USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > New Haven > History of the South Congregational Church, New Haven : from its origin in 1852 till January 1, 1865 > Part 17
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ment, even in time of war. Did no good citizens in England disapprove of their war upon the Colonies ? or their opium war with China ? or the Crimean war? Did no good citizen disapprove of our war with England in 1812 ?" or our war with Mexico ? " Did Paul approve of all the acts of his govern- ment when he wrote the passages to the Romans, already quoted ? If he did, he approved the acts of a government at which it has been thought virtu- ous ever since to shudder. These passages say not a word of these things, and if the minister sticks to his text, he will not. Again : the true interpreta- tion of them is true ALWAYS. Therefore, either they do not teach the doctrine of passive obedience, or they condemn the revolutions of 1648 and 1688, in England, and the revolution of 1776, in America. Again : the true interpretation is true EVERYWHERE. Eternal truth is universal. The Bible is for all the earth. Ministers. then, rightly interpreting these texts, will, in every land, and under every govern- ment of earth, say the same thing if they speak according to the oracles of God." Yet how many ministers, discoursing on these words, remind us of the saying of Daniel Webster: "too many ministers get their text from the Bible and their sermon from the newspapers ;" verify the statement of Toplady,- " few men are more prone to dabble in politics than some divines ; and it must be added, few men in general have acquitted themselves more lamely than these reverend daubers with untempered mortar ;"-
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endorse the truthfulness of the statement of Wash- ington Irving when he says,-" a cunning politician is often found skulking under the clerical robe, with an outside all religion and an inside all political rancor. Things spiritual and things temporal are strangely jumbled together, like poisons and antidotes on an apothecary's shelf ; and instead of a devout sermon, the church-going people have often a political pamphlet thrust down their throat, labeled with a pious text from Scripture."
But I need not tell you, my hearers, adopting the language of a distinguished divine to his people, " that it has come to pass in these latter days, that these standing places of God's messengers to a ruined world, become oft-times the mere platforms for political harangues, where all questions of practical morals are discussed as side issues with some aim of the dema- gogues. That the cross of Christ is taken down from its high place as the crowning glory of the sanctuary, and in its stead, as an engine of reform, is lifted the ballot box ; and the popular passions are lashed into storm, that with their suffrages as freemen they may carry a Maine Law or defeat a Nebraska bill. That these altars of our God, where the broken heart is demanded as a sacrifice to Jehovah, become oft-times only "seats of custom " where the worldly tribute is rendered to Cæsar. That the precepts of the Divine law, thundered from Sinai ; the promises of the Gos- pel issued in the death-cry from Calvary ; alas ! they are all set aside and forgotten, that these ambassadors
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of God may discourse political declamation upon moot points that divide our great political parties. Either because these men find the duties of their sacred profession so light and their consequent leisure so abundant; or because they regard the care of souls so trivial a concern in comparison with the general enlightenment of society on these political questions ; or, it may be, because they regard them- selves as men of such prodigious powers and special inspiration, as to make it their extraordinary call to leave to their humbler and less gifted brethren the care of the ark in the fields of Bethshemish, while they strive about the golden mice with the lords of the Philistines."
We believe such a course to be unscriptural, and ask for the Bible warrant.
We cannot appeal on this point to Old Testament examples. For, it has been observed justly, there is no parallel between their government and our own. Theirs was Theocratic. With them, Church and State were one and the same. "What was political was ecclesiastical," and therefore pertained legiti- mately and necessarily to the ministers of religion. But does it follow that what was lawful and a neces- sity for the Jewish prophet, is either with the New Testament minister who does not live under a Theo- cracy ; where Church and State are not identified, or so much as united ; where things political are not · ecclesiastical ?
