The examiner. [volume] (Louisville, Ky.) 1847-1849, 1849-07-21
PsIisics ana RELIGION,

The present agitation Of the question sf sla
very and Emancipation has been the means o
giving currency TO great many crude and alb
surd notions In relation to the connection pro.
Perly existing between these two subjects.
We think it high time that the IegitImat,
province Of religion az connected with polite,
should be understood. What religion has to dc
with politics, legitmately and properly, ane
what IL has not, ought to be clearly difned anC
universally comprehended by all honest minds
and we think that the principles which should
govern us in this case are so plain that to state
them is to prove them.
We subjoin some views of this subject writ
ten by one Of the clearest thinkers and most
forcible writer's in the Union, and we ask 70,
them, the serious attention of both pros slavery
and anti-slavery men:
IL 10 obvious that this question requires more
precise Determinations than newspapers are ap,
TO make. No one will deny that the highest
and most commanding relations sustained by a
human being are, his moral relations 10 God
that his supreme duty 10, obedience to God
that his greatest interest 10 identified with, obe.
cience to God. What the Supreme ruler com
nands, Ia morally Right; what He forbids, is
morally Wrong. Questions are continually
arising in the course Of human affairs, which
concern chiefly OF altogether Right or Wrong.
These questions are Of the highest aud most vi
tai interest to man. There are other questions
again, involving incidentally Right or Wrong .
and they are next in Importance.
The moral relations Of man to his God, and
to his fellow men, are the peculiar subjects of
the care and supervision Of Church The
clergyman Of q church are the religious teachers,
whose vocation IL is, to trace out distinctly ali
these relations, and their requirements, in every
form Of life and society. Whenever, therefore,
question agitates the public mind, the first
duty of the religious teacher is, to INQUIRE
whether II involve a mans moral relations; II
IL does, 20 what extent:-and his next duty Ia.
to show and enforce the requirements Of the
laws Of the Supreme Governor, Just 10 that err
tent. IL matters not what shape or style the
question may take-soclal, literary, pecuniary,
economical, or political; inst in so far as It in
wolves moral right or wrong. just in so far as II
affects a mans moral relations to God and his
fellow man, II 10 legitimate subject of discus
sion for the religious teacher, and Of action for
the church.
In some questions the moral element is clear
ly, the predominant one. Such are the oues
tons connected with Temperance, Slavery.
War, and our policy toward the Aborigines of
the country. These undoubtedly may, and do
at times, assume apolitcal shape on account of
the merely political Considerations associated
with them, but the moral element 10 always con.
splcuous In them, to such an extent, indeed, that
primarily they must be regarded as moral qnes-
tions. Now, just 30 far as they affect moral re-
lations-that IL, q mans duties to his God and
his fellow man-they are to be tested by moral
law, and to be treated Of by the church and its
religious teachers.
II will be noticed that we do not argue this
subject-but merely discriminate and state posi-.
tons, trusting to common sense to ratify them.
Again, there are questions which we NAV
suppose to be started In the communication ex-
ample, whether there ought TO be STATE
CAsreh-whether there ought TO be complete
freedom Of conscience-whether Il were not pro-
per TO abolish the rites Of matrimony, and toer-
rate promiscuous intercourse-whetherb rothels
ought not 10 BE- licensed. All these might as
Iunie the forms Of Political questions, butsyery-
body seen that they would be primarily moral.
md that Il would be monstrously absurd to DENY
% clergymcn the right to discuss such questions
% Religious grounds, or question the right Of the
'hur;h 70 get in regard 70 them.