:

1

RELIGION IN POLITIC
A DISCOURSE

i CONGREGATIONAL CHUIICH AND SOCIETY,
IN MADISON,. WIS..

n

n

NATHANIEL H. EUWljESTON,

THEIR PASTOR.

W
PUBLISHED BY REQUEST.
MADISON, WIS.;
* ATWOOD & UUBLIiJS, PUBLISHERS, STATE JOURNAL BOOK AND JOB Of PICK .
1856.
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RELIGION IN POLITICS.

A DISCOUESE

CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH AND SOCIETY,

IN MADISON, WIS.,

NATHANIEL H. EGGLESTON,

THEIR PASTOR.

PUBLISHED BY REQUEST.

MADISON, WIS.:
' ATWOOD & RUBLEE, PUBLISHERS STATS JOURNAL LOOK AND JOB OFFICE.
1856.

NOTE.
The following discourse, composed in great haste, is little more
than an extemporaneous discussion of tho theme which it takes in
hand. The author is awaro that a looseness of method and a dif-
fuseness of style, which are tolerated in tho speaker, will not eo
readily be borne with in the printed form. In the circumstances of
ita delivery, however, tho author has deemed it best to give his dis
course to tho public, at the request of many, precisely as it was de
livered, sensible that it comes far short of a proper treatment of tho
subject with which it deals.
November 3d, 1856.

RELIGION IN POLITICS.

OMX.X 1ST YOUB OONVEB8ATION BB AS IT BBOOMBTH THB GOSPEL OF OEBIPF.
Philippians i, 2T.
We hear not a little, in these days, about the mingling of
Religion with Politics ; and not a little stir is awakened in
regard to the matter, both within and without the church.
The excitement is peculiar and unusual. Ordinarily we are
not wont to hear these subjects mentioned at the same time,
or brought into such contiguity as to occasion any excite- ¦
ment, or even hardly to attract attention. The orbits of the
two have commonly been so distinct that there has seemed
to be little, if any, relation between them. The one has
been a thing of Sunday and the closet ; the other a matter
of the week-day and the public street. And so, nearly in
proportion as men have been distinctively religious or otherf1
wise, they have given their regard to the one or the other*,
to the almost total neglect of its supposed opposite.
But now, in the development of divine providence and
the history of oar country, the orbits, hitherto so distinct,
have come to their point of contact, and we can no longer
separate them if we would. They have coalesced, and we
are obliged to contemplate them in their junction,
More or less of excitement is the necessary consequence.
There are always some good people whose religion is of such
a narrow type that they cannot see its bearings upon anything

8 RELIGION IN* POLITICS.
the scriptures was made, to put an entirely new face upon
the passage in question. The word Conversation, two hun
dred years ago, had no reference to one's speech ; or, rather,
was not restricted to that, but embraced the whole conduct
of the man. A man of good conversation was a man of
good conduct and character. It was with this early significa
tion of the term that it was taken as the equivalent of the
principal word of the text in its original language. That
word, politeuesthe, as those of you least acquainted with the
Greek can perceive from its very sound, is from the same
root with our English words, political, politics and politician.
To translate the apostle's words literally, therefore, his in
junction to the Philippians would be: '• Only conduct your
selves as citizens — in your political relations — as becometh
the gospel of Christ.'" A pretty close connection this, surely,
of politics with religion; and I shall need no further warrant
for discoursing to you to-day upon the theme proposed. If
I did, however, need any such warrant, this passage of scrip
ture is not alone in its inculcation of a connection of religion
with our political interests and conduct.
We often hear it said that the apostle Paul and our Sa
viour never meddled with politics; meaning that they held
themselves aloof from political affairs, and regarded them as
things with which they had nothing to do. And this is said
as an intimation that religious men, and especially religious
ministers, are to have nothing to do with matters political ;
at best, that they are to accept them as fashioned for them
by the professed politicians. Who, for instance, does not
remember the abuse, the torrent of obloquy, which was
heaped upon one of our most distinguished and upright
Senators, a few years ago, because he ventured to intimate
that there is a higher law than any merely human enact
ments, by which they are to be judged and in accordance
with which they ought to be framed ? And how often in
these -days do we hear similar scoffings, if christian men, and

RELIGION* IN POLITICS. 9
especially christian ministers, venture to bring political mea
sures to the test of the word of God and His expressed law.
They are "out of their sphere," forsooth. They are "dab
bling in the dirty waters of politics." They are meddling
with that which they know nothing about and with which
religion has no concern. I have even heard it proclaimed
recently, by a person of intelligence and religious character,
but whose political ardor had probably for the time being
usurped the place of proper religious consideration, that the
fact that the mass of religious men, and the mass of religious
ministers, were opposed to the political party and the politi
cal measures with which he was identified, so far from being
an inducement to him to review his ground and change his
political conduct, would be of itself a reason for confirming
him in his present position. It is dreadful to see such a
misunderstanding of the true nature and power of religion
by those who profess to possess and cherish it. It is bad
enough for those who make no pretensions to religious char
acter to scoff at it and its demands ; but for a professedly
religious man to do this, this is indeed wounding Christ in
the house of his friends.
It is true indeed, speaking of Paul and of the Saviour, that
their lives, as they are given in the sacred narratives, do not
present them prominently to us in a political capacity or
character. And this we ought not to expect. They came
upon a purely spiritual errand; to insert into the current of
the world's life a spiritual element or power which should
ultimately work a complete renovation of the world's char
acter. They came not to correct this or that outward form of
evil, or to heal this or that corruption ; but to infuse into the life
and character of the world a principle which should in due
time eradicate all evil, and take away the cause of all cor
ruption, whether public or private, whether personal or po
litical. It would have been out of place, therefore, in fact a
misdirection of their energies and a real hindrance of their

