p. 322 | Untitled article

Pacific Press Publishing Company · New York · October 16, 1890

FromThe American Sentinel, Vol. 5, No. 41

A Warning for the Clergy.

THE Municipal League is working hard to initiate the clergy as practical politicians, and it seems to be having very fair success in some quarters. The novelty of the business is not without its attractions for parsons who find their religious duties monotonous, and are glad of an opportunity to take a hand in political strategy.

The League is trying to enlist both Christian clergymen and Jewish rabbis; but the Hebrew Standard warns the teachers of its faith to be on their guard against the allurements of these banded politicians. “We confidently hope,” it says, “that every Jewish minister will refuse participating in the affair.” It thinks that the ministers should attend to their appointed functions, and be content to preach religious principles of conduct, instead of electioneering for a political party.

The advice is good. If the parsons can infuse the spirit of true religion into the community, there will be no need of getting up any so-called reform movement in politics. If every individual proceeds to reform himself, the government of the town is sure to be all right; and the purpose of religion is to bring about that individual reform. That is what the churches are for, and so far as they fail there, they fail in their spiritual mission. They cannot compensate for the failure by undertaking to begin at the other end and to teach men how to perform their secular duties. Their function is to purify men’s hearts and regenerate their souls, and when that work is done, righteous conduct will follow, necessarily.

Neither is it probable that the parsons will contribute anything toward the purification of politics where politics require to be purified. When they start out to apply the methods of politics in their churches and church convocations, we all know that the devil rejoices over the prospect of a rich harvest of wickedness. The sweetness and harmony of religious fellowship are transformed into the trickery and bitterness of battle. The clergy enlisted by this League are going into politics as partisans of its particular ticket. Their congregations are divided, the great majority of them supporting the Democracy, against whom the League ticket is to be run. How, then, can there be peace and good will in the churches? Where will the pastors be after election, when the increased acrimony of the strife has left its results in heart-burning and disappointment, triumph and exultation? They will have to remain as political leaders, with such a remnant of partisan followers as they can retain, and their churches will be League churches, not Christian communions. The bond of union will be political, and not religious, agreement. The people who want religion only, will go elsewhere.

Therefore we are not surprised that the Hebrew paper warns the Jewish rabbis to keep out of the trap set for the ministers by this League of self-seeking politicians. They are sure to be harmed if they are caught in it, and will be able to extricate themselves only after having lost in both moral and religious power and influence. Failure as politicians may teach them a useful lesson, but the obstacles in the way of their spiritual prosperity will be greatly increased and multiplied because of it.

Yet many of them seem determined to find this out by actual experience.—The Sun.