New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1856-12-02

We hear mucn SAID OF late ABOUT the fuuctlOn5
of the Christian ministry 1t is the constant theme of
edifying discourse in certain circles and pOnderous
religious and secular newspapers are warning
minis sers to abstain from any meddlng with politics
in the pulpit Such political Oracles as The Jour
nal Of Commerce wax eloquent in implOring the
Christian minister not to allude to politics, or in
any way to introduce the subject into the sacred
desk. Such politicians as AtchisOn and Toonbs
are 80 violent against these priestly dema-
gogues, that had they the power, they would
certainly hang or burn few of the most obnoxious,
such as Dr. &c Jrge b. Cheever and Henry Ward
Beecber. As in that memorable debate in the
Senate of the United States On the rece2 tion
of the petition of " the three thousand New En-
gland clergyman, it is surprising what an uuctu-
QUE reverence for the Office, what sensibllity to
its purity has been begotten in the sous of Petit
and Hunter and Douglas, those admirable exem-
plificatons of every Christian grace Everywhere,
previous to the late election, the Border Rufiian
polite ans were tendery sensitive lest the clergy
should become debased and polluted by too close a
contact with the dirty snd wicked realities of human
action. 1t would actually seem as if Satan
had resolved himself into Committee of Safety
for Paradise, and that ApollyOn had become
the valiant body guard of Christian in his
pilgrimage to the Celestial City. In New
England men who make no pretensiOns even to
respect religion, and who are strangers to every
church. were flied with unutterable anxeties
about the purity of the Christian pulpit In this
CITY some of the patriots Of the Sixth Ward were
suddenly elevated into such saintliness that some
Of them, under sound advice, paraded the streets
with comely and expressive transparences, to show
their sorrow over the sin Of Cheever aud Thompson,
in raising their voices in behalf of human freedom.
Our neiehbOrs ia Newark borrowed these and
similar transparencies for recent tOrchlght pro-
ctssiop, which was to show not only how glad they
were at the election of the sage of Wheatanj,
but how sorry they were az the degradation
of the pulpit to politics. One man in that venerable
State where Parson Green of Hanover was in
danger of his life for preaching IN behalf of the
Revolution aud ParsOn Caldwell shed his blood for
tive say one man in that State, an old liquor
seller who has not seen the Upside of a church for
YEAR,, as INSCRIPTIONS politician as rum and the
lust of Office can make him, publicly asserted that the
all it's present occupants swept out, and new men
put in, who would not degrade their heavenly call
ing by mixing politics in their pubic mlnlstrahons.
Another very similar politician in one of our Free
States assaulted at the foot of the pulpit an old mu-
lister whose talents are extraordinary and whose
life is exemplary. This man, for very singular oc-
currence had found his way TO The church where the
ID rain
of ssthe sum of all vlalnies." Our politician in.
formed him, in gentlemanly phrase peculiar to his
school, that his discourse was full of hypocrisy
and lies" Every observer must have been
struck whether in New.Y York or Pennsy lvaua,
N,w. Jersey or Ohio, East or West with the
unheard. of phenomenon of liquor sellers, shout
der. hitters, professional gamblers and bulies,
politicians ready to naturalize foreigners with
forged papers, or to do any act however bad,
TO secure the triumph of the Sham-Democracy,
shrekiDg in agony and fear over the awful prosti-
tuition of the American pulpit. Who, after thus
spay of piety will say that we are not religious
people!
Edited by the reference which these pulpitgdards
have made To the old divines we have been melted
to look over few choice volumes which the old
ministers, "whO are dead but yet speak, have etf
TO the world. We confess our search was for the
specific purpose of seeing whether they confined
themselves any more closely to preaching the Cos
rel than our modern divines do. For instance, did
old John Howe preach the Gospel in that sermon of
his "For the reformation of manners, occasional
by riots in the city of London, where the in-
"soltncies of wckedness are so high, tumul.uate
Z" at such rate, and so dsringly assault Heaven,
"that the rigor of laws the severity of penalties,
1.-The vicilancy snd justice of magistrates, with the
"yigor,us assistance of all good men, in their
several stations are more necessary than sufficient
"to repress theml" Did old Jeremy Taylor
preach the Gospel in bis sermon Upon the ami
'versaIy of the Gunpowder Treason, in which he
walks over the dognas of the Jesuits especially
their political dogmas, much ia the same style as
DR.. Beman Of Troy, at our late Thanksgiving,
handled the Slavery element in our politics. Aad,
vet, a religious publishing house of this city
has printed Taylors Sermons, including his pOlti-
cal sermons, and no one was found to weep
over the event. In the great revolution which
drove James H. out of England and brought in
his place William Of Orange there was a political
influence from the clergy wihOu. which we do not
suopose the revolution would hase been effect
cd. Not TO mention Others theIe were Gilber.
Burpet, Richard Baxter, John Howe and John
Bunysp. no ole of whom in our day is the subjec.
ofsnimsdyersion as having ceeded his commission.
In the history of Scotland we find the same fact in
The lives Of John Knox, John Erskine, Alexander