TRUE GOSPEL SENTIMENTS.
By Editor
There seems to be at least one minister in Kansas City who believes the Bible sufficiently to know that the minister's place is not in politics, to know that a union of Church and State is abnormal and destructive to all spirituality and power, and he is Dr. S. M. Neel, pastor of the Central Presbyterian Church. The question first came up in the ministers' alliance of that city, over the adoption of a new constitution, permitting the alliance to interfere in civic affairs. The Kansas City Star of January 7 tells us that Dr. Neel opposed, and spoke in part as follows:— “The State is an institution for a specific end; so is the church; but the church can not take up the sword and invade State and civic affairs. If we pass a resolution asking for some municipal reform, we must be able to back it up. The ministers' alliance has always failed when it has tried to invade politics. . . . The church and the Bible are losing their hold on the people. Only three churches in the civilized world have been able to gain any headway. Why is this condition?—Because the church insists on meddling in affairs which do not concern it. We must put up the sword, love men, reason with them from our pulpits, and when we accomplish that there ends our duty. People are drifting away from religion because we are not showing the true religion. “We are going back to the Dark Ages, when the church interfered in governments. Considering what is being accomplished, one would think that God is dead and that Christ was still in the sepulcher. Yet we insist on meddling in State affairs. When we go into other fields than the church to work for God, we lose the battle. We have enough to do to straighten out our own congregations, instead of looking after other affairs.” The constitution was adopted, however; and immediately thereafter Dr. Neel again voiced his sentiments, as reported in the Kansas City Star of a week later. From the report of that sermon we make the following excerpts:— “The State is ordained of God for specific purposes differing totally from the church. The State is not to rule over one, but over all people; to protect a man in his rights against all comers. It does not stop to reason with a man who has gone wrong. The weapons of the State's warfare are carnal. The church is a divine institution, ordained of God for another and a totally distinct duty. That sole duty is to preserve and to proclaim the Word—the Gospel of God; ‘Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel.’ That is its commission, and it has no other duty. The church has no sheriff, no constable. In the earlier times, when it became involved in the State, it forgot its divine institution and applied the fagot. We have ceased to preach the Gospel, because we have taken to telling people how to vote. . . . It is the preacher's duty to tell of God, and what God says of these things; to preach what the Bible says, not what he [the minister] thinks. “There needs to be some changes. There can be no doubt of that. The only question is, Does the minister help the cause by going to the police court? All the preachers in town might go there, and it would be like shooting peas against a rawhide. They would make a deal of rattle, but nothing would come of it. You can not make men righteous by law. The penitentiary and the galleys never made men better. There is no reformatory power in the law. The object of the Saviour's coming into the world was to save men. Jesus Christ is not a reformer. It would be offensive to Him to be so called. . . . Christ was the Saviour of mankind. . . . You can not reach selfishness with the policeman's billy, and I am throwing away my time when I mix in politics instead of preaching you the Word of God.” We call attention to the above for two reasons: (1) To sadly chronicle the prevailing drift toward a union of Church and State; (2) to record the utterances of one true soldier of God who dares to raise his voice against it. May God bless his words.