St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-11-03
POLITICS AND PRAYER.
Rev. w. j. Lhamun Takes This
Unique Subject for a Sermon.

Rev. w. j. Lhamon Takes This
Unique Subject for a Sermon.
At the Church of Christ yesterday
morning Rev. w. j. LhamUD delivered
a sermon upon 'Politics and Prayer"
and showed the comparison between
Herod Of old and some Of the politicians
of to-day. He said:
King Herod killed James the apostle;
he saw that il pleased the Jews, and
then he attempted to Kill Peter also.
Peter was kept in prison till tile Pass
over should be passed; meanwhile the
church prayed increasingly for him.
God had work still for that apostle to
do. The prayers were heard. BY
miracle the apostle was released. The
keepers of the prison were put to death.
Shortly afterward usrod blasphemouSIy
showed himself to the people aS GUd;
he was suddenly smitten with disease,
and died a horrible death. Such is The
basis for our theme, politics and prayer.
Herod was politician. He sacrificed
principle for policy. he oppressed the
weak to please the strong. He COM
mitted murder for the favor of a fac
ton. He cOurted his constituency at
the expense of his justice. Claiming to
/, be a king ami leader, he was slave to
bowling mob majority. He bought
votes at the price of his own manhood
and the blood of the innocent. There
are real men i'll pulitics-lnen who are
men, and citizens rirSt, and politicians
afterward. But the average man III
politics is such That the word politician
has come to be stigma. We some
times hear the phrase "a mere pull
tician." Herod was that when he muir
| dered for plausibility. Three score of
| the Nebraska newspapers were that
when they offered to sell out to the
whisky rings. In North Dakota
and Louisiana there were Heruds
in Office who tried to sell their
respective states to the lottery
| company. 1t is said that the cost OF an
| election in Minnesota is enormous.
| HerodiSm works the saloons, buys votes,
| disregards decency. sacrifices innocent
| young men and women to the tempta-
lions of lust and liquor for compensa-
tien in dollars and cents, prostitutes
Justice and official position and the
good Of the community to the lust of
| gain and the fear of factions. HerOd-
| ism teaches that politics and ethics have
| science and God are foreign to politics
| of this Machiavellian order.
ION the other hand, 1t Is known by
| all prophets and historians that God
reigns. and that HIS will must ulti-
mately be done. Corruption in politics
| is as dangerous to the body polite as
looseness of morals to the individual.
The man vino deals in polit-
ical corruption is an enemy to the coun-
| try and not patriot. Such prophets as
Isaiah and Jeremiah and Daniel and
Victor Hugo and Carlyle and Emerson
recognize righteousness as the founda-
ton of all permanent government.
Victor Hugo says Napoleon could not be
victor at Waterloo because God WAS
against him. So God was against Herod
and released the apostle Peter. So God
was against the Louisiana lottery. So
God is against the saloon, and either it
must go down or the nation that per-
sistently legaliZes it must 20. God hears
the praying mothers; goddess politicians
hear only tile threats of the slums.
Principles for which holy people can
pray are of more consequence TO the
country than any party that now exists.
America can thrive without party spirit,
but not without prayer.