Evening journal., 1896-11-28
READ AND CONSIDER.

READ AND CONSIDER.
Considerable matter of a sensational
character has been printed in refer
ence to Judge David r. Marvel and
other persons who attended service at
st. Andrews Protestant Episcopal
Church on Thanksgiving Day, leaving
the church because Rev. Charles r..
Murray, ID. d., the rector preached a
lengthy sermon in which he practically
declared that no honest man could be
an advocate Of silver. From what we
can learn the sermon was equal to any
sound money speech delivered during
the recent campaign, and its tone par
ticularly offensive to men who hon
esty believe in bimetallism and in
keeping politics out of the pulpit
Judge Marvel and others doubtless
went to church to hear Thanksgiving
sermon along broad lines of Chris
tianity, rather than one which partooI
more of the character of a speech in
ratification Of the outcome Of the re-
cent election When they heard DR..
Murray set out to praise the gold men
as honest and the silver men as dis
honest they had perfect right to re-
sent such utterances coming from the
pulpit and to withdraw in a quiet and
orderly manner which they did.
When John Bohlen died in Philadel-
phia in 1874 he boQueathed to trustees
the sum of 100000, to be distributed
TO religious and charitable objects In
1875. by a deed of trust, was
paid over to the Church of the
Holy Trinity, Philadelphia, in trust, a
sum of money for designated purposes.
Out of this fund the sum of $4,000 was
set apart for the endowment of the
John Bohlen Lectureship. Under this
trust Right Reverend Samuel Smith
Harris, ID. d., LII. d., bishop of the
diocese of Michigan, was appointed to
deliver the lectures for the year 1882
One of his lectures was "The Relation
of Christianity to Civil Society In IL
he said:
THE service which religion renders
to the state is not less, but it Is really
greater and more salutary, because Il
is directed, not to mans temporal, but
TO his eternal, well-being, not to his
political, but TO his spiritual good.
Certainly, we need not look beyond
the borders of our own land to see the
truth signally eXemplihed that civil
and social order has no friend more
serviceable than theChristian preacher
and pastor who devotes himself to the
duties of his sacred Office, refusing to
intermeddle with political questions;
while here as everywhere the political
priest, the partisan preacher, is a dis
quieter of public peace, a disturber OF
civil society. In other words Chris
tianity is serviceable to the state when
il is neither Obtruded nor drafted into
service Of the state, but is left free to
work in its own sphere, with its own
agencies and for its own proper ends
The moment il is thrust out of its
own proper domain and made to dc
duty as a political instrumentality its
dignity is dehased, its benehcence is
abolished And the reason of this lies
in the nature of things. For the proper
spheres of religion and politics are es-
sentially different Political Chris
tianity is a contradiction of terms
Christianity abdicates it's high func-
tion. and lays aside its crown. when il
enters the arena of political strife
Nay more, it then becomes an instru-
ment of enormous evil IL is not at al
strange, that the very worst pOlitica
despotisms have been the despOtisms o.
ecclesiastical ministries and cabals.an,
that the weakest and most unworthy
rulers of the world have been priest
ridden kings. For Christianity
degraded or perverted into IN,
service of this world is foun,
TO be unfit to do even thi
world service. Il is like a fallen angel
which. ceasing TO be a messenger o
unearhly good, becomes the insru
ment of unearthly evil
1t would be well for an preachers o
the gospel who are inclined to ente
into partisan politics to read thes
words from the mouth of one of th
greatest preachers of modern times.