10 RELIGION IN POLITICS.
work, had they been conspicuous in forwarding or opposing
any particular public measure or political interest. Besides,
their itinerant life, their preaching from place to place, to say
nothing of their peculiar relations to the governments around
them, gave them no point of rest and permanent occupancy
by which and from which to affect political measures, if they
had desired to do so.
And yet neither Paxil nor Christ was oblivious of the
fact that lie sustained relations to the Civil State, and that
religion was connected with political concerns. In, thatj'very
city of Philippi, where Paul had founded the church to which
afterward his letter, of which the text is a part, was address
ed, the preaching of the gospel had stirred up the Jews
against him, and he had been beaten and thrust into prispn
without proper warrant. (It was in this prison that the mem
orable scene of the conversion of the jailer took place.) The
magistrates, when their mistaken fury had had time to cool,
sent the sergeant to say that they might depart from prispn.
To such an escape Paul demurred. He stood, upon Ijis, po
litical rights as a Roman citizen, and though anxious enough
to be at large, at liberty to prosecute his divine work of
preaching the gospel, he thought it would not be adverse to
the interests of religion or to his own religious character to
¦stop and insist upon the recognition of his civil rights. And
so he says to the keeper of the prison, in reply to the mes
sage of the magistrates: "They have beaten us openly, un-
condemned, being Romans, and have cast us into prison,
and now do they thrust us out privily? Nay,., verily, but
let them come themselves and fetch us out."' And so the
magistrates came and brought them out, beseeching them to
¦depart. Paul never honored himself more, nor more hon
ored the cause of his divine Redeemer and Master than in
that act.
And so again at Jerusalem, when, as they had bound the
apostle preparatory to scourging him, he put that dignified

EELIGION IN POLITICS. 11
and authoritative question to the centurion who had him in
charge: "Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Ro
man, and uncondemned ?" Then the chief officer came and
said unto him: "Art thou a Roman?" His simple reply
was, "Yea." The officer replied, "With a great sum ob
tained I this [Roman]- freedom." To this the apostle simply
responded, in conscious superiority to the captain claiming
authority over him,, "But I was free born." This was
enough. The officer of .the Roman army departs, and Paul
is neither bound nor scourged. He had not lost his civil in
his religious character, nor hidden his politics under his piety.
And so likewise, he was ready to discharge the, appropriate
duties, of his citizenship. We. are not to expect to find the
apostle on the platform,, arguing for or against any line of
public policy, nor at the ballot-box, making his will felt in
determining the political character and conduct of the nation
of which -he was a citizen ; for, in the freest days of the Ro
man empire, no such powers as thoss of the ballot-box and
the platform belonged to the citizen, while as to Judea and
all the regions which Paul traversed in his ministry, they
were the conquered provinces, whose laws )vere made notby
any choice or voice of tlieir own, but by the Emperor or
Senate of far-off Rome. The inhabitants of Palestine or
of Asia Minor had far less to do with the making of their
laws than the inhabitants of Kansas or New Mexico have
to-day with the miking of theirs. But, according to the
power which he had, the apostle was as faithful to his
rights as a citizen as he was to his rights and duties as
a Christian. His determination to know nothing but Je
sus Christ, and Him crucified, did- not prevent him from
knowing his civil rights and maintaining them. And,
were Paul among us at this day, to see how many mil
lions of those for whom Christ was crucified are shut out
from the knowledge of their Saviour, and how politicians and
parties are plotting, to perpetuate this sacrilege and virtually

12 RELIGION IN POLITICS.
to sh«t*he gospel from millions yet to be born, I think we
might ihear him, from such a text of his Saviour and theirs
as this, "Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of
these, ye did it not unto me," preach a discourse whose thun
der should echo in the ears of the guilty like those tones
which rose from Mars Hill, eighteen centuries ago, in con
demnation of the idolatry whose splendid temples of marble
stood all around him there. Small respect too, I fancy, he
would have for that narrow conception of the scope and de
sign of the gospel which trembles whenever that gospel is
brought to bear upon manifest and living sins, or thinks
they must not be spoken of in the sanctuary or on the Sab
bath. His voice would ring loudest in their condemnation,
and that too alike from the pulpit and the platform. On the
Sabbath and on all the days of the week he would not cease
to cry, "thus saith the Lord, execute ye judgment and right
eousness, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the Op
pressor; and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger,
the fatherless nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in
this place."
Nor would our Saviour, were he now on earth, be one whit
behind the apostle Paul in his interest in the political rela
tions and affairs of men. Coming as he did for a purely
spiritual purpose, and making his advent in Judea when
Judea was a province of Rome, and so hopelessly subjugated
that thera was no ground for a successful revolution or
resistance, there was no great question of political action in
regard to which Christ could express his opinion, or on be
half of which he could put forth his influence to any pur
pose. His situation was entirely different from what it would
be on the supposition of his being present among us. And
yet, when he commanded one of his disciples to pay the tax
demanded, and when again, taking the coin of the Roman
government, and seeing upon it the head of the Emperor, he
said, " Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and

