The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1850-12-19
From the Free Presbyterian.

from tRe ffe Presbyterian.
SOUND SEHrmENTs-The following extracts
are from an address delivered at the Wesleyan
University, by ID. D. Wheelon, Professor in the
University Of Michigan. They embody great
thoughts, tersely spoken:
THE PULPIT AND PoLTTIcs, Meanwhile the
pulpit is proclaiming the Kingdom of God Mt
hand. Hers it is to impregnate the philosophy
of the age with spirituality, and thus to complete
the formation of public conscience. Or rather
1t is her office to appropriate the philosophy and
the civilization Of the age and to be herself the
public conscience. Christianity has right to
pervade every department of the life oflesponsi-
BILE beings, private or public. Nor has the pulpit
i right to hush Itself Mt the bidding of prince or
people. To discuss in the pulpit latter Of
secular expediency, Of course, misbecomes the
pu, pit and the sabbath. But the pulpit'is bound
10 draw, unhinchingly, the boundary lines of
eternal right, across whosever field or path il
cuts Whenever great statesman vocitrrates
across the nation, shat religion has nothing IL
10 mHh poliiics,' you may be sure there is vii
iainy on foot. No man opens war against
conscience, private or public, unless conscience
has some cause of quarrel against him. The
man who would say to Christianity, hands of,
would be glad to say to the omnisclent eye, be
shm The political pr fession would, doubtless,
a large share, be very glad to know that over
their domains the divine law is suspended; and
that Almighty God may not invade their terri
tories.
Deeply do I regret to say, that the pulpit
has but too often succumbed and fearfully
shrunk from standi g forth the stern impcrson-
alton of the worlds conscience. Let the pull
pit re-assert its place in the front of every ell
terprise for overthrowing great wrongs, and es-
tablishing great rights. Let it firmly apply the
divine Law to all crime high and low, individu-
al and governmental. Be this done in the pure
spirit of the saint, and the heroic spirit of the
martyr, and ptiful, indeed, will be the figure of
the politician or party, who ventures to inter-
| tere.
| Very appropriate to this day are his remarks
TIE BALLOT BoX.-As Of the individual, the
governmental power is the WILL so of the great
person corporate. the will must be the govern
mental power. The will is that wondrous tram
stion point, through which mere thought goes
forth into action 1t is the contract point be-
tween the mere agent within, and the corporeal
mechanism without; the hopper through which
mere mental idea is transmitted into physical
force; the bridge upon which the subjective en-
ergv marches out upon the objective world.
Parallel to this are the media by which the SEN
into historic events in great organic self-direc-
tive movements, or great international transac-
tons The media by which the modern free
commonwealth seeks to attain this object, are
the Ballot and the Representative system. The
Ballot our Republic inherits from ancient de-
mocracy the Representative is, In great degree,
an invention of modern political science.
And yet, the grandeur of the ballot is essen
tially modern and American. When upon the
same day, great national election transpires,
producing change, which in most nations would
be revolution, the quiet movement, and the
simple apparatus by which it takes place, is
specimen of the moral sublime! 1t is secret,
vet decisive shock-a brief silence ensues-by
the telegraphic thought, the nation is soon con-
scious of its own decison-and the implicit ODE
dence Of all parts Of the great system completes
the work. And there should be an honor and
sacredness upon the ballot box. 1t is freedoms
noblest emblem. 1t should be to Republican
ism, what the cross is to Christianity the image
of its power. 1t should as our national symbol,
dsplace upon our national banner the furious
bird ofprey, which, inherited from ancient Rome,
betrays the iron organism that really turks in
our governmental system. And our process
would to God, a holy reverence could be shed
around its precincts. Solemn, next 10 the rites
of the church itself, should be these rituals Of
freedom. The ballot BOX is the ark of freedoms
coyenant-so should the surrounding space be
sanctuary. And the vote, the badge of indie
pendence, and none the less badge Of honor,
because it is shared by all, and is so an emblem
of equality and ought to be impregnated with
its fitting superstition, as little leaf of great
destiny.