The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-03-23
POLITICS IN THE PULPIT.
Rev. w. y. McCorI1Ie Endorses DR..
williams and shows Why Preach
ers should Preach ''POIitics.'


Editor Morning News: I rejoice in
the good work DR.. Williams is doing in
calling public attention to the open and
fragrant way in which our laws against
gambling are being violated in our
city Some good people are ready to de-
nounce such preaching as political.
and declare that ministers should de-
vote their attention to the spiritual
interest" of their congregations. These
good people fail to understand the real
function of the pulpit A ministers su-
preme duty, I grant, is to declare the
great truths of the gospel, and to work
directly for the salvation of souls. But
the moral environment of the people
has much to do with their spiritual
welfare. Nor can we separate the NOR
al from the spiritual. Moral debase-
ment means spiritual death. Religious
duty includes every moral obligation.
Hence, a minister is bound to cry
aloud and spare not" in his insistence
upon the supremacy of the divine law
in every sphere of human interest. HIS
mission is to the rulers as well as to
the people. He is instructed by the
Scriptures to "reprove, rebuke, eXhort.
with all long suffering and doctrine
all who come within the reach of his
influence. The duties which men owe to
the state, are, in general terms, as
clearly enunciated in that word as the
duties they owe to their own families.
The responsibility of rulers is set forth
as plainly as the responsibility of chill
dren to their parents. Rulers should
be "a terror to evil doers." They are
solemnly sworn to execute the laws.
Oficial oaths, however laXly they may
be interpreted, are as binding as any
other oaths. Officials should not use
the law as a mere revenue rake, but
honestly strive to enforce IL so as to
suppress the evil at which it is aimed.
In no other way can they fulfill the
oath they have sworn. 1t is the duty
of ministers to keep these great facts
of moral obligation clearly before the
people at all times.
In the discharge of this duty, a min
lister does not act as the representative
of any political clique or party. His
only politics is the right. He has no
selfish designs to serve. He is dis
charging a duty to the public when he
denounces political corruption no less
than when he rings the changes on the
familiar text, "Ye must be born again"
No intelligent man will question eth
er the ability or the conservatism of
the late Bishop Phillips Brooks, of the
Protestant Episcopal Church. In his
Yale lectures on preaching, Bishop
Brooks remarked:
1--WE hear to-day a great deal about
how desirable it is that the pulpit,
partly because 1t is, and partly that it
may more fully be. a power, should
deal more directly than 1T. does with
the special conditions of the time, with
the special vices, and the special needs
of the days in which we live 1t is
urged that we ought to hear more Oft
en- than We do now from our preachers
concerning . y = political corruption
and misrule. I believe the claim is alb
solutely right. r l believe no powerful
pulpit ever held aloof from the moral
life of the community it lived in, as the
practice of many preachers and the
theory of some. would make our pulpit
separate itself and confine it's message
to what are falsely Disseminated az
spiritual things
THE minister he said, sis the mes
Senger of Christ to the soul of man al
ways. His sermon about temperance,
or about the late election, or the wick
edness of oppression, is not an excep-
ton, an intrusion into the current of
that preaching which is always testi-
flying of the spiritual salvation. He
is ready to speak on any topic of the
day, but his sermon is not likely to be
mistaken for an article from some daily
newspaper. 1t looks at the topic from
loftier hight, traces the trouble to a
deeper source, and is not satisfied, ex-
cept with a more thorough cure. =
| despise, and l call upon you to de-
spise,. all the weak assertions that a
minister must not preach politics be-
cause he will injure his influence if he
does. or because it is unworthy of his
sacred office. The influence that needs
such watching may well be allowed to
die, and, the more sacred the preach
er's office is, the more he is bound to
care for all the interests of every child
of God. You will not turn your
pulpit into a place whence you can
throw out your little scheme for settling
a party quarrel or securing a party
triumph. But when some clear ques-
ton of right and wrong presents itself,
and men with some strong passion or
sordid interests are going wrong, then
your sermon is a poor, untimely thing
If il deals only with the distractions of
eternity, and has no word to help the
men who are busted with the whirl.
and blinded with the darkness of to-