EELIGION IN POLITICS. 13
unto God the things which are God's,'' he manifested! his
recognition at the same time of the duties and the demands
of civil government and of its relation to those duties which
connect us directly with God. Were the Saviour now among
us, himself, as all are here, a ruler as well as a subject, free to
speak and to act in regard to all the affairs of state and na
tion, we can not doubt that the sacred voice which did not
hesitate to denounce the evil-doers of his day, as vipers and.
hypocrites, would be raised in holy indignation against the
crimes and wrongs which are now so commonly perpetrated
by those sitting in the places of power and authority, and
that the hand which scourged the money-changers from the
temple would likewise be lifted against those who profane
the temples of liberty with the most shameless trafficking
and the most abominable corruption. Nor would He hesi
tate to rebuke with just indignation those professed followers
of His, whether in parish or pulpit, who, for fear of excite
ment or of losing the favor of any man or any party of men,
hesitate to declare the great principles of the gospel and to
apply them to the different forms and phases of sin as they
arise. He who could say, in the face of the whole Jewish
nation, "Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites,
for ye devour widows' houses; and for a pretense make long
prayers ; Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites,
for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear
beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones
and of all uncleanness" — He surely would not hesitate to lift
up his voice against the political Scribes and Pharisees of our
time, the high-priests of party, who not only devour widows'
houses, but who first make the widows by the cruel outrages
which they perpetrate and permit, and who are indeed "full
of all hypocrisy and iniquity."
Did time allow, and did the subject demand any such ac
cumulation of proofs, I could take you all through the histo
ry of reHgion, as given us in the bible, and show you how

14 RELIGION IN POLITICS.
all the eminent and honored teachers of religion, from Dan
iel, who confronted the authority of Nebuchadnezzar with.
the higher authority of God, to Peter and John, who replied
to the commands of the rulers and scribes, "Whether it be
right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than
unto God, judge ye," — all have been conspicuous for having
brought religion into contact with political1 affairs, and made
it the test of their character and authority. But I need not
occupy your time or attentidn with any such proofs, besides,
what needs to be shown is not the connection of religion
with politics on those rarer and more conspicuous occasions
which such historical incidents' refer to and illustrate, but
the fact that religion and politics are always connected, and
can not be separated from each other;' that, in tlie common
est every day act of the citizen, ag well as in the more infre
quent acts of great occasions and special emergencies, his re
ligion is to accompany and control his cOnduCt. And this
is easily shown by several considerations.
11 Iii the first place, the Source of all governmental' authority
shows and demands this. "The powers' 'that' be are ordained
of God," says the bible. That is, the goVernihental officers
of any state or nation derive their authority, their' right to
demand and compel the obedience Of subjects, from God. It
is an authority, a right, which He gives them'. To this scrip
tural doctrine, all nations assent. Especially is this the case
with all Christian nations; thbugh the same is virtually true
of all, even the most barbarous ahd benighted ; for all their
horrid cruelties, perpetrated fry law, are perpetrated in the
name or by the authority of some god; Mars, Odin, Krishna,
Thor, or some other of like character.1
But with Christian nations nothing is plainer than that
they hold all governing authority from God. YOU take up
the great expounder of the English law, which is also
our own, and you find that the validity and the binding
force of all laws is traced to the divine will and their accord-

EELIGION IN POLITICS. 1&
ance with that. The law that contravenes God's command,
whether set forth in the book of revelation or only in the
book of nature, thereby loses all the virtue and power of
law. The divine right of kings and other rulers, of which
so much has been said, but which has so far been lost sight
of under our democratic form of government, however much
it his been perverted, is the simple doctrine or acknowledg
ment that the powers that be are ordf in id of God. And so,
too, our republican forms of goverr.mo it, state and national,
with our constitutions, all proceed upon the supposition that
their power, their ultimate authority, is not in themselves
nor in their framers, not in the will of tho people, but in a
higher source, even God. But if this be so, if that which
gives the law and the officers of law their power; if every
statute and every unwritten precept of justice, if every en
actment of Legislature or Congress has its majesty and sa
credness, its power to bind the conscience and to enforce
itself or to be enforced, because God is behind it and above
it, then how plain is it that all our life and conduct as the
citizens of a state, as those under the regimen of law, are
invested with a religious character, and partake essentially
of the nature of obedience or disobedience to God!
Under such a system of government as ours, also,
the connection of religion with politics is more obvious and
direct than under any other. God gives to government ite
authority and power, but not its form, except indirectly, and
as He acts through human agency and cooperation. Under
what particular forms this divine power of government shall
act and manifest itself, He leaves for different nations to deter
mine for themselves. If they choose a monarchy, the law
takes its binding force through a king; its statutes run in
the name of the king. In a republic like ours, the power,
the divine power of law, the invisible but almighty emana
tion from God himself, acts and operates through officers ana
laws, which we each and all appoint and determine bv our

