The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1892-11-20

Less than that might be fairly resented as
IN american and restrictive of personal
liberty.
There is. however, vast gulf between
that position and the ground of offensive
partisanship." When the pulpit is turned
into political platform, and the preacher
into party instrument, when the tricks OF
the politician are played in sacerdotal ha-
hiltments; when religious influence is
brought to bear to sway voters in the
place of pure reason and truthful argu-
ment; when the will OF the priest is made
paramount and the citizen is impeiied
hither or thither by ecclesiastical author
itg, the privileges of the citizen are over
stepped, the churchman seeks to regulate
the state, and the spirit of American indie
pendeuce arises to reb uke and resist the
encroachment.
The necessity for the aid of the pulpit
in the work of purifying society must not
be ignored in this connection. To contne
the preacher to things purely sentimental
ana that relate only to another life, would
be to cut of one Of the most important
functions OF the pulpit. Practical things
should form the subjects of religious dis
course to much larger extent than is
common. We have to do all the time with
temperatures. That which is called spirit
ual becomes of imminent value when ap-
Piled or made incentive to right conduct IN
the affairs of today. A religion that is
purely prospective is of little worth to So
clety. The preacher, therefore, must not
be tied down to themes of the hereafter,
nor be required to soar away into the upper
ether of speculative theology. The duties
OF men and women in every condition of
mortal life are proper topics for the relig
iOus teacher and demand his utmost and
most enthusiastic efforts.
Public wrongs ought to be publicly de-
nounced. The evils of the age should be
exposed. Official corruption must not be
covered up, and the best elements Of
society ought to unite for the publication
of the political atmosphere and the main
tenance IF good government In opposing
all kinds Of evil, encouraging every proper
effort to ameliorate the condition of man
kind and promoting public and private
virtue, the pulpit may properly occupy a
prominent position. Il is not that which
gives rise to popular resen tment over the
interference of religion with politics. 1t is
priestly espousal OF party interests and
ecclesiastical dictation as to candidates and
ballots that rouse Indignation against the
pulpit in politics. Public sentiment is
against that and is likely to increase rather
than abate.
There is to be no state religion In this
republic The separation of the ecclesias-
tical and political machinery is intended to
be permanent and complete, and while no
reasonable man will object to the full exer-
else of the privileges and duties of citizen
ship by the most exalted church official,
the people of the United States do and will
protest against the misuse OF eccleslasti-
cal power by any kind OF force, moral,
spiritual or fanatical, whether open or
secret, which operates to the impulsion OF
citizens against their own desires or con-
victions or the free expression of their
| personal will at the polls. In that pect
politics and the pulpit must be divorced,
and the whole nation is, and will be, OPP
posed to the homogeneous union.