MINGLING THE SACRED AND PROFANE.
By S.
THERE are among our exchanges a few whose editors seem unable to discern between politics and vital godliness. Such appear to see a political halo around every Christian duty. He who allows the Gospel to shine out in his life is, to them, a “Christian politician,” even tho he has consistently and conscientiously avoided the political machine. By such Martin Luther is branded a politician because he had occasion to reply to the emperor, stating that he was bound to obey the Word of God, and therefore could not retract. John the Baptist is branded a politician because he warned men to flee from sin, and told Herod plainly that he was living in sin. Peter is branded a politician because he told the Jewish authorities that they had slain the Christ. Paul is branded a politician because he preached against the worship of images and the practise of vice. Moses and Aaron are branded politicians because they obeyed the voice of God and demanded of Pharaoh that he let the people go. Elijah is accused of preaching politics because he denounced the work of Ahab and Jezebel and the priests of Baal, as God told him to do. Jonah is accused of preaching politics because he went down to Nineveh at God’s bidding and warned that wicked city. And our Lord Himself is placed in the same category, and His mission to earth similarly misrepresented, because He denounced the sins of the Jewish nation. It is regrettable that in this age of light and knowledge so much darkness still goes out in the guise of Christian teaching. It is all done, of course, in the interests of “Christian patriotism” and the promulgation of religious legislation, and the whole thing is diametrically opposed to the teachings and mission of Christ and His followers. Christ was never in politics, neither were any of His true followers; and they are not now. The performance of a Christian duty does not brand one as a politician, even tho that duty be to carry a warning to the king on his throne. To do as Christ did, to obey Christ, is Christianity, not politics. Real Christianity and the business of politics are just as far apart as the real Christ and the political boss of a wicked city. When men come to realize that Christianity is the greatest thing—the greatest business—in the world, they will cease striving to array it in the sin-soaked toga of politics. As Christ warned the people against the results of their evil course, so He has commissioned every one of His followers to warn the people of the time in which they live. That is a part of the business of Christians; but it is not politics. It is dishonoring Christ to claim that it is; it is belittling to Christians; and it doesn’t help politics in the least. The minister who goes down into the mire of politics doesn’t help the mire any, nor add any luster to the work in which he was formerly engaged. One of the exchanges above referred to asks, “Was Luther wrong?” Certainly Luther was not wrong in declaring, even to the emperor, that he would not recant. But he who claims that in so doing Luther was doing politics, is wrong, and doesn’t know Luther nor the spirit and power of the Gospel which he preached. Neither was John the Baptist wrong, and neither were Jonah, Peter, Moses, and Paul wrong in proclaiming the messages which God gave them to deliver; but he is wrong who declares that in performing God’s work as they did they were doing the work of a politician. Satan did politics in heaven when he sought to pervert the angels to the kind of government he invented, and he has been “doing politics” ever since. He perverted a multitude of the angels, and they fell with him. He is “doing politics” now in the church, as everywhere else, and there will be multitudes from there who will go with him into “Christian politics,” and go down with him in his final fall, which, happily, is not a great way off. It is the Christian’s business to warn men to-day against the deception, and there is no politics in that warning message either. He who is Christ’s will walk as Christ walked, give the message and do the work committed to him, and leave the business of politics to those who will not do the work of God. S.