16 RELIGION IN POLITICS.
votes; that is, by the expression of our individual personal
preferences. How closely, therefore, do the sanctions and
demands of religion come to each one of us! God gives to
us the shaping of that through which the authority of gov
ernment is to act and manifest itself. He gives this privilege
to each and all, to you each one and to me. That divine
effluence, on which all civil order and civil happiness depend,
is constantly streaming through our hands, as we vote for
and hold in office those who shape and execute our laws and
administer the functions of government, as the fires of hea
ven streamed through the hands of Eranklin when he lifted
his kite into the charged bosom of the clouds, and so made
himself the fit channel of their power.
2. In the second place, and as another evidence of the
connection of religion with politics, let me call your atten
tion to the fa«t that our democratic form of government is itself
the offspring of Eeligion.
It is only as Religion comes with its announcement that
God is our common Father, and that "He hath made of one
blood all nations of men to dwell on all the face of the
earth," and with the corresponding mandate, " Thou shalt
love thy neighbor as thyself," that the idea of a democracy
is possible ; that is, the idea of a true democratic government,
a democratic State that is not a condition or power of anar
chy, but one of sublime order and stable law, like the stately
movement, and at the same time repose, of the myriad and
diverse constellations of the sky.
Springing thus directly from religion, how can our politics
be other than religious, invested all the while, at every step
and in every act, with the sublime sanctions of religion ?
The man who has it for his privilege to live and to act under
a democratic form of government, is indebted to God for
that privilege, and ought to be reminded of his obligations
to a being above him, and of the essentially religious char-

RELIGION IN POLITICS. 17
acter of his political life and action, by every blessing which
that form of government procures for him.
8. In the third place, consider, that all just and equal law —
all law in fad — springs from Eeligion.
Until religion comes in with its truths and ita divine sanc
tions, there is no steady and uniform authority in a State, no
regular and reliable law, nothing really which answers to
that term, but only caprice and arbitrary and uncertain will.
The welfare and peace of the people are dependent upon the
humor of the sovereign or tyrant who happens to have the
reins of power. If he chances to be amiable, it may be
well ; but a cloudy morning or a fit of dyspepsia may be
death to his subjects. It is only as Religion has come as a
meliorating power and a regenerative force, and penetrated
the nations, that codes of law have been framed on which
the people can rest instead of upon the caprice of the ruler.
Even Roman law, the nearest approach to a, proper system
of law prior to the establishment of Christianity, did not at
tain the proper features of a reliable and beneficent system,
did not become a spring of industry and a pledge of perma
nent prosperity and happiness, until a . Christian Emperor,
had framed it into conformity with the divine laws of Chris
tianity itself.
Before Christianity had inoculated the nations with its power
and character, they were regarded as natural enemies, who35
-duty it was, almost, to labor for each other's destruction. Pi
racy was tolerated on the sea, and slavery on the land; and
although these have been tolerated in some places long after
the sun of Christianity has 'risen above the horizon; yet,
wherever these have been- abolished, it has been by thedirect
power of Christianity, of the religion of Christ, and that re
ligion is yet 'to abolish them everyw'here. And so, wherever
you find a system of law, at once the bond of order and set
curity.and the promoter of industry, intelligence and thrift,

18 RELIGION IN POLITIC JS.
there yourfind religion at the same tinae the source and the
sanction of that law.
In fact, law must have religion a s its basis, or in close
connection with it, in order to be o'f any considerable worth.
Mere law, the simple power to conamand and to enforce obe
dience, is a bondage, something which we submit to 'reluct
antly, arid-from whose yoke we would escape if we could.
It' is- only when law springs from religion, and so becomes
righteous law, that its yoke is e;asy and its burden a blessing ;,
and it is only as we become tfne subjects or respecters of re
ligion that we submit to law not as a necessity but willingly
and as a- duty and even a privilege. Law must have con
science to enforce it, and conscience is religious. And so,
the apostle; in speak ing of the office of law and the duties
resulting from it, sgiys, "Wherefore ye must needs be sub
ject not -only for -wrath" — that is, through fear of the law
and its penalties— "but also for conscience sake" — that is,
out of a sense of di ity and obligation toward God ; which is
the same as to say t hat our obedience to law, our citizenship,
is to be under the s anctions of religion.
4. Fourthly anc I fiaally, I argue for the connection of
religion with politics, because our politics are essentially religious^
If any of you have associated the term politics so closely
and uniformly with m ere political trickery and corruption,.
with- low cunning aind wire-pulling for selfish and base ends,,
that you can think of nothing else when the word is used,.
it shows how far a wo rd can degenerate in its meaning, and
that, too, because the tl ling it stands for has also degenerated.
Rightly understood, politics is the art of managing the af
fairs pf government, i of rightly arranging and conducting
these .affairs. And as all government and law have their
sanction in religion, so politics is properly the art of apply
ing religion, the law aiad spirit of rectitude, to civil or gov
ernmental affajrs, So far, therefore, from being low and
unworthy, the oceupati .on of :politicSi is the most ftoble and

