Litchfield enquirer., 1879-04-10
Moral Teachers.

AL JeInpcTduCG uccGlAS d lcW WcchS eIuCC we heard clergyman announce his determi- nation to vote for no candidate for office whe either drinks or sells intoxicating liquors. It struck us, at the time, as rather advanced" position yet, on reflection, it seems more de- fensble than we had at first supposed. Can there ever be anything like morality at the polls so long as moral men defer, as they now do, to mere politicians? Will politics ever be- tion immoral political proceedings? Take the case of corporate dishonesty so frequently oc- curing South and West. Should the moral teacher denounce the dishonesty of repudia- ting the bonds of his own county, or should he confine himself to glittering generalities which give as little offense as they do of practical in- struction? A Western community, for instance, ewes million dollars for money advanced in aid of some local railroad. They go to the lawyer for an opinion regarding their legal la- bility. Is there no case for the doctor of the moral law as well as for the doctor of the civil law? The general principles of this latter sci ence are easily learned. The difficulties arise in the application of those principles to the infinite variety of cases occurring in ever-day life. What would lawyer be worth who talked learnedly of general principles, but re- fused to give any opinion regarding particular cases? So, too, the science of medicine has its general principles, laid down in excellent text books, but the chief difficulty in the practice of medicine lies in the application of this learn ing What we need of the physician is the proper treatment of the particular case. We do not ask the doctor for general lectures on pa- thology, but for relief from our own special disease.
 Formerly the practice of the clergy was sim liar to the practice of the other professions For centuries before the Reformation, the mor- al conduct of the individual Christian was COZ - stantly submitted to clerical inspection at the confessional, and was made to conform in all important respects to the standards of the church. Though open to great abuse, the sys- tenn had it's advantages. Of the abolition of slavery, that curse of ancient civilization, Ma caulay says:
 How great part the Catholic eccesiastics subsequently, had in the abolition of vilenage we learn from the unexceptionable testimony of Sir Thomas Smith, one of the ablest Pro- testant counsellors of Elizabeth. When the dying slavehoder asked for the last sacra- ments, his spiritual attendants regularly ad- iured him, as he loved his sou to emancipate his brethren for whom Christ had died So successfully had the church used her formida- ble machinery, that before the Reformation came, she had enfranchlsed almost all the bondmen in the kingdom except her own, who, to do her justice seem to have been very tenderly treated.
 Professionalism, so far as it could abolished of the individual Christian through the confes- ssnal. The Protestant ministry, however, still exercised to the largest extent thelr right of dealing with the moral aspects of the prac- tical questions affecting their flocks. Political preaching as it would now be called, prevail ed in all the early Protestant churches The politics and even the wars of that time were largely based upon religious differences
 Our own idea is that the present abstention of the American pulpit from advice upon the pressing moral questions of the day is, to a large degree, owing to the dependence of the pas tor upon the good will of his people from whose voluntary support his subsistence is de- rived. This system, with it's many advanta- ges, has the disadvantage of making the duty of sharp criticism of prevalent evils one of un- usual difficulty and danger. In congrega- tion with whom indulgence in the use of spir- ituous liquors is prevalent, the preaching of Total Abstinence might well be too costly an experiment for most to attempt In commu- mites where Repudiaton is popular, the rreach- CT who should denounce that specific immor- ality in the terms it so richly deserves, might soon find himself without a pulpit
 Under the voluntary system we do not well see how this evil of moral subserviency to an overbearing popular will can be avoided h. dividuals will no doubt be found, conscientious and independent enough to ''quarrel with their bread and butter" Glasses will not do Shis. But, however difficult the task may be, relig ion would appear to owe something to society as well as to the individual. While it propos- es to fit the latter for heaven, can it remain dumb regarding the sins of the former? To cOncede this would be to concede the practical failure of the cl urch as the chief moral insti tuition of modern society. The preaching of platitudes on Sundays, while the week days are devoted to politics. to business and to social habits at variance with sound moral principles, willnever accomplish much towards the reforms which are most needed for the practical bet tering of society.