Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1895-01-02
SHOULD PREACHERS SOUND NO WARNING
AGAINST LOCALIZED SIN?

Is the constant effort of the partisan
press and political stump speakers to
ridicule all ideas which connect preach
ers with politics in any shape what
ever.
Who and what is a ~preacherp He is
a voice and a conscience-a sentinel
upon the watch tower. What do you
meal by politics? 1t is defined by
someone to be the science of govern
ment. Practically it means the meth.
DDS by which votes are obtained sufi-
cient to pat the candidate into Office.
We take the position Barring all ideas
Of the political parson or the partisan
p%reacher) that the faithful minister of
the gospel of Jesus Christ has to do
with the government in which he lives
and the country that gave him birth.
Patriotism is love of country. A
preacher must be a patriot. Love for
his country demands hat he should
champion every clean method and
every right aim which results in good
government, and he must denounce in
unmeasured terms every influence that
would hurt .civil liberty or mar the
character of the people.
Candidates for the Legislature, who
are successful, no matter how they
were elected, if elected, makeiour laws.
Candidates for judgships, when elected,
are set for the enforcement of law.
Administrative officials, when inau-
gurated, are set for the faithful admin
istration and maintenance of law. A
preacher is q citizen, with the ballot,
with q conscience and asupreme desire
for the maintenance of all that is good
and the destruction of all that is evil.
More than that, he is a teacher. Let
him teach his people what the right is,
and enforce upon them their everlast-
ing obligation to it. Let him teach
them what the wrong is, and that they
are under everlasting obligation not to
do it.
l have no respect for a preacher who
champions the Democratic party or the
Republican party or the Populist party.
The more he champions either of these
parties, the more he loses influence with
men for good and the more lie loses
his power with God. Wherever a
preachers voice is heard, let it be
known by all men that candidates who
are unclean in life and character shall
receive at his hands just and righteous
condemnation. 1t is his duty to de-
nounce them, nc matter what party
they represent. Preachers have not
lost their power, but they seem to have
lost their voice. The voice OF the
preacher is what the powder and shot
is to a gun-it is that something that
gets there.
A preacher owes his allegiance first
to God and the right, and then to
whatever is right anywhere and every
where. A preacher has sworn eternal
enmity to the devil and to wrong, and
it is his duty to live up to his oath, and
fight the devil in political parties, and
denounce r%ottenness and uncleanness
wherever he sees it, smells it, or feels
it.
If every preacher in the United States
stood against rotten officials and cor
rupt candidates as Parkhurst, of New
York, has stood, we would soon put
wings on all our politicians and clean
them up from head to foot. The secu.
lar press laughed and scorned and RI
diculed Parkhurst-today they are look
ing upon him as he wears his crown of
victory, and they are looking upon old
Tammany who is struggling for her ex-
istence.
The sweet bye and bye preacher is
about out of a job and almost out of a
congregation, but the true now and
now preacher who is handling with
gloves off the corruption in politics and
the corruption in society, has a large
audience, a large place in the hearts of
countrymen.
A Democratic preacher who can see
no wrong in his own party and poll
t%icians, or a Republican, preacher who
sees no corruption and vice in his own
party, or Populist preacher who sees
nothing but wisdom and purity in his
party, may help his party to victory,
but he will help no souls to God.
Very few preachers know anything
about politics, and care less. They are
working seemingly for the other world.
They are as wise as q Methodist stew
ard whom knew once, when he said:
I'm broke and away from home. l
am hunting a Mason" Says l. "If
you are broke and away from home
and a Mason, why amt you a Meth
odist ?" He said: Eyes, but 1 am
hunting a Mason. If you want help in
this world join the Masons If you
want to go to heaven join the Method
lists"
If were in heaven 1 would preach
largely like many preachers today.
They are constantly dwelling on the
work of the Lord, on the triumphs of
grace, on the glories of the celestial.
A man can make about as much head
way converting the world and saving
sinners by an exclusive gospel of that
sort as a fellow car make money ped.
ding ice in Greenland.
il;. L. Il <..al iaa4=sna ~ -