RELIGION IN POLITICS. 19
august employment and duty of life. Its aim is to bring a
whole people or nation so under the perfect law of God, the
law of goodness, righteousness* and truth, as to secure the
highest and most permanent welfare of all. It is to bring
religion not only to bless one fellow-creature, but a nation
of fellow-men. It is to make religion not merely an indi
vidual but a national concern ; for its aim is the proper man
agement of the affairs of government, and, as I have already
shown, all true and good government and law have their
spring in religion.
No man, therefore, should feel any reluctance to engage in
politics. He can engage in nothing more noble, nothing more
useful, nothing more Christian. To endeavor to mold the
institutions, the character and the conduct of a state or na
tion, into conformity with the divine will and the divine
precepts ; what worthier, what more sacred work is there for
man to do ?
With a certain sort of politics it is indeed unpleasant for a
pure or high-minded man to engage. There is a sort of
conduct or a kind of employment which has assumed the
name of politics, as Satan wears the garb of an angel of
light, which is only most despicable, and contact with which
threatens defilement. And so, it i3 the trick of those en
gaged in this occupation to decry their own business, or that
which their business simulates, in the hope of keeping the
upright and the good-principled at such a distance from them
that they may have full opportunity to carry out their own
schemes of selfishness, often of wickedness and corruption,
without hindrance. Having usurped the office of Politics,
that is, the true and just management of state affairs, their ob
ject is to keep their places, as the means of self-aggrandize
ment, and to prevent others from occupancy. So, no sooner
does a man of honor and principle undertake to do his duty
toward the State, of which he is a member and. a citizen, by
striving to secure for it good laws and officers, laws and offi-

20 RELIGION IN POLITICS.
cers which will enable it to claim the divine favor, and which
will make it a blessing to mankind, than an effort is made
to turn him from his purpose or to neutralize and defeat his
endeavors. He is told how dirty is the whole scheme and
occupation of politics, unfit for the pure to meddle with if
they would preserve their purity. If this will not do, then
perhaps his own character is defamed and belied, and he is
made the mark of insult and obloquy, until, if he is not
nerved with true principle and armed with the invigorating
and sustaining grace of God, he is likely to give up his at
tempt as a hopeless task. Sometimes, the ministers of reli
gion, when they undertake to serve God and their fellow-
men by an endeavor to secure right political action, are
kindly informed that they have mistaken their calling, and
these upright and pious politicians are greatly concerned lest
religion shall suffer thereby.
And so, the State, the body politic, is threatened with ruin,
just because the good and the honest are not giving them
selves to politics as they should. The politics of a nation
must be religious, or there is no guaranty of that nation's
permanent prosperity. Mankind are depraved ; that is the
long and short of it, the great fact which we come against
and have to admit in all our reasonings ; and the tendency
of this depravity is downward continually to a lower depth.
There is no recuperative power in the diseased soul, the dis
organized character. Man is lifted up into purity and spirit
ual health again only as God lifts him up. And so, a State
left to itself, left to the management of base men and the
influence of base laws, must ultimately run down and run
out. Nothing is surer. Evil begets evil, not good. No
state or nation has ever made any true advancement in civi
lization and happiness except under the influence of religion.
Government and law will avail nothing to this end, so long
as they are not filled and animated by religious principle.
Law is worth nothing as a bond of public happiness until it

RELIGION IN POLITICS. 21
binds the individual conscience. Simple law or government
represses or punishes the visible outbreak of evil. It does
not cleanse the fountain from which all evil springs. Reli
gion alone does, it alone can do this ; and it is only as the
fountain of its corruptions, its evils, is cleansed, that there ia
any assurance that the movement of the body politic will be
upward and onward in the line of virtue and lasting pros
perity. So long and so far as our politics are destitute of
religion, there will be the certainty Of increased crime and
degradation in the state or nation ; if for no other reason,
because there will be no rulers adequate to hold it in check,
and the rulers will themselves become corrupt. Except
as he is under the power of religion, the ruler is above the
law. It consequently has no check upon him. He may
connive at crime. He may let the guilty escape from justice
He may become himself the greatest criminal in the state
and a demoralizing influence will flow down from him, great
in proportion to the greatness and power of the office which
he holds. There is nothing to prevent this but religion ; re
ligion brought into politics ; religion constraining us to put
none but upright- and good men in any office, however hum
ble in the scale of dignity and power. Religion is the only
adequate check upon those in whose hands the government
is placed. If you have not the law of conscience to bind
them to uprightness and honesty, you have no law or power
with which to constrain them, and in the time of temptation
they will fall away.
We need not look far, either in our state or national his
tory, to see the amplest illustration of this. Nor is anything
plainer, I think, than that our country has, for the last fifty
or sixty years, run down in all its interior and virtuous qual
ities as steadily as it has advanced in material strength and
outward importance. This loss of character too has been in
very exact proportion to its loss of religion. This land was
founded on a religious basis. In the the early times of our

