CLERICAL-POLITICAL RECIPROCITY.
By W. N. G.
WE have no inclination to discuss the merits of the proposition of Mr. Lubin, of Sacramento, Cal., to equalize the system of protective tariff in vogue in our country by an export bounty on agricultural products. Such is not the province of a journal devoted to warning the world in regard to the coming of the Lord and the necessity of a preparation for the final judgment of all the earth. True, the inequalities and injustice of which he complains are no doubt the cause of much suffering, but the proposed remedy is a political question upon which the wisest students of political economy are pretty well divided in opinion. That which is deplorable in this connection is to see the effort that is being made, with an apparently growing success, to enlist the ministers of the Gospel in the controversy. They have been urged into the fray on the pretext that it is their duty on all occasions to contend for justice and equity, and many of them are biting at this plausible bait, and making it a pretext for espousing and advocating a human political remedy. That they are allowing themselves to be led by one who has an inadequate conception of the ministerial calling (whatever the merits of his political proposition), is clearly shown from the following expression in his "addenda" to their memorial to Congress:— "Those who would narrow the public function of the clergyman to the Bible and exclude them from this work can have but a narrow conception of the Bible and know little or nothing of this work." But the minister of Christ is a minister of the Word, which is comprehended in the Bible. Our Saviour, in reporting his work to the Father, simply said, "I have given them thy word." John 17:14. He positively declined to act as an arbiter in the temporal affairs of men, altho an earnest appeal was made to him, implying gross injustice. "And one of the company said unto him, Master, speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me. And he said, unto him, Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you?" Luke 12:13, 14. The apostle Paul was a learned man, but he said, "I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified." 1 Cor. 2:2. There was probably as much or more inequality and injustice in Corinth as there is in any part of the United States; yet Paul knew but one remedy for sin of whatever character, and that was Jesus Christ, and him crucified. His admonition to Timothy was to "preach the Word." To talk of narrowing the function of the clergyman, or any other man, to the Bible shows a very narrow idea of the Word of God. When men shall become in their lives as broad as the Bible, there will be no more need for warfare against inequity and injustice. But Mr. Lubin has succeeded in convincing fifty-two ministers of Philadelphia and vicinity (thirty-four of whom are Baptists!) that the Bible is too narrow for their public functions, and that they should, as far as their influence goes, become dividers of the inheritance of the people of the United States,—a function which the Master positively ignored. And he thus expresses his hope of a large accession to the ranks:— "Champions for this cause are now beginning to rise up in every section, and victory must surely come as soon as the clergyman everywhere throughout our land will espouse this cause from their pulpits." We have become accustomed to seeing the clergymen endeavoring to enlist the support of politicians in furthering the cause of religion by religious legislation, but a general appeal to the clergymen on the part of politicians to support political measures is a more recent feature of the illicit connection of the church with the world in the last days, so clearly foretold in the Scriptures. Of course this latter feature is the complement of the former, and is the opening wedge to a general reciprocity between the clergy and the politicians. As the idea of "National Reform" by means of "Christian Citizenship"—the purification of politics by the interference of the church, and the reformation of the church by civil law—progresses, and becomes more and more engrafted on the public mind, the more we will see of the practical working of this new idea of clerical-political reciprocity of endeavor. W. N. G.