The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1910-08-04
The rlinister and Civic Affairs.
0 the Editor of The Republican:

Recently at Mt. Lake Park, j. Will
bur Chapman, the most successful and
celebrated living evangelist, said: THE
time has come when the minister of the
gospel of Christ should help right the
worlds wrongs"
Somebody must fight humanity's
battles, and great wrongs must be eX-
posed, the intrigues of the demagogue
laid bare. and the sordid time server
who is in office for the spoils and not
for the good of humanity must be held
up to public ridicuie and his sinister
motives revealed so that an indignant
people may know where their enemies
Turk
1t is not every one who can do this
successfully. There may be reasons
why the banker or merchant or other
business man can't publicly take up
questions Of vital interest and give
them the attention they should have.
The evil doer, the CRATER, the .venal
politician, the Observation-Disclosures, the
gambler ard all other parasites on
human society do not want their sins
exposed A familiar method of dealing
with the man who would lay bare their
sins is to accuse him of ignorance or
make some other untenable excuse.
This class of pirates are especially
hostile to the minister Of the gospel
when he dares to make known to the
public the sins of gentlemen in au-
thoritY.
The writer has been threatened more
than once with starvation if he voted or
spoke so and So Preachers have been
assaulted recently, had their homes
burned and suffered other indignities
merely because they told people the
truth.
Now as long as a preacher will stay
in his pulpit, say nice smooth things,
talk of the sins of the Hittites or some
other ancient tribe, he will get a gra-
cious smile from the evil doer, and will
be considered an ideal minister by this
class.
But the moment he ceases to be
mere clerical and becomes a preacher
of Righteousness, that moment all the
thugs, thieves, grafters, gamblers,
and menials in Office become his in
vetcrate foes.
Now not all politicians and Office
holders are menials. There are noble
men in office and in politics who stand
by the preacher of righteousness and
defend him; but | speak Of that class,
and their name is legion, who are wick
ed and corrupt.
The wicked flee when no man pur-
sueth, but he makes better time when
somebody is after him The evil doer
just wants everybody to let him alone
To illustrate: A school board acting
under the advice Of certain officials may
outrage a community, do imparable
harm to the young and rising genera
ton, ignore an honest and sincere pro-
test from d great majority of the pa
irons and then say, ITS none of your
business, you've got to take it, keep
still" Unfortunately in this country
there has been too much keeping still.
We have been a long suffering people.
But the day has dawned and the word
has gone forth that if men do betray
public trust they shall have heaped
upon them the just criticisms of
righteously indignant people.
lay down this proposition: What
ever concerns the physical, intellectual,
moral and spiritual interests Of a com
munity concerns the minister of the
gospel. If this is not true then the
wrong methods were used in Bible his
tory and we have handed down to US
a wrong system of procedure against
sin
No doubt Pharoah in Egypt said,
''Moses is just a newcomer from the
desert. He is meddIing with our affairs.
Hands off" When the old prophets
cried out against the wickedness of
their day the evil ones cried back,
Preacher in politics. For example
notice Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel and
others.
Jonah is sent to Nineveh, that wicked
CITY, to preach, and | can hear those in
authority, whose sins were exposed by
his preaching, saying, "This Jonah
hasn't been here twenty-four hours.
and he has the audacity to tell US what
we should do" A newcomer in politics.
However the people of Nineveh
showed more gumption than the Oak
land school board. They repented.
John the Baptist had the audacity to
tell Herod of his sins and kept on tell
ing until he lost his head. Poor john
They probably called him a preacher
in politics." Why did John not have
the wisdom to keep still and let Herod
undisturbed go on in his adulterous re-
lations? If he had kept still Herod
would have contributed to Johns sup
port or paid something on the church
debt.
paI1l and Silac yUere payU in pbi1iry,i