IT is certain that the great majority of people in this world, evening enlightened and civilized lands, are not moving in the pathway of righteousness.
Jesus Christ said that the pathway to life would be followed by but few, but that the way to destruction would be filled with many. If his words are true, it is certain that the many to-day are traveling in the broad way, which leads downward and away from goodness and from God.
And that these words of the Saviour of men are true, is a fact abundantly confirmed by observation. The only ones who can think differently are those who mistake the polish and veneer of civilization for genuine goodness of heart.
It needs only an average election to demonstrate the fact that the majority of the people do not really want good government. If they did, they would eliminate the saloon, which is universally recognized as a curse to society, and with which good government is wholly incompatible. But the people who vote for government without the saloon are usually a small minority.
It is certain that the minority cannot eliminate the [722] majority from the government. They must, on the contrary, acquiesce with the majority’s decisions.
It is certain that the minority cannot convert the majority by their votes. There is no power in the ballot to reform the heart.
It is a fact nevertheless that the minority,—the good people (assuming all the church people to be of this character)—have undertaken to reform the government, to put righteous government in the place of unrighteous government, by the ballot. And this minority is strong enough to be able to secure a compromise form the worldly majority.
It is certain that such a compromise will be the result of the reform efforts of the minority who represent the church in politics to-day.
This compromise will set up the forms of righteousness without the spirit; for the world has never objected to the mere forms of righteousness. These in fact are useful to world lovers as a means of respectability.
It is certain that a government in which the forms of righteousness are administered by a majority who have not the spirit of righteousness, will not be a righteous government. It is certain that it will be altogether unrighteous.
And it is certain that nothing else than this can be the ultimate outcome of the church in politics, as concerns the government of the United States.