Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1908-10-14

gymen take Mr.. Browns view of it
and do not give their powerful assis-
lance to the amalgamation of the
Christian vote of the land against
evils that menace the happiness and
purity of the home, the welfare
of the individual, and the future
of the nation. 1t is not enough to
preach mere general sermons, to in
dulge in vague remarks on mans
general conduct
What is needed, and what the
country should continue to have, is
continued direct attacks on evils, no
matter whether they are tied up with
the political destinies of individuals
and parties or not. The pulpit must
come down to specific points. Men,
and Christian men, at that, are too
prone to leave a principle lie dorm
ant, not to make the application of
it that they should, they are too
apt to be enervated by the influences
pulling in favor of the continuance
of an evil, to be so affected by their
personal material interests that they
will sit with closed mouths and not
enter a protest against a perpetuation
of evils that they know should be up
rooted and destroyed. That is where
the duty of the pulpit comes in and
reaches beyond the limit set by Mr..
Brown
Its duty does not end with the mere
effort to make men good by preaching
Gods truths to them in a general
way The pulpit should seek to have
men make a concrete dynamic out of
those truths, to apply them directly to
the conditions surrounding them in
every day life. The pulpit should
lead them to strike hard, and strike
often, and strike continuously at ev-
cry evil, political or otherwise.
Politicians Afraid of Pulpit Politics
Men who are interested in the
perpetuation of evils that are pro-
f1table, or that serve to perpetuate
them in political power, decry the
clergymen who carry politics into
their pulpits They decry them be-
cause they are afraid of them. They
are afraid of the power of Christian
truth when directly applied to every
day life, They know that when the
Christian people are once aroused it
is all over with them. | believe that
the ministry is recreant when it
does not seek to arouse Christian
people to carry their Christian prin-
ciples into their politics, to measure
men and measures by the great un-
varying standards of righteousness.
Il have the highest respect for
Mr. Brown, but at the same time We
view these matters from an entirely
different viewpoint. | believe the
more so-called political sermons We
have on the moral issues of the day
the better for this country and for
its people The two great leaders of
thought and of public movement in
this land of ours are the pulpit and
the press, or vice versa if you wish
it. We commend the press when it
denounces wrong and sin and clamors
for greater purity in high places, for
the eradica alton of the cancers that
are eating at the vitals of the nation,
but let the ministry take up the same
cudgels in the pulpit and endeavor to
awaken the people to greater eXer-
lions for public righteousness and
some one sets up the howl politics
in the pulpit and every little yelping
"me-to" of a place seeking politician
from Yamacraw to Cole City joins
in the hue and cry, as though the
ministers had committed the unpard-
enable sin