22 RELIGION IN POLITICS.
New England history indeed, religion and politics were al
most synonymous terms. It was not only necessary to one's
holding office, that he should be trustworthy and upright, but
he must also be a credibly regenerated man, and in commu
nion with the church. I speak of this not as meaning to
carry my principle to this extent, but as showing a fact or
state of things illustrative of the principle. Government
then was felt to be a power of God, and our fathers dared
offer to God no statute to be clothed with efficacy by Him,
which was not patterned after the laws of the divine word.
Indeed one of the New England colonies at one time adopted
the Mosaic code as its statute book. The courts were daily
opened with prayer. The assembled Legislature did not pro
ceed to business until a minister of religion, by previous ap
pointment, had expounded to them the word of God. Thus
thewhole political life and spirit of the State was religious.
But as religion declined in'the church, which it soon did, the
civil government began of course to lose its high tone of virtue.
The offices of Government instead of being occupied by the
ablest and most upright men, began to be filled with those
of an inferior character. The result of this was soon felt
upon the laws and 'their execution. The evil spread in due
time from the particular States to the Nation at large. This
was inevitable. And so the process has gone on, until we
are where we are,my hearers — the seat of Washington occu
pied by those who have not one quality or characteristic in
common with him ; our own State preyed upon by usurpers
and thieves ; our sacred school fund squandered— the chil
dren's bread taken and cast to dogs; wickedness and corrup
tion characterizing our legislation, both state and national;
the meanest men exalted to office; the most unrighteous and
tyrannical enactments framed into laws to compel the people
to sin, when they will not go in the ways of wickedness fast
enough of their own accord ; and the whole land filled with
crimes too many and too horrible to mention. The decline

RELIGION IN POLITICS. 13
to this low point has been steady and straight forward. It
has been for want of the checks and safeguards, as well as
the inspiration of religion. It has been because men have
not had their conversation, their conduct as citizens, as be-
cometh the gospel of Christ. It is because our politics have
been divorced from religion. It is because the good have
¦abandoned their duty to the state of which they are mem
bers, and because corrupt men have thereby been enabled to
vault into the seats of power made sacred by the sanctions
of the divine benediction. It is because, in the reaction of
this abandonment of the governmental functions to the base,
the conscience and character of our whole people have been
fearfully debauched. Why, that to-day there can be two
sides to the question of slavery, for instance, that there can be
any debate, especially among us at the North, whether it
shall be tolerated or not, or whether it shall be allowed to
.spread one foot beyond its present limits, this, my hearers,
shows to what a fearful depth we have fallen in our morals
and in our politics too. God never sanctioned slavery. God
never allowed his chosen people to indulge in such iniquity
,a3 our American slavery. Their servants were1 all hired
servants, duly paid for their services as much as your domes
tics or your clerks. Nor did God think the condition of the
•slaves who were held by the Egyptians and other people
would be so much improved thereby as to warrant his allow
ing them to be transported to Judea. He had no idea of di
luting wickedness and dissipating it in that way, nor did he
think that the equality of the Jewish people was infringed
because tkey were not allowed to hold slaves as did the
Egyptians*. Nor did our fathers, whether of the North or
South, -ftrkether slaveholders or not, look upon slavery other
wise than as an evil. They would not, as we all know,
suffer the word to be used in that Constitution which it was
hoped, would be the perpetual charter of human freedom.
JButwe, with three score and ten years of experience added

24 RELIGION IN POLITICS.
tto theirs, can now debate these questions and even under
take, the blasphemous work of deriving a sanction of slavery
from the bible. We can debate, the question whether it is
not right and best to open unmeasured leagues of earth's
fairest .soil to this foulest enemy to industry, , to happiness
and religion ; and there are those among us who, for the
chance of an office and its plunderings, or for selfish advan
tage in some form, would give over the interests of this
great nation to the management of those who are pledged to
do what they can to blot out the last remnant of that noble
civil order established here by those men of God, our Pil
grim Fathers. These things show how far we are yet from
being Christianized, yes, from being civilized. And if we
make this next step in our downward way, if we let go this
: last hold of religion upon our politics, I know not what hope
is left us, save in the unmerited and unrevealed mercy of
God. We deserve to be punished— to be blotted out as.
Egypt, and Babylon, and Rome have been, to be another
warning to those who shall come after us that the nation and
the people that will not serve God, will He destroy.
Such, then, are some of the considerations which show ; a
connection between Politics and Religion. : It is indicated
by the fact that all governmental authority, all that gives to
rulers their right to command, and to enforce obedience to
their commands, is derived from God, as being Himself the
author of the State. It is further evinced by the fact that
our peculiar structure of government the Democratic, or
Republican, is the direct outgrowth of religion, finding its
fundamental principle in the word of God. It is further
shown by the fact that all law, as a system calculated to
promote the permanent existence and welfare of a State or
Nation has its origin in religion, and finds its power to bind
alike the conscience, of the ruler and subject only in the fact
that it is conformed to the supreme and perfect law of God. »
And, finally, the appropriateness of a connection between

RELIGION IN POLITICS. 25
Politics and Religion, is seen in the fact that Politics is prop
erly the science of applying the rules of morality and relig
ion to public affairs, and in the fact that religion must be
applied to the politics of any nation or that nation is des
tined to certain overthrow.
So far then from there being no appropriate connection
between Politics and Religion, there is the closest and most
constant connection between them. And so far from its
being a reproach to any man or to any people that their pol
itics and their religion are united, it is the greatest possible-
reproach to them if these two things are divorced from each
other. So far from its being any man's duty to keep himself
or his religion separated from politics — his politics is really
his religion, his religion acting itself out in one particular
direction, and it is just as appropriate that his religion should
act itself out in this direction as that it should show itself in
the sanctuary or in the closet. And so too you may test
one's religion by his politics as well as by his prayers. H he
holds himself aloof from political affairs, and takes no inter
est in the officers, the laws and the policy of his country,
then his religion is either a negative or a very narrow relig
ion, and his sin is the sin of omission and neglect, as much a
sin, nevertheless, as the most positive and direct action. If,
again, he engages in politics as a mere partizan game or strife,.
a contest for the precedence of one man or one party of men,
and allows himself so to be carried away with his zeal for
their success as to involve himself in the support of schemes
which are opposed to justice and the law of God, then so far
as such conduct is an index of character, that man's religion
is a mere sham and semblance. No man can go into politics
and leave his religion behind him, if he has any religion to
leave. The eye of God and the command of God follow
him in all his acts as a citizen, and bid him to do all in hia
power to make his State or his Country, his Town or his Ward
upright and moral that it may be lastingly prosperous and

26 . RELIGION IN POLITICS.
happy. The sanctions of eternal justice follow him to the
street-corner, to the caucus, to the convention, to the ballot-
box, and command him by all that is dear to man and by all
that is fearful in the day of ultimate judgment, that he make
.every thought and every word and every act such as will
tell on the side of good order, * virtue and righteousness.
They allow him to go with his party with all zeal, so far as
his party goes with justice, righteousness and truth, but not
one step beyond, though his refusal to take that step should
rend his party to atoms forever.
My hearers, here is a matter of the gravest importance., I
could bring no more serious or momentous subject before
you, and I do it the more willingly in the hope that now, in
the heat and fervor of our political relations, the subject may
be able to impress itself upon your minds in a way that shall
harden to permanency and abiding usefulness, when, you
shall have cooled down again to more sober courses of thought
and action. As our religion should be carried into our poli
tics, as into every act and engagement of life, so our politics
are designed of God to be a grand source of moral discipline
and religious culture, as the battles of the old Puritans under
Cromwell were a constant exercise and drill of religion. I
have seen a picture of one of those old iron soldiers of the
Protector, in which he was represented as polishing his armor
with one hand while holding the- Bible open in the other,
and so while burnishing -his coat of mail he was at the same
time polishing his internal armor of righteousness and faith.!.
So it is designed that we, while laboring to elevate one and
another to office, and to secure the enactment or repeal of cer*
tain laws, or the adoption or abandonment of a particular
policy, should make our efforts a means of moral culturej.
and spiritual growth and enrichment to ourselves. We hear
often of the depraving, debauching influence of a participax
tion in politics, and undoubtedly there is ground for this.
But it ought not to be so. A man ought to come from his

RELIGION IN POLITICS. 27'
politics, from his nominating convention or his mass meeting
a better man than when he went, more in love with what is
good, more determined in behalf of justice and truth, and
more inflexibly set in behalf of that righteousness which ex-
alteth a nation and blesses every individual in it. It will be
so if he goes to his politicsin the right spirit, if he goes with
an adequate sense of the essentially religious nature ot all
political action, if he goes with prayer as he ought to go in
to every act and occupation of life. But if he forgets his
religion in his politics, if he sinks his Christianity and his
manhood in his politics, if he loses his personality and hia
personal accountability in a platform, it is very likely that
when the immediate political struggle is over there will be
little of the Christian or the man left, but only the wood, hay
and stubble that made up the platform.
There is nothing so discouraging to all true patriotism and
to all hope for the permanent welfare of our country, as
the severance of our parties and their policy from principle
and from religion, which is so prevalent. The change in
this respect from the state of things in the early history of
our country is great and lamentable. Our partizanship has
become a terrible tyranny, 'which while it works disastrous
results oftentimes to the general welfare, is most disastrous on
account, of the corruption and demoralization which it works
upon its very supporters. The success of a party may be
attained at too great cost. Success may be the worst possi
ble defeat, and victory may be but another name for the
complete destruction of the victors. When the success of a
party is obtained not by the fact that its principles commend
themselves to the judgment and conscience of the mass of
citizens, upheld and enforced by fair argument, but is gained
by mere political management, by low trickery and adroit
scheming on the part of its leaders, and by a blind subserv
iency to partizan dictation on the part of its adherents ;
when it is gained by a studied avoidance of principle and an

28 RELIGION IN POLITICS.
appeal to the lowest prejudices and passions of men, then
though victory may come in the shape of a majority of votes
and the possession of offices, it will also come in the shape of
such a demoralization of the character of those who are suc
cessful as will make their victory a barren one, and be the
presage of their ultimate downfall. Such a party may have*
a show of success for a time. It may not be hurled from
the seat of power at once. Having gained place and power
by the arts of intrigue and the appliances of corruption, it
may retain them for a time by the same means more largely
and unscrupulously used. But this cannot last. When
such success has gone on awhile, when the principles which
were once the groundwork and foundation of the party have*
been largely evaporated under the crafty and selfish man
agement of the political leaders, and in their place are found
only mere semblances of principles, the mere shape of good
without the substance, then those who are not already hope
lessly corrupted, those who have indeed been mislead by
crafty managers but who have not lost their sense of justice
and their self respect, will renounce their allegiance to an
organization which has betrayed them into a false position
and will leave their corrupt and corrupting associations, as
Lot left Sodom ; and then the day is not far off when what
remains of such a party must perish as Sodom did, in its
own corruption.
And of all the demoralizing influences of party, that
which is worst and which marks a party already far gone
from its proper character, and far on in the way of destruc
tion, is the tyranny which compels those who are enrolled in
its ranks to sustain the measures of its leaders, not because
they are right and good, but because they are the measures
of the leaders. Of this sort is the doctrine that one must
support the nominations for office which are made according
to the engineering and wire pulling of certain intriguing, sel
fish leaders of his party. They are to be sustained, not be-

RELIGION IN POLITICS. 29
cause the men nominated are fit and worthy for the places
to which they are designated, nor because the policy and
measures which they will advocate are good and worthy,, but
because they have been set up as candidates for votes by the
Tegular party machinery, which often means by the cunning
and adroitness of a few selfish and designing men.
But once nominated, the mass are bound to sustain them,
and so oftentimes good men, under the pressure of this influ
ence, are led, like the ox to the slaughter, to give their suff
rages for men whom they would be ashamed to be seen walk
ing with in the street, and for measures which no thought
ful and conscientious person could contemplate without ab
horrence. Why, it was only the other day that I heard one
of these regular nomination men publicly avow, here in our
own city, while at the same time he was complaining of the
unfair and dishonorable means by which his nomination had
been effected, that he should sustain the nominee of hisparty
even if (to use his own words) " his admiration of intellect
and his regard for moral character must go to the devil " on
that account. It is to be feared that such a man himself is
going to the devil, if his admiration of intellect and' regard
for character are not. The doctrine is horrible. " The avowal
is monstrous. The action which it defends saps the very
foundations of good government and blights the hopes of
abiding social order and happiness. The man who can em
brace such doctrines, the man who is ready to vote for any
thing in the shape of a man who may chance to be put in
nomination by a handful of profligate partizans met in some
reeking pothouse or more fashionable, bar-room, I say the
man who is ready to vote for such without regard to charac
ter or consequences, is a slave, and a slave of the lowest sort,
the lower and baser slave in proportion as he is an intelli
gent man and otherwise respectable and worthy of esteem.
He has lost his manhood, lost himself. He is a bondman,
and, what is more, such a bondman that he does not deserve

SO RELIGION IN POLITICS.
to be free, and very likely never will be. No party can
accomplish the objects of a party in such a country as ours,
no party can ask for an honest man's support or suffrage if its
men and its measures are not open to the scrutiny of all, and
if they are not capable of standing and prevailing by their
own inherent worth and independently of any cunning de-
-ceptions or fraudulent appeals.
It is good always, the Apostle says, to be zealously affected
in a good cause. But we should remember, while laboring
for the political welfare of our town or state or country, that
we are to do it in a way that is entirely consistent with the
great principles of truth, and the precepts of the divine word
and at the same time in a way that will benefit our own per
sonal character. We may deem it very important that cer
tain measures of policy should be adopted, or that the can
didates of our particular party should be placed in office.
But we should remember that we have no right to do evil —
even the least evil — that good — even the greatest good-r-may
come. To us individually, the preservation of our own in
tegrity, our love of justice and goodness, a clear conscience,
a,nd a manly character, are more precious than the success of
any party, the establishment of any policy, or the preserva
tion of the Union itself. What shall a man give in exchange
for his soul ? And he may barter his soul in the caucus
room or1 at the polls as well as elsewhere. The only union
which we ought as citizens to concern ourselves much about
is the Union of Eeligion with our Politics. Pf we can not pre
serve and perpetuate that "union, no union of States can long
be preserved, or is worth much effort to preserve. Our
Union, let it ever be remembered, was formed and framed as
a union of Eeligion with Politics, politics under the law of
religion. When this union is dissolved, the potent bond
which holds these United States in living and harmonious
accord is severed. No tie of predominant interest, no affin
ity of language or origin, no federal enactments, no party

EELIGION IN POLITICS. 31
appliancies, and above all, no compromises of policy in the a
place of principle will suffice to hold our sweet sisterhood
of States, our political Pleiades, in lasting sympathy and in
lasting glory. This bright constellation shall no longer be
seen in the political firmament, but its shining shall be blot
ted from the sky.
My hearers, I make no concealment of my interest in pol
itics, nor of my preference as a citizen of certain parties and
policies to others. I should deem myself far from being an
intelligent Christian, far from being an intelligent and honor
able man, and certainly far from being fit to expound the
lessons and demands of religion to you, if I had not such an
interest and such preferences. But as your religious teacher
it concerns me more, far more, that you should conduct your
political actions in a way that shall preserve your own integ
rity, and keep your conscience alive to truth and justice and
right than that you should act in the same party with me,
I pray you, go with no party except as a clear conscience
may go with you ; sustain no man whose character you can
not respect, whose principles you cannot honor ; approve no
measures which do not commend themselves to an honest
judgment and an enlightened morality. And so, in view of
all that has been said, and of much more that I must leave
unsaid, let me charge you, in the words of the text, " let
your conversation — your conduct an^action as citizens and
members of the state — be as becometh the gospel of Christ,"
its pure and hallowed principles of truth, liberty, righteous
ness and love. ,

< J ¦ ' I - X