Year: 1864

propose to make a few remarks on O
subject which has been much moot
ed in these times which try mems
souIs-what manner of spirit they are
Of, viz: "P ulpit Politics" "When the
judgments of the Lord are abroad in
the land, let the people learn righteous
ness" says Holy Writ. How can the
people learn righteousness unless the
holy truths Of the word of G cd are taught
from the pulpit and the press, and the
great principles thereof fully and faith
fully expounded and brought to bear
upon the great social, civil and political
evils of tho day2 Is not Govern
ment itself an ordinance of God, for
the good of man-for his restraint from
crime-for his intellectual and moral
elevation ond his final salvation? cali
Scripture is given by inspiration of
God, and is profitable for doctrine, for
reproof for correction, and instruction
in righteousness"


How shall the people be instructed
unless the people hear, and how shall
they hear without preacher? Is it not
the duty of an accredited Minister of
the Gospel to declare "the whole couu.
sci of God, to cry aloud and spare not?"
Is there iniquity in the land, and shall
these Ministers Of God shun to declare
III Shall they, like Jonah, fee away
from delivering their message, and
thus bring their own souls into peril, by
suffering iniquity to come in like
food, until the whole land be covered
with a thick darkness, and left to g,ope
in remediless confusion, with no light
to guide them-"in wandering mazes
lost|' And all this because there hap.
pens to be in every community a few
individuals to whom the truth NAV be
distasteful, who set themselves up as
standards Of proprioty, and pure re-
ligion?


What is that religion worth whic is
not brought to bear upon the lives and
actions of men in all the relations of
Iile-not ua1y in the church, but in the
State-in social and civil life-in the
family and in the community A reli-
gion the reverse of this leads at once to
monasticism, or a dreamy mysticism,
which rises so high that the world and
its varied interests are left to grope
along in ignorance and darkness, with
out guide. Is it no tho business of
the Ministers of the Gospel to lift up
standard in the name of their God to
set up the banner of truth and right
and justice?


Does not every Christian man-evory
man who believes in God; in a Prov
idencO who rules and reigns and gov.
erns the affairs of men-believe that
the judgments Of God are abroad in this
land at this time? Does he not, with
the prophet, believe that, "Through the
wrath of the Lord of Hosts is the land
darkened; and the people shall be as
the fuel of the FIRE, and no man shall
spare his brother2" Isaiah, chapter
tx, verse 10. Therefore does it not
become the whole people to "consider
their ways" and if there be found in.
iquity in them to turn from it?


How shall we learn wherein we have
sinned and departed from tho living
God, and outraged the great principles
of his Government? Is this not legit-
innate and appropriate subj cot of inqui.
ry by every man, citizen or church
memb Der, who regards the Divine author
ity2 Should not a people "seek unto
the Lord God"-to the law and the tes-
timonyr IT they speak not according 70
this word, it is because there is NO
ig hit in them. Without this light
"and they shall look into the earth
and behold trouble and darkness


dimness of anguish, and they shall b,


driven to darkness" Thus saith tn,
prophet of God. ...g..


Yet we are told by these mod err
"Christian Witnesses" whose religion i
sublimated into such tenuity and fragili
ty oftexture, that it would be dissipated
and dissolved into uothingness if brough
into contact with the impure and uheal
thy elements of this earth, that sucl
themes and subjects are inappropriate


to the sacred pulpit aud the hol


Sabbath day, Did not the Savior O
q the world teach that the Sabbath wa
I made for man and not maH for th
r Sabbath What is the great design an
purpose Of the sacred desk? Is it nc
r TO teach men their duties to God an
man? How il anciaEu iha rnmun; =,