North Branch democrat. [volume] (Tunkhannock, Pa.) 1854-1867, 1866-08-08
POLITICAL PREACHING.
Judge Blacks Reply to the Rev. Doctor
'f... H-aii Nevfn.
Influence of the Pulpit Upon the
commencement and Continu-
ence of the War.
THE TRUE PEACEMAKERs,
To the Rev. Alfred Nevin d. D.


My DEAR Sir : Your letter addressed
to me through the Philadelphia E0ening
Bulletin disapponts me; because | did
not expect it to come in that way, and be-
cause it does not cover the subject in is
sue between us. But if am silent your
friends will say, with some show of reason,
that you have vindicated "PoliticaL Preach
ing" so triumphantly that all opposition is
co9founded. / must, therefore, speak free
ly IL reply In doing so, mean to say
nothing inconsistent with my great respect
| for your bigh character in the church and
in the world The admirable style and
temper Of your own communication de-
serve to be initiated.
fully concede the right you claim for
| cleI gymen to select their own themes and
handle them as they please. You say tru-
| " that neither lawyers nor physicians Bor
any other order of men have the least au-
thority to control you in these particulars
But you will not deny that this is priv
ilege which may be abused; YOU expressly
admit that some clergymen have abused
it. sand By doing so did more than any 9TH
| q. class of men to commence and continue
| the late rebellion" While, therefore, we
can assert no power to dictate your con-
| duct, much less to force you, we are surely
not wrong when we entreot you to impose
! upon yourselves those restrictions whiC b
reason and revelation have shown to be
necessary for the good Of the church and
the safety of civil society.
| ! acknowledge that your commission is
very broad one You must declare the
whole counsel Of God" to the end that sin
ners nav be convinced and converts built
up in their most holy faith, Truth, jus
ticc, temperance, humility, mercy, peace,
brotherly kindness, charity-the whole cir
Gle of the Christian virtues-must be as
siduously taught to your hearers and if
any OF them be inclined to the opposite
wees, you are to denounce them without
fear, by private admonition, by open re-
buke, or by general delivery of the law
which condemns them. You are not
bound to pause in the performance of this
duty because it may offend powerful
ruler or strong political party. Nor
should you shrink from it when bad men,
for their own purposes, approve what you
do. Elevate the moral character? enlight.
en- the darkness, and purify the hearts OF
those who are underyour spiritual charge,
at all hazards; for this is the work which
your great TaSk-master has given you to
do, and he will admit no excuse for neg
lecting it.
But this is precisely what the political
preacher is not in the habit of doing. He
directs the attention of his hearers away
from their own sins to the sins, real or i'm
puted, other people. By teaching his con
sregation that they are better than other
men, he fills their hearts with self-cOnceit,
bigotry, spiritual pride, envy, hatred, NAL
lee and all uncharitabeness Instead of
the exhortation, which they need, to take
the beam out of their own eye, he incites
them to pluck the mote from their broth
er's. He does not tell them what they
shall do to be saved, but he instructs them
very carefully how they shall act for the
destruction Of others. He rouses aud en-
courage to the utmost of his ability, those
brutal passions which result in riot, blood
shed, spoliation, civil war, and general
corruption of morals. E-.s .-.-
You commit grievous error in sup
posing that politics and religion are so
mingled together that you cannot preach
one without introducing the other. Christ
and bis apostles kept them perfectly sepa-
rate They announced the great facts of
the Gospel to each individual whom they
addressed. When these were accepted
the believer was told to repent and be bap-
tized for the remission of his sins, aud aft
erwards to regulate his own life by the
rules of pure and perfect morality. They
expressed no preference for one form of
government over another, they provoked
no political revo utions, and they proposed
no legal reforms. If they had done so,
they would have finally contradicted the
declaration that Christs Kingdom was not
of this world, and Christianity itself would
have died out in half century. But
they accepted the relations which were
created by human law and exhorted their
disciples to discharge faithfully the duties
which arose out of them. Though the
laws which defined the authority of hus.
bands, parents, masters and magistrates
were as bad as human perversity could
make them, yet the early Christians con-
tented themselves with teaching modera-
ton in the exercise of legal power, and
uniformly inculcatcd the virtues of obedi-
ence and fidelity upon wives, children,
slaves and subjects. They joined in no
clamors for or against any administration.
but simply testified against sin before the
only tribunal which Christ ever erected on
earth that is to say, the conscience of the
sinner himself. The vice of political
preaching was wholly unknown to the
primitive church. .,
1t is true that Paul counselled obedience
to the government of Nero; and | am
aware that modern clergymen interpret
his words as justification of the doctrine
that support ofan existing administration
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