The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-10-28
THE PULPIT AND PUBLIC MORALS.
Responsibility of Ministers of the. Christian
Faith in the Present Campaign.

Responsibility of Ministers of the Christian
Faith i'll the Present Campaign.
Hon. 4. W. Tenney, at Hudson. N. Y.
1 notice that some ministers are supporting
Mr.. Cleveland for the presidency. And l want
to say right here that any minister of the gos-
pei, in any section of our land, who supports Mr..
Cleveland, with the full knowledge of the facts
as to his private life, is unfit to be u messenger
of the living God. To do so, is to give lie to
his teachings and contradiction to his pro-
fesson. If the Ten Commandments mean any
thing they mean just what they say, and they
are as full of meaning in this autumn of 1884 as
they were when uttered in the early twilight of
time by the Great Jehovah Himself. And the
minister who attempts to excuse or condone the
admitted adultery of Grover Cleveland cruelty
and wickedly basphemes the name of his Maker,
and should be driven from the pulpits of the
land by the scorching Indignation of an outraged
Christian community. A minister who approves
licentiousness in another outside the pulpit will
go far, l am afraid, to commit RIGHTEOUSNESS
himself in the pulpit. Such clergyman is a
hypocrite and breeder of inhdels, and is un-
worthy to be the bearer OF everlasting
truths. If the Bible teaches anything it
teaches morality. If religion means any
thing, it means purity in private life. II
this is not so, then it is high time we had n new
Bible and a new religion There is no half way
in this matter We either for virtue or we
are against it, We are either for a correct pri-
vate life or we are against it, Forgiveness is
one thing and public approval and public eoro-
nation quite another TO elect Mr. Cleveland
President of the United States is to put pre-
MUM or vice and crown with the highest honor
Iewdness and lascviousness You cannot have
public virtue without first having private virtue
Private morality must precede public morality.
This is land of homes, of tiresides and of fam
ily affairs. and whoever makes war upon the
sanctity of either is public enemy and should
be treated as such. Something more than poli-
tics is on trial in this land to-day The honor of
the household, the purity Of womanhood and
the nobility of manhood are at stake. 1t is
therefore no time for velvet sentences; but it is
n time when men should speak words of fire and
think thoughts that burn. We do not want any
illegitlmate children lowering around the chair
of state honored by Washington, by Lincoln and
by Garfield and, God helping us, we will never
have them. The honor and the virtue of this
mighty people will never submit to such an
outrage as that
Unwillingness to support Mr Blaine for any
cause does not Justify supporting Mr.. Cleveland.
Henry Ward Beecher says that Mr. Blaine has
written some letters he does not like If for
get not Mr. Beecher once wrote some letters the
whole community did not like. And these let
ters were made the basis of suit at law, which
for months and months shocked the moral sense
of all Chrstendom as no other suit in all tmo
had done And yet with charity never sur
passed and a confidence in an outward
life of rectitude never before equaed,
tho jury and the people, by vote OF
nine to three, rendered verdict, "rhou
art not guilty" Had the same rules Of construc'