Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-10-23
MINISTER'S IN POLITICS.
tie Editor of the Telegraph:

10 ne EdHoI OF the Telegraph:
The Prince of this world" is wise
and cunning ana always ready to
adapt himself to the conditions he
finds. surrounding him. When our
Ioretathers came across the seas to
secure for themselves the right to
worship God according to the die
tates of their own conscienceS as
enlightened by the open Bible, and
when in the course of the erection
or new government for a people of
diverse practices in the evangelical
religious world they found it neces-
sary to give voice to the fundamental
principle of separation of the church
ecclesiastical forms of government
from the state, he was not slow to
put forth his efforts to make the
people believe that in our country
religion and politics must be abso-
lutely divorced. Senator Ingalls, at
his suggestion openly declared that
the moral law and the decalogue
have no place in politics." but this
was case of overreaching himself.
Some have gone so far as to say that
the individual voter has no right to
take n mans religious convictions
| into consideration in determining
whether that man shall receive his
vote, and that to do so was to do an
unconstitutional thing. More than
once in the history of our nation has
this prince of evil been given backset
in his endeavors to establish this
false basis of action, which fails to
distinguish between the church" as
| human organization and religion
as Divine regulation for men in
| everything.
During the Civil War the preach
ing of politics." which was almost
synonymous with denunciation of
the iniquity of human slavery. was q
| burning problem in many congrega-
tions. At the time it was the great
est of moral" questions before the
| people and at the same time the
greatest political problem. To-day
it is the liquor traffic that assumes
| this role. Can any man tell me how
any professed follower of the Lord
Jesus Christ can be indifferent or
neutral on this problem? Or be
guiltless if he use not his whole in
fluence and power for it's over
| throw? And If so with every Chris
tian man, how much more must it
! be so of the man who is called TO
| be the direct leader of men by his
| Master! 1t would seem that the
minister is especially called to enter
every field where he can WELD in
| fluence against the foe.
! But what is politics ?" The word
| comes from the Greek word for
Citizen" Politics, then, is that
which has to do with the welfare of
the citizen, or at least that is what
| ought to be the aim of every politi-
| clan. Unfortunately, the average
politician" is so much taken up
with seeking ways and means to line
his own pocket with gold or his
pathway with power, and scruples so
little, if at all, over the means to be
! employed to attain his aim, that the
| term politician" has come to have a
| sort of stencil about it, and the aver
age man has come to look upon poll
/ tics as "a necessary evil" and, un-
! fortunately, the people who ought to
be taking prime interest in politics
are usually too busy with their own
! little sordid enterprises to spend
time on these more important things.
| Politician" ought to be one of the
most honorable terms to be applied
| to a man, a term on a par with
Statesmen" but it will never be-
come so by keeping the men who
! are supposed to be leaders in the
| uplift of the citizenship of the ma
ton out of that which primarily
! deals with the welfare of it's citizens.
If politics are of the right kind,
what harm can come to the preach
er more tnan 10 any Otnef man ITOH
! taking part in them? If they are
not of the right stamp. why should
! not the man whose business is to lift
up humanity not take a hand in
making them right? OF course, this
has reference to questions that are
moral as we'll as political. Questions
that do not have moral side he may
we'll let be, but how can he let be
any question that involves morality
and be guiltless? Some one may
answer, as has often been done, But
moral questions have no place in
politics" Such a statement shows
lack of penetration. Recurring to
our definition of politics as that
which has to do with the welfare of
the citizen, we readily see that moral
questions have to do with this, and
that in so far as they are of greater
importance to the welfare of the
citizen than any other, they are of
first place. Indeed all parties ought
to be on the same side of all moral
questions: and 1t is Just because they
are not that the obligation lies upon
the minister to give forth no uncer-
tain sound when their settlement Is
brought into the political arena. 1t
is by those who are chosen at the
ballot box that all laws relating TO