p. 235 | Untitled article by E. J. HIBBARD

Pacific Press Publishing Company · New York · August 4, 1892

FromThe American Sentinel, Vol. 7, No. 30

The Church in Politics.

By E. J. HIBBARD

THE following, clipped from the Pittsburg Dispatch, of July 18, is an extract from a sermon delivered the evening before from one of the popular pulpits of the city, and shows how elated “the Church” is becoming over the committal of the United States Senate to religious legislation, and how ready they are to take advantage of this fact in order to extend the influence and power of the Church in other matters equally outside its province:—

“Let there be made a law for the suppression of strikes and compulsory arbitration,” remarked the Rev. J. D. Sands, during the course of his sermon last evening at the Seventh United Presbyterian Church, upon the subject of, “The Duty of the Church in the Labor Crisis.”

Continuing, the pastor said, “The duty of the Church in such a time is to advocate some measures of legislation that will reconcile the two great antagonistic parties—capital and labor. That the Church has weight with great political or governing bodies,” he continued, “has been demonstrated most effectually in the late World’s Fair matter, when the United States Senate, the highest body in the country, listened to the voice of religion and passed the World’s Fair $5,000,000 appropriation bill with the Church instituted proviso that the gates of the great Exposition should not be opened upon Sunday. That grand, good fact suggests to the Christian’s mind that if this may be done so may other equally needful measures. The Church is gaining power continually and its voice will be heard in the future much oftener than in the past.

War is based upon two great human frailties—selfishness and covetousness. When the Church eliminates these two dominating evils from the great mind of the public, then will such things as conflicts between capital and labor cease, but not until then. Conservatively and practically looking at this it is easy to perceive that the growth of the Church is much too slow for we who are now suffering from the dire effects to await. Therefore I say let the Church advocate some measures of legislation to reconcile the two great antagonistic bodies. Christ’s brief journey upon earth was to reconcile men to God, to reconcile man to himself, and to reconcile man to his brother men. He came to promulgate peace between the human and the divine, between individuals and between nations. That it is gradually attaining that point is evidenced by comparisons of the histories of the past with the histories of the present. Then war was of ordinary occurrence, now it is almost unknown except in a few isolated cases. The Church is gaining power, but not rapidly enough to scoff the idea of beseeching the high governing powers for intervention in such matters as we have just seen.”

So the Church says, “Let there be a law for the suppression of strikes.” Who shall introduce it?—The Church, for “the duty of the Church in such a time as this is to advocate some measure of legislation that will reconcile the two great antagonistic parties—capital and labor.” What lies between these two great bodies that must be eliminated before they can be reconciled?—“Selfishness and covetousness,” says Rev. Mr. Sands, and “when the Church eliminates these two dominating evils from the great mind of the public, then will such things as conflicts between capital and labor cease, but not until then.” That selfishness and covetousness lie at the bottom, and are the root of all difficulties between capital and labor, is readily acceded, but that a minister of Jesus Christ should think of eliminating these from the “public mind” instead of the individual mind, and by civil law instead of the spirit of Christ, through the gospel, is a problem upon which honest men should meditate with candor.

However, this is not the height of his

ambition, for he expects the time to come, when the Church, as such,—aside from, and without intervention by, the civil Government,—will pat these two contending parties on the head and say, “Be still; stop quarreling!” And they will immediately comply, because the law through which it will speak will have within itself the magic power to eliminate “selfishness and covetousness.” But will this be the “peace” which Jesus came to establish between God and man, and between man and his fellows?” The Church is gaining power, but not rapidly enough to scoff the idea of beseeching the high governing powers for intervention in such matters as we have just seen.” And all this anticipation of the future power of the Church comes of the fact “that the Church has weight with great political or governing bodies as has been demonstrated in the late World’s Fair matter.” Who will take warning?

E. J. HIBBARD.