No minister of the gospel can ever properly get beyond the utterances of God's word. There seems to be an idea in many minds that regular gospel preaching—the preaching of Christ crucified and raised again to life—is suitable only to times when no special developments in the political world are claiming public attention. When some unusual development does arise—as, for example, when such an issue as is presented by the present financial question is before the people—it is necessary, they seem to think, to drop the preaching of the gospel of the power of God unto salvation, and preach upon the special political issue until that is settled. But the truth is that the self-same gospel which is suited to times of comparative peace and quiet, is just as well suited to the time of the greatest crisis. When God provided the gospel for the needs of a fallen race, he was not in the dark concerning any of the developments which were to take place in the political and social spheres in any age of the world's existence. He foresaw all the issues which would arise and claim the attention of the people, and with all these special movements and developments open to his view, he gave to mankind the simple gospel of salvation through faith in the power of his word. And that gospel has been found sufficient for every moral need of mankind, through every crisis of every age.
The idea that the time can ever come when the minister ought to stop preaching the gospel and preach politics, in order to meet some special exigency which has arisen, shows a very inferior conception of the power of God which the gospel embodies.