preservation and perpetuation of our civil and religious privileges to renew their efforts to bring the masses of our population under the power of the religion of the Lord Jesus Christ.—Christian Press.