The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1903-12-12

the plant cannot flourish and bloom
ii perfection save through the ac-
tive grace of the Christian church,
hence the demand that all public
officers shall be Christians. Ac-
cording to the quality and quantity
Of mans Christianity, he becomes
elevated in power and responsible
ity in the church; therefore, the
greater his elevation. the better
man he must be in every sense.
The direct logical conclusion is that
he who has attained to the highest
exaltation in. the church is best
equipped to wisely, honestly and
graciously administer the temporal
affairs of mankind. And if Chris
tianity is truly inspired of God, we
dare not reject that conclusion.
The holding of civil Offices by
Christian ministers, bishops, cardin-
ais and apostles in nowise conflicts
with the doctrine that church and
state must be kept separate. The
doctrine simply means that the
church shall not, in its ecclesiastic-
al capacity, have power to enact
and enforce laws regulating the
civil conduct of the people. We
are aware that Christian denomina-
tons, other than Latter Day Saints,
oppose the seating of Apostle
Smoot on the ground that to seat
him is contrary to the doctrine of
separation of church and state. To
US. though, it seems extremely H.
logical to, in the first instance, de-
mand that none but Christians
shall hold civil Office and then con-
tend that whenever man, by viz
tue Of a wise and pure life, has at
tanned a high degree Of Christian
ity, he must be excluded from Of
fee. This involves serious re-
Fiction ON Christian perfection.
We doubt if the Examiner inter-
prets Mormon sediment accurately
when it states that a majority OF
Mormons feel that it would have
been better had Smoot never been
elected, if thereby it is meant to
Imply that they consider that
Shoots election was an unwise
thing. Their feeling should be in
terpreted in another light. When
Christ appealed to the Father, stake
away this cup from me-" we do not
understand that he questioned the
wisdom of the divine decree, but
regretted the circumstances which
made necessary its execution, and
shrank from the pain he was called
upon to endure. The Mormon peo-
pie do not think it would have been
better not to elect Mr. Smoot, but
they regret that the disagreeable
agitation could not be eliminated
from the divine plan.
The plain philosophy of this gov
eminent is that the right to vote
confers the right to hold Office.
You cannot put restrictions upon
the right to hold Office, by strained
construction of doctrine, without
putting limitations upon the voting
privilege. If Christian ministers
have no right to hold Office, they
have no right to vote. It is argued
that Mormons ought not elect high
church authorities to civil Office,
because other denominations do
not. There is only defect in that
argument-the statement of fact is
not true. Other denominations do
elect ministers whenever they want
to and have the votes to do it, and
nobody objects. 1t is also argued
against Smoot that he owes higher
allegiance to his God than his coun-
try. If that be a valid objection
against Smoot it ought to be against
anybody else. What Christian,
worthy the name, would not side
with his church against the state
in case of actual conflict? The
writer of this is not distinguished