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Again : there is no parallel in this respect between a Jewish prophet and a Christian minister ; for the prophet was inspired, the minister is not. When he is, then may the preacher under the New Testament speak as did the prophet under the Old. But while he does not live under a Theocracy ; while he is without special revelation of some particular political doctrine, and without special inspiration to declare it, the gospel minister must continue to preach the things spiritual which God has already revealed .*
Turning from the Old to the New Testament, where, in the life and precepts of Christ and His Apostles, do we find an example of political preach- ing, or the duty enjoined ?
Do you find the indispensable warrant in any of the
* "The Jewish commonwealth constituted in all the stages of its history a pure Theocracy. David was anointed of God, as the type of Christ, and his kingdom was the dim foreshadow of that kingdom which is not of this world. He was not only king, but prophet. When he uttered imprecations upon the enemies of the Jewish State, God spake through him against His enemies and the enemies of the Church. When he poured out his passionate love for Jerusalem, his prophetic soul was enraptured with the glories of the new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven. And now, it is sheer ignorance, if it be not blasphemy, for a New Testament minister, whose head Samuel has not anointed, and whom God has not moved by inspiration of the Holy Ghost, to seize the sceptre and harp of David, and put on the mantle of Elijah, and dwarfing the prophecies into mere temporal pre- dictions, to apply them to a nation whom God has never chosen as he did the Jews, or to a human government which he has not set up as he did the old Theocracy."- Vandyke on the Spirituality and Independence of the Church, p. 13.
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sermons or epistles of the Apostles ? No ! Among them it cannot be found.
Do you find it in the Sermon on the Mount, or in any of the precepts of Christ ? Surely not in them. On a certain occasion " one of the company said unto Him, Master, speak to my brother that he divide the inheritance with me ?" Is the warrant found in His reply : " who made me a judge or divider over you ?" No ; on the contrary, is not that reply a rebuke, or at least a significant hint to ministers, not to "intermed- dle in civil affairs that concern the commonwealth," -- a plain intimation, that this is not any more the minister's, than the Master's business.
On another occasion, the Pharisees " took counsel how they might entangle Him in His talk." They therefore "sent out to Him their disciples with the Herodians"-a committee from Church and State- fanatical members of the one, and political partizans of the other-to learn whether He was loyal to Cæsar's government. True, He obeyed the laws, and paid His tax, poor as he was, though it required a miracle to do it. But this, it seems, was not sufficient. Neither Pharisaic nor Herodian loyalty can be satisfied until He declares His political sentiments. Does He declare them ? Does He seize this most auspicious moment to set Himself right with fanatic or partizan ? Does He improve this occasion, so inviting, by preaching a sermon upon the agitating subject of that day, "is it lawful to give tribute unto Cæsar, or not ?" Did He discourse on govern-
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mental policy, or decide the question, however im- portant, of disputed political allegiance ? What an opportunity for preaching politics ! for settling this vexed question by a Divine example which His min- isters might imitate and perpetuate ! Did He do it ; and thereby endorse a similar course in His servants as lawful and Scriptural ? What is the record ? "But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites ?" " Render unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's, and to God the things that are God's." Does this answer furnish us with the necessary warrant ? Have we here a sample of a modern political sermon, or a command to preach one ? So far from it, should this very answer of the Master be returned to our modern catechising com- mittees, they would pronounce it at best but suspi- cious and evasive, cowardly and conservative ; if not denounce it as disloyal and traitorous. So doubtless felt and spake the original Committee ;- the furious Pharisee and the baffled Herodian ;- for we read, " they marveled, and left Him, and went their way."
Or do we find such a warrant in the records of the first Ecclesiastical Council of the Christian Church holden at Jerusalem ? No. And though it be to the shame and disgrace of the Church in these latter days ; yet, for the honor and purity of the early Church, must we not conclude, in this respect there is no analogy between them. So far at least as we may judge from personal knowledge and experience of modern ecclesiastical Councils, and so far as their
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records and result furnish a basis of comparison, we must say, to us any resemblance in spirit or spiritu- ality, is inconceivable between primitive Councils of the apostolic day, and Puritan Councils of the pres- ent day.
