West Virginia freeman. (Parkersburg, W. Va.) 1881-1886, 1885-08-19
WEST VIRGINIA FREEMAN
A New Anxious Seat.
ED. WEST VA. FREEMAN.

ton of the secular press is becom-
ing lest the religious people OF this
country shall do Or say something
to bring the cause of religion and
morals into disrepute. TO read
of the anxiety displayed in some
quarters on this point, one would
think that the church needed to
have CONSERVATION appointed at
once. Papers whose creed knows no
difere nee between right and wrong
and men whose whole business is
to practice the rules of policy; who
know no law but theirself inter est,
who live in the field of politics, and
who are altogether responsible for
the condition the field is in, are
tearing their hair in frantic grief
over an imaginary danger that
somebody is going to drag the
Christian religion in the mire of
politics.
Let a gathering of church men,
bers vent ure to say that they will
support that political party which
advocates great moral reform-a
reform which the church has been
laboring for years to bring about
and the hands Of the political bo5-
seS are at once raised in a solemn
protest Let a minister of the
church dare to say that Christians
ought to vote as they pray, and
with the party that is organizing
to help answer their prayers, and
all the wire pullers are Mortified
that a minister should bring his
calling so low.
Starting with the assumptions
that the politics of this country
are all owned by the two great
l beg pardon-the two big parties,
and that the lack of moral purpose
in them is so complete that a man
can't be both Christian and
politician at the same time, they
reach the conclusion that it is a
great lowering of Christian char
acter for Christians to engage in
forming a new party with enough
of principle in it to enable con-
cientious man to vote its ticket
with bare hands.
Have they never tried to do po-
litical work honestly, that they as.
sumo the American people will
take it for granted it can not hon
e8tly be done? Have they no idea
OF moral sense, that they expect
people to think a minister more
consistent when he breaches Tenn
persnce and votes license, than
when he breaches Prohibition and
votes the Prohibition ticket? Is
right less right when it ceases to
be mere theory and becomes an
earnest action?
And in the name of consistency
where do the old school politicians
get their right to set the bounds of
Legitimate Christian work ? How
comes it that they, rather than the
leaders of Christian thought, are
the best judges of what the church
may venture to do? Must voters
who wish to vote right because it
is right, 60 to school to the men
who openly assert that their stand
ard of political morals is too low to
be learned without dishonor?
Or do they think they have bur-
led the science Of Government so
deeply in the mire Of bribery, self
ishnesS, drunkenness, venality and
crime, that honest men cannot res
urrect it, purify it and set it up
anew in the daylight Of honor, rec
titude and devotion to the public
good? Has the liquor traffic al
ready wrought such deep and dam
nable treason that we have no hon
orable means left whereby our
country may be redeemed? Are
the purity and sanctity of the
american home already so COM
pletely captured by the American
Saloon, that there is left no place
from which to draw politi-
rcal morals and poiit-
'ical wisdom to establish and EN-
force them? Are the chains of our
slavery already so firmly riveted
shat we cannot even try to break
them without forteiting our self
respect? Can dishonor so we'll sup
port its claim to have already DOS