The Sentinel=record., 1914-05-17

torch, subornlng conscience Wlth shackles and enforcing opinions with the guillotine.
 Laymen Plead for Consecrated
 Ministry.
 A preacher who graduates from the pulpit into politics becomes a menace to good government and likewise a politician who occupies the pulpit de- baucaes the church and becomes a menace to religion. These occupa- tions will not blend No free govern. ment can long exist or the church per form its mission to society when preachers and politicians temporarily exchange callngs and a civilization that will countenance such conduct will soon decay, Such a traffic in oe- equations is as unsound in principle as the white slave trade is immoral in practice.
 The hand that passes the sacrament should not collect slush funds for political purposes The gentle voice that comforts us il sorrow and pro nounces the last sad rite upon our departed loved ones should not rave and rant on the hustings. We do not believe a preacher can manipulate any more than ne could become a burglar and be honest. It is no more wicked for a priest to sell penalcs than for a preacher to grow rich sell ing political newspapers, We think it is as immoral for a preacher to seek to lobby while he prays as ii would be for him to gamble while he breaches.
 There never was a time when preachers and politicians formed an unholy alliance that civilization did not shriek out and christianity cry aloud
 We appeal to the laymen of Texas to demand that political preachers give their congregations more old time religion and less political clap trap that they display more earn. est effort to reach the hearts of men and play less to the galleries; that they more often hold fellowship wit-l the members and fewer caucuses with the politicians. Certainly the laymen cannot perform their full duty to the church by singing songs, paying church dues and voting tickets hand ed down from the pulpit by political evangelists. The laymen should be- come a dominating factor in the poli- 1fo Of q ,lt ! at alI 1xn h ren unite in lifting fallen ministers from the sloughs of politics back in- to the pulpit.
 The Layman's Problem.
 It is as important that the poli- ticians be driven out of the pulpit as that the preachers be forced back to the pulpit. We think it sacrilegious for anyone to get his call to the pulpit from campaign managers, to get his inspiration from the cesspool of poll flee seekers and their henchmen, political conventions. It pollutes thk church, mocks christianity and is henous crime against society.
 We can conceive Of no more dia. bolical hypocrisy than a politician in tae pulpit shouting for votes and can imagine nothing more damaging to public conscience than a preacher saying Amen" to his deceitful an ties
 Political leaders may live wet and vote dry and the low standard of statecraft is not offended but when the church turns over the pulpit to of, fee seekers and their renchmen, true christianity has received a crush ing blow and hypocrisy runs rampant in the altar, for it is written "Ye can. not serve two masters"
 Since the beginning of government politicians have sought to decoy the ministry into the meshes of politics and make them carry banners in poll tical processions. They have taken the ministry to the mountain top of power and offered to make them monarch of all they surveyed and while most of them have said, Get thee behind me Satan" few of them have fallen with crash that has shaken every pulpit in Texas.
 The ministry, unsophisticated and