On another occasion, when a Council, not of the Christian, but of the Jewish Church, arraigned Jesus for alleged heresy and offenses against the Mosaic law, coupled with charges of disloyalty and treason against the State, so that if they failed to prove Him guilty of the one, they might, by the power of polit- ical prejudice, insure His condemnation by the other, --- when thus before Pilate's bar, do we find the sought for warrant in His answer to the heathen Governor, explaining to him the spiritual nature of His king- dom : "My kingdom is not of this world : if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight ; " but now is my kingdom not from hence."
Again : Peter and John were similarly arraigned for insisting upon preaching Christ, and Christ only. " The priests and the Captain of the Temple and the Sadducees came upon them, being grieved that they taught the people and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead." "And they took know- ledge of them that they had been with Jesus." "But when they commanded them to go aside out of the Council, they conferred among themselves, saying, what shall we do to these men?" "That it spread no farther among the people, let us straightly threaten them, that they speak henceforth to no man in this
.
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name. And they called them, and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach, in the name of Jesus." Do we find the desired warrant in their answer? "Pe- ter and John answered and said unto them, whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard."
Yet again, they brought them and "set them before the Council : and the high priest asked them, did not we straightly command you that ye should not teach in this name ? and, behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine." "Then stood there up one in the Council, a Pharisee, named Gamaliel," and he said, "refrain from these men and let them alone ; for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought ; but if it be of God, ye cannot over- throw it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God. And to him they agreed ; and when they had called the Apostles and beaten them, they commanded them that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go." Do we find a warrant for preach- ing anything but Jesus-do we find any warrant the remotest, for preaching politics, from the Apostles' words or deeds after that memorable and inquisitorial Council adjourned ? Read : "And they departed from the presence of the Council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name. And daily in the temple and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach-Jesus Christ."
In the absence of all Scriptural warrants, either
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from example or precept ; from Christ or His Apos- tles ; from sermon or epistle ; or from the records of the assembled Church ; therefore we also exclude all secular, or political, or semi-political themes and dis- cussions from our ministry ; therefore it is we deem it our duty to preach only the Gospel-" not to know any thing among" the people " save Christ, and Him cruci- fied;" therefore it is we judge and say with Paul, "Now then, we are ambassadors for God "-" We, then, of all persons in the world," says Toplady, "should religiously abstain from whatever may conduce to cherish the seeds and fan the fires of civil discord. Shocking it is when they who profess to experience and to preach the love of Christ, can so far prostitute the dignity and design of their sacred calling as to offer fulsome incense at the shrine of aggrandized authority, or seek to exasperate differing parties against each other, instead of laboring to preserve unity of spirit, to strengthen the bonds of peace, and promote righteousness of life. Our direct business is with the policy of an invisible and better country. On the one hand, we are to sound the trumpet, not of secular, but of spiritual alarm ; and on the other, to proclaim to them that mourn, and to them that believe, in Zion,
'The joyful news of sins forgiven,
Of hell subdued and peace with heaven.' "
(2) It is unnecessary. There are other places pro- vided for political instruction, and open to all. Why make the House of God a caucus room ? There are
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other means, and ample for all. Why take those intended for spiritual ends, and so pervert them that they shall effect only what is selfish and secular ? It is the peculiar mission of the press to give such infor- mation. Why then should the pulpit voluntarily give up its mission that it may assume that of the press, which needs no extraneous help, throwing off on the wings of every hour innumerable and much wiser treatises on these subjects, and which neither asks nor gives thanks for foreign advocacy? Besides, we ask, in the words of Dr. Dwight, "Will party politics carry you to Heaven ? Has Christ said, 'He that is a Federalist, he that is a Democrat, shall be saved ? ' Has he not said, 'He that believeth shall be saved; and he that believeth not, shall be damned ?' Has He not said, 'Except ye repent, ye shall all like- wise perish ?' Has He not said, 'Without holiness no man shall see the Lord ?' Has He not required you to 'Follow peace with all men ?' Has He not told you 'that the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace, of those that make peace ; and, therefore, that it cannot be sown in contentions-nor by them that work contentions ? ' "
Not essential, sowing the seeds of discord, and already absorbing the minds of men six days out of seven elsewhere, is it necessary that another place, God's house, and another day, the Lord's Day, be appropriated for the discussion of such themes, and the dissemination of worldly knowledge, thus leav- ing the great God without a temple or a day for
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His special worship, and the soul without a home where it may find a momentary truce, in its warrings with the world, even a temporary refuge from the din of party strife; where it may hear concerning a King- dom which is not of this world, and of a rest that remaineth to the people of God ?
