YOUR DUTY IN POLITICS.

HARLES SUMNER said that the citizen who neglects his public duty is a public enemy. There is a large class of such public enemies, and they are the most serious menace to the purity and prosperity of our government. They are men who hold politics in reproach, because of its pollutions and rottenness, but who, instead of doing their part to purify it, scornfully take up their skirts, and say that they will not descend into its mire, forgetting that they themselves are responsible for such deplorable conditions by their own neg. lect of duty. They may, too, be so absorbed in their own private interests that they satisfy themselves with the excuse that they cannot spare the time.

Said the Earl of Derby, in an address to students: "If there is one thing more certain than another, it is this, that every member of a community is bound to do something for that community in return for what he gets from it; and neither intellectual cultivation, nor the possession of material wealth, nor any other plea whatever, except that of physical or mental incapacity, can excuse any of us from that plain and personal duty."

The man who neglects his duty in this matter is

guilty of a moral wrong, for society and the nation is made up of an aggregation of individuals, each of whom is under a tacit obligation to sustain and preserve them, in return for the protection and benefits which he derives from them.

Says R. W. Dale, an English divine: "I think it possible that the time may come when men who refuse to vote will be subjected to church discipline, like men who refuse to pay their debts."

There was a law of Pythagoras which pronounced every man infamous who, in questions of public moment, did not take sides; and well were it for us to-day if we were subject to such a law.

Rev. C. H. Spurgeon thus speaks of men who neg. lect their public duties: "The fact is, a certain class of men love to be quiet, and are ready to sell their country to the evil one himself, so that they may live at ease and make no enemies. They have not the manliness to plead for the right, for it might cost them a customer or a friend, and so they profess a superior holiness as a reason for skulking."

An able writer, of our own country, has spoken words which are worthy to be treasured up in the heart of every true citizen. He says:

"In our days it seems that men who are almost completely destitute of all proper ideas of their rela tions to free institutions, have a greater influence than those who fully understand this relationship.

"Men of refinement, of high social position, of the

highest mental culture, ministers of the Gospel, have, in a very large measure, stepped back, and given way to the preponderating forces of ignorance and personal advantage; so that now our officers, to a great extent, hold their positions by the votes of those who fail to comprehend the real significance of the ballot.

"Because politics have become so miserably corrupt, being almost synonymous with fraud, are the cultured, the refined, and the ministers justified in holding themselves entirely aloof, and, by their very refusal to become interested in these high concerns, making an increase in corruption still more possible?

"The government is for all,-for the artisan who lives and earns his bread and clothing by manual labor, and for those who seek and obtain the same results by brain efforts. Every citizen is equally brought under all the advantages that may be gained by the form of government which has been agreed upon; which has been established in harmony with such agreement; and no one class is, or can be, justified in ceasing to exert individual effort for the maintenance of every institution which has grown out of the form of government under whose protection we live. And this is still more true when these institutions are, in their very nature, free, therefore liable to be misused, and very liable to work out an entirely different result from the original intention,-this end accomplished by the ig norance of the very ones who should derive a large share of benefit from their contínuance."

Is

A part of public duty which is more universally ig nored by men of seemingly high character and influence, than any other, is that of holding public office. There are hundreds of men who have the qualifications of integrity, mental capacity, great business experience, with leisure, and who command the confidence of the community in which they live, but who refuse to hold offices of trust and responsibility. The consequence is, that a lower grade of men take the offices from motives of gain or personal ambition. it not a shame that the desire to benefit the world by faithfully performing the duties of a public office should not be as strong as the selfish considerations of personal gain? A man who is called to an office, and is fitted for it, has no more right to refuse to serve than to deny to the thirsty the cup of cold water, or to omit any act of kindness or charity. It is not a trifling matter which he can excuse by whims, impulses, or caprice, but he does a positive wrong to the interests of society and good government, and is morally accountable for it. This feeling has its root in selfishness, which is as reprehensible in this form as in any other. If good order, just laws, and a righteous administration. of justice are to be maintained, it must be not by those who are in conflict with them, but by those who are willing to uphold and stand by them, and give something more than a mere negative support to them. Citizen of a free and enlightened government,—do you consider what a rich and glorious heritage has been

committed to your keeping? It is a sacred trust which you hold for future generations.

See, then, that you transmit it unimpaired to your posterity. If you are called upon to hold office, do not shirk it because it conflicts with your ease, or even with your business; but accept it, and hold it worthily. If there is work in the primary caucus, do not despise it because it may seem unimportant, but remember that the bulk of the work of the world is drudgery, of which politics has its share, and it should be your duty, as much as others, to bear it. Remember that "eternal vigilance is the price of liberty," and our in stitutions cannot be maintained without the support and active co-operation of all intelligent and highminded citizens.

"What constitutes a state?

Not high-raised battlement or labored mound,
Thick wall or moated gate;

Not cities proud with spires and turrets crowned;
Not bays and broad-armed ports,

Where, laughing at the storm, rich navies ride;
Not starred and spangled courts,

Where low-browed baseness wafts perfume to pride.
No:-men, high-minded men,

Men who their duties know,

But know their rights, and, knowing, dare maintain,
Prevent the long-aimed blow,

And crush the tyrant while they rend the chain;
These constitute a state."