The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1870-05-31
The Political Parson.

1u6 pOlllCdl pdiSOu udo OoCh hithoito ou
known al the South. Here the ministry,
while cherishing lively sympathy with the
State, have scrupulously held themselves
aloof from the intrigues or even the meas
ures of party. They have encouraged the
public defenders; they have invoked the
blessing of Heaven upon the cause OF their
country; they have given their offerings to
her needs, and their ministries to her dis
tresses; they have freely cast their votes into
the ballot-box; but they have not aspired to
be party leaders. Feeling that they had
higher business than the distribution OF Of
fee and nobler reward than the spoils OF
successful campaign, they have jealousy
guarded the spiritual from the intrusion OF
the secular. Thus, for example, while they
have decided views upon that irreprcsslble
American question of Free Trade rersuS
Protection, we do not recall the name OF any
reputable Southern minister who has COM
promised his religious influence by public
declaration upon that or any similar subject
1t is to the interest of the country that
this e-honored precedent shall stand. 1t
suits the temper and taste of our people. 1t
corresponds with their sense OF propriety
For sacrilege may be committed upon the
ministerial office as we'll as upon the church
or the pulpit, where the ambassador OF the
Supreme discharges his sublime functions.
Other communities may think differently.
Chicago and Cincinnati, Boston and Brook
lyn, may demand that each discourse or lee
ture of clergyman shall be spiced with q
curry OF politics. New York may crowd ap-
provingly to hear the partisan dlatribes Of
d caustic Cheever, bellicose Beecher, or a
smiling" Smyth. There it may not dam
age the good repute of a minister to be en-
gagged in acrimonious discussions in the
daily press. There men may laugh, as at
good joke, when political animosity, awak-
ened by clerical partisanship, turns against
the whole order, as the Wings did in the
days OF George land sing the rhymed
libel,
"There's naught chokes a priest but halter"
But in this region we are conservative and
prefer the good old way.
In one of Montaigues essays the old knight
divides eloquence into two kinds--the one
facile and prompt, suited to the bar; the
other weighty and premeditated, suited to
the pulpit If the shrewd and genial Gason
is correct, the sensational preacher has mis-
taken his vocation. He gains notoriety, he
gathers crowd, he represents the shifting
incidents of the day, and stirs its fugitive
passions, he amuses, he eXcites; but he does
not instruct the mind, he does not awaken
the conscience, he does not subdue the soul.
His discourses are like the oraclcs written on
the wind-tossed leaves OF the CumGan Slbyl.
His lectures are like palimpseSt where the
sacred is sacrificed to the secular, and the
dream of q visionary obscures chapter in
the Bible. He himself is like an idle meteor
which hides the stars as it flames across the
sky, but which soon disappears while they
shine on in their steady, silent courses. Few
political parsons have ever awakened such
enthusiasm as was given to the notorious
High-Church politician, DR.. Sacheverell. He
was one of the immortals. The courtiers OF
Queen Anne used to shout over their cups,
while the Phoenix stands up and the Bow
bells do ring,
Here's health to Sachcv'rell and God bless
the Queen!'
But the poor creature soon sunk into such
contempt that no one would take any notice
OF him. The government regarded him as
too mean to punish even for his sensational
preachments against it. The very men who
made tool of the political parson were the
first to cast him Off So it will always be.
For our part, we recognize the right o.
the ministry to use all the privileges OF clti
zenship. They, of course, can write and
speak upon what subjects they please. But
the high respect claimed by the office is i'm
perilled by the partisan who, from the cau'
Gus or the hustinSs, has "lost his way into
parsonage or pulpit. cit will be bad,
said an old English wit, "when Gods
"church is made sanctuary, only for men
"of desperate estates to take refuge in it. }
And such man is the political parson.