THE BALLOT-BOX OR THE GREAT COMMISSION.
By S.
At the great Episcopal Convention now being held in San Francisco, California, the following resolution was handed to the Committee on the State of the Church, considered by them, recommended to the convention for adoption, and passed to the calendar:— Resolved, the House of Bishops concurring, That it is the sense of this convention, that good citizenship is a fundamental principle of religion; that the church, mindful of the growing tendency toward unchecked corruption in the conduct of our municipal affairs throughout the United States, the indifference to and covert countenance of immorality, gambling, and vice, place ourselves on record as expecting our sons to take an active part at the ballot-box and elsewhere, as occasion permits, toward the suppression of these pernicious enemies of purity and good government. We also recognize the sad, deplorable conditions to which reference is made in the above resolution. More than that, we recognize that God has faithfully declared such conditions would be; and not only that, but that these conditions would grow worse and worse until the end of time; that when the prophecy concerning these conditions should be fulfilled, the end of time would not be far distant. All this has been pointed out again and again in these columns, until the repetition may have seemed to some like an old story. Now, while these conditions exist, and while God has declared they would exist and grow worse until the end, He has nowhere contradicted Himself by commissioning His followers to take up the work of the reformation of politics. God has never yet set His followers to do a work which He Himself had declared would not be done. God’s declaration being true that the conditions of these times would grow worse and worse, the converse is true, that they would not be bettered, and therefore could not be bettered. That being true, God would be denying Himself, were He to commission His representatives to take up the work of reforming politics. His followers will do all in their power to relieve sorrow and distress, as He did whose name they bear; but, as He could not be forced or induced to interfere in political matters, neither will they. The frequently-recurring demand for the intrusion of the ballot-box into church matters springs from the same sentiment that has counseled and demanded and brought about a union of Church and State. It comes from the old and unchristian idea that it is the business and duty of the church to rule in the realm of both the civil and the religious; the idea that the church must have the support of the civil power in order to obey the commands of God. All of which is a denial of His power and wisdom and foresight. The smiting of Uzzah for presuming to “steady” the ark of God (the symbol of His government) is God’s answer to these demands for the union of the profane and the sacred. But how slowly we learn the lessons of God in the judgments which He brings to pass! “Good citizenship,” this resolution tells us, “is a ‘fundamental principle of religion.’” But there is something that is more fundamental than that, and that is Christianity,—obedience to all the requirements of God. He who has that will be the most peaceable, law-abiding citizen in all the world. Like Daniel of old, they will be able to find no occasion against him, except it be concerning the law of his God. What that requires he will do, in spite of lions, glowing furnaces, autos da fe, or chain-gangs. But the fashion of the present day is to make men appear religious,—act as tho they were religious,—and to bring this about by act of law; to compel men to cease outward immorality by depriving them of public office, or by holding over them the fear of such deprivation. But that is not God’s way; it never has been; it never will be. God’s way is to cleanse the heart; to heal the heart, to transform the heart; and then, out of a clean, whole, converted heart, to get glory to Himself. Out of such a heart will come nothing but what is pure, peaceable, and laden with the love of God; overflowing with love for all mankind. It is the business of Christians to help men into such a condition of life as that. I repeat, that is what Christians are for. In comparison with this, how weak, how cheap, how insignificant is the work proposed by the resolution above! How far short we come of the glory of God when the legacy we leave to those who are to follow us is to make the work of God in the earth dependent on the fickle returns of the ballot-box! The man of the world may and will put his trust in the arm of the civil power; but that power will fail him in time of trouble. The true Christian will say, “The rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in ‘God.’” And in that there is no failure, no discouragement, no disappointment. Put alongside of that resolution the declaration of Paul, when the cries of philosophy and politics were sounding on all sides of the church: “I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” I Cor. 2:2. There is the true stand of the true Christian at all times. No matter what party is in power, the one who takes that stand is bound to be right; and better still, he is in a position where he can help others to be right in the only way that any one can be everlastingly right, and that is by conversion of the heart and true service to God. It is comparatively easy to vote men out of jobs; but a more telling, more lasting, more Christlike, a deeper, and more far-reaching work, is the work of turning men from the service of sin to the service of Christ, in the way our Lord intended that work should be done. O, that those who take upon themselves the name of Christ might recognize the sacredness of that holy calling,—work for the souls of men, instead of the patronage of the ballot-box; and cease to offer strange fire and foreign incense on the altar of our God.