Politics and the Kingdom of Christ
By Editor
The deplorable condition of present-day politics is well shown in the following conversation between former President Cleveland and Governor Bulkley of Connecticut, who aspires to be a United States senator as reported in the Springfield Republican, of January 13: Mr. Cleveland: Do I infer that it is lawful and right for you as a candidate for office to buy a vote which is for sale? Mr. Bulkley: I think it is right for a candidate to secure that man's vote, if he is without principle and ignorant, by any means you can use. We have made no inquiry as to which party the last speaker seeks to represent in the Senate. It makes no difference about the particular party that is to be "honored" by such representation; but the prevalence of that ignoble conception of right among those seeking appointment to a position of such power reveals a condition that can promise little or nothing in the cause of truth or justice or moral uplift. It brings forcibly to our mind that statement which has become practically a motto for a great religious body: "The kingdom of Christ must enter the realm of law through the gateway of politics." To what terrible straits must the kingdom of man's Redeemer be driven if it must enter upon the possession of its heritage through such a sin-sodden and crime-encrusted gateway? It will not be. The only crown of human design that Christ ever wore was a crown of thorns. He eschewed politics in Judea; He will not espouse politics now in America. It is unthinkable that the King of Righteousness should ally Himself in any way with such influences. His attitude toward the whole unrighteous mass is indicated in His attitude toward the nations of this world as a whole. "Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." The increasing lawlessness of the present day—the increasing lawlessness among those who would make the law—is an indication that the time is not far distant when the great iniquitous world will experience the breaking, burning, purifying power of Him who is of "purer eyes than to behold evil," much less associate Himself with its working.