3 It is inexpedient. Already invading the sanc- tuaries of our land, it has eaten out the very heart of spirituality, so that a revival of God's work in such Zions is an anomaly ; already does it threaten to usurp a permanently paramount place in the house of God and the hearts of His worshipers, demanding, even now, conformity to its political creed, as essential to Christian fellowship. Thereby Christians are driven away from their spiritual homes in bitter disappoint- ment. They come to hear the things of eternal life ; to be edified, upbuilt. And especially in such days of suffering and sorrow, to enjoy the consolations of the Gospel, and the sweet comfortings of the Spirit. But alas ! they find no oasis now in the house of God ; for wells of salvation and shading palms, only the monotonous waste of burning sand ; for the sincere milk of the Word, only the bitter waters of Marah ; while for the spirit of heaviness there is no garment of praise ; for the wounded spirit, no balm of Gilead.
And what is the effect upon worldlings ? They depart in disgust from the house of God, doubting the reality and value of Religion because of this coun- terfeit and caricature ; and how can the effect upon them be otherwise, " when the parishioner sits in his
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pew, silent and still by custom, decorum, and the manners of New England, and the preacher turns upon him every eye in the congregation for the poli- tics he practices, and for the party to which he has attached himself ? How can it be otherwise when the very first word he hears in prayer, the very first word he hears in a hymn selected to be sung, however well it may be sung, and by whatever choir, the very first illustration in the sermon to which he may listen, sends him away gloomy and irritable, turns the whole service into a political mockery, and awakens a train of reflection that renders him, from first to last, inac- cessible to the truth, closes his ear to the voice of the charmer, charm he never so wisely on that day ?"
Is this expedient ? No. And we wonder not that multitudes endorse and repeat the saying of Henry Clay, and give it, as he did, as the reason for ceasing to attend a certain Church :
"I have so much politics all the week, that I do not care to go to Church except to hear the Gospel."
O how different the result, if ministers, especially throughout New England, held the views and imita- ted the example of Rev. Dr. Dwight, President of Yale College. In the sermon already quoted, and preached in the Chapel on the National Fast, August 20th, 1812, he says :
"I wish it to be distinctly understood that, in the progress of my observations, no party will be ar- raigned ; the character of no person attacked ; no public measure censured ; and the feeling of no indi-
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vidual wounded. All who are here, or all who are elsewhere, will be considered merely as creatures of the same God ; as bound to the same eternity ; as alike interested in renouncing sin and returning to holiness ; and as bound alike to regard the work of the Lord as the operation of His hand."
