The weekly north Iowa times. [volume] (McGregor, Iowa) 1857-1867, 1866-03-28
Cause and Effect.

We have already said, and we now say it
"more in sorrow than in anger that the pres
cnt popular contempt for religion. the present
remark ,ble tend .nry of the general mind to
"freethinkiag," and to '.liberasm' (ts they
politely trrm quiet indifference in regard to
the church and its intcrcSts), is owing mainly
to one thing in this country, to wit, the intro.
duciion Of politics into the pulpit. Political
ministers have much to answer tor in this uni.
versal alienation OF the popular heart from the
sound principles of Christianity. They are re.
ally responsible, before God and man, for the
widespread inalelity of the age. And what
is the necessary consequence! The pulpit it.
self suffers Chm aches lose their congrcga.
tons. Ministers are dismissed for want of
congregations. The sheep are driven away by
mistaken shepherds, and then the shepherds
are turned away for want OF aotks. Perhaps
there is more of this political preaching in
New England than in any other portion of
the union They make speciality of it there.
Preachers are there elected to public Office.
and hence the pulpit, as stepping stone to the
ballot box, is deemed an available place for
the dissemination of political principles; aud
the Boston journals tell US that not les than
three hundred pulpits in New England are now
vacant "for want of proper support" while
eight hundred more have such diminished
congregations that heir ministers obtain mere.
ly "a bare subsistence Could we ilu.tr,'e
more perfectly the effect of thus injudicously
mixing together such unconsenial subjects az
politics and regionl
When we read these things Of New Eng.
land generally, and when we are told by au-
thority, that in Connecticut alone, last year,
one.iflh Of all the pastors we're dismissed for
want of congregations. We cannot help think
ing what a curse to tn. clergy Of the country
q presidential election my be considered lf
every exciting campaign of the kind Is to be
followed by such sweeping falling off OF con-
gregations, aud such Wholesale dismissal of
clergymen from church service, what's to be
come of US by and by, MS christian people p
New England takes the lead, as we have
shown, in thus prosttuting the pulpit to politi
cal purposes. New England suffers most in
consequence But New England spreads her
gospel ministers all over the land They mi.
CRATE to the east, west, north and south, and of
course carry with them their original habit
udes. Hence the political preachers here AS
well as elsewhere will nearly always be found
to be New ,Englandcrs, and their political
preaching has the same effect here ms at Home,
viz, j; destroys the popular reverence for sr
cred things. degraies the church In the gener
al estimation, and dsseminates an iudifcr nee
for religion which rapidly fills the ranks OF in.
fidelity. NecI we say that, as true phil nitro.
pis;s, we deeply regret this? We earnestly
wish, therefore. that the American pulpit
would cease, directly or indirectly, to have
anything to do with politics, in order to rescue
the nation from that moral destruction toward
the brink of which that pulpit has suffered it
to wander while engaged in looking after its
political safety. We C III this "A christian coun
try 1t ought to be one, at any rate. But is
1t ever likely to become anything of the kind
as long as the instructed zeal Of the army Of
faith, enlisted to make it such. drives out all
the old worshppers from the temple, and brings
into it none but caviling converts? While the
church itself breeds skepticism, who shall rear
recruits for the church?