The Results of the Elections
By Editor
The elections are over, and we are sure that there are many, very many, who are devoutly thankful that they are in the past. Many of the candidates and their friends have lived a strenuous, intemperate life for weeks. Some of them will never be healthwise what they were before. Drinking and smoking seem to be the concomitants of a great deal of the political life in America. What a blessed thing it would be if men could deliberately plan and take their choice of the best men for the important offices to be filled! At the time this notice is written there are some uncertainties in regard to the election of many candidates, but results may be given in general regarding the leading states. California elected a Republican governor, Hon. J. N. Gillett. In New York Mr. Hearst was defeated by fifty thousand plurality, when it was predicted that he would win by one hundred thousand. Doubtless he deserved it. The present governor-elect is the Hon. C. B. Hughes, well known for his investigation in the insurance scandal. Pennsylvania swung away from reform and back to its old party rings and corruption. We will note the various governors which have been elected in our next issue. The election demonstrated this, that it matters not how good a cause a man represents, if he be outside of the strong, dominant party lines, there is little hope for his election; while, on the other hand, however corrupt a man may be, if he has the backing of the regular dominant party, he is carried to victory with his party. It is such things as these which make politics hopeless of reform, and yet the Christian knows that reform, true reform, never lies in politics; it must reach deeper than politics go. The power for reform must reform men's hearts and morals; and the only reform power there is in this world is Christianity, not the Christianity that is connected with politics and the world, but the Christianity that takes hold of individual hearts, through individual faith.