O how different the result, if the tribute the great Rufus Choate paid his Pastor, could be truthfully given to every minister in New England ; if every parishioner could assign it, as he did, as one reason, not for leaving, but attending Church. He says :
" Every one of us assuredly felt, as we came here from Sunday to Sunday, and took our seats in our pews, that we should hear nothing in the world but Religion preached from the pulpit, and no manner of politics, State or National, directly or indirectly ; nothing connected in the remotest degree with the party considerations or organizations of the day. We came here, if we came as we professed we did, to hear of those things which pertain to Religion, to the sal- vation of the soul, and to the rest everlasting. And I have uniformly found it to be true, that I heard nothing, was assailed by nothing, was secularized by nothing, was defended or attacked by nothing which I had done, nothing for which I had voted or acted in the political world without. Never in an intro- ductory prayer, never in a hymn, occasionally or in the ordinary course of public worship selected, never by any illustration in any sermon, by any train of association, right or wrong, was I carried back into
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the world that I had left, and which I should have been willing, for that day at least, to have forgotten forever." **
(4) My Ordination Vows forbid it. What says the Constitution of my Church, which every Presby- terian minister in his ordination vows declares "he sincerely receives and adopts as containing the system of doctrines taught in the Holy Scriptures ?" "Syn- ods or councils are to handle or conclude nothing but what is ecclesiastical ; and are not to intermeddle with civil affairs which concern the commonwealth." Can this be a reason why ordination by the Presbyte- rian Church is here practically repudiated ? And was the literal fulfillment of this vow by me, regarded as equivalent to a forfeiture of my credentials as an ordained minister of Jesus ?
However this may be, " It is a very small thing that I should be judged of man's judgment !" Man's judg- ment cannot affect my views of duty while I believe them to be right in the judgment and sight of God ; and therefore I still say with a brother minister, " that the point from which I regard and deal with men has never been as citizens of the commonwealth having civil duties to perform, but as 'fallen sinners, having need of salvation ;' and the great thing at which I have aimed, and to which I have subordi- nated every thing else, is, to bring them to the Cross, · to reconcile them to God through the blood of the Lamb, and to imbue them with the Spirit of the
* See Memorial Volume, pp. 32, 38.3
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Divine Master. In saying this, I neither forget nor ignore the fact that I am the authorized expounder of Revelation, which touches the entire circle of human duty. But I hold this to be true, that when men have an intellectual acquaintance with their civil or social duties, the speediest, most effectual way to bring them to their performance, is, to press upon their hearts and consciences the great doctrines of the Cross. The all-comprehending source of sin is alienation from God. Bring men back to God, and you bring them back to the performance of all known duties." This has been my theory and practice during the nine years of my ministry, and ever will be. Amen.
(5) It is mocking the Wants of the Immortal Soul. In the house of God the gospel feast is spread. Ministers of God, servants at the table, extend the invitation,-" Come, for all things are now ready ;" " come, buy wine and milk without money and with- out price. Wherefore do ye spend your money for that which is not bread ? and your labor for that which satisfieth not ? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul de- light itself in fatness !" See ! yon hungry soul hears, believes, comes, "to taste and see that the Lord is good." It approaches, and from the rich pro- visions, asks for bread-the minister gives him this "stone ;" he asks for meat-the minister gives him this "serpent ;" and with immortal hungerings unsat- isfied, the soul departs, mocked, betrayed, poisoned, stung.
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Behold that blind man ; it is Bartimeus. " They have let him know that the healer of the blind is near ; and I am sure that nothing they could say about anything else, could make up for not telling him that. The most eloquent harangue on the poli- tics of the times, though Pilate, and Herod, and Cæsar, and Roman eagles, and Jewish banners, and liberty, and nationality, and destiny, had rolled with splendid imagery through sounding periods, would have been a sad exchange for those simple words,- ' Jesus of Nazareth passeth by.' Nor would Aristo- tle's keenest logic, nor Plato's finest speculations, have served a whit better. The man was blind, and wanted his eyes opened ; and these things, however set forth, were but trash and mockery."-" Blind Bartimeus," pp. 83-84.
(6) It degrades and divides the Church of God.
It degrades the Church. Edward Everett in a sermon " On the dedication of the First Congrega- tional Church in New York," administers a pertinent rebuke to those ministers and disciples of Christ who insist upon generating secular associations and kind- ling wordly excitements in the house of God, by the introduction of political themes. He says: "We dedicate our house to God ; to no earthly power, to no human name, but to God, who reigns on high. It is henceforth not ours, but His ; we resign, devote and consecrate it to Him." " We dedicate it to the glorious cause of the gospel. It is sacred henceforth to that alone. Let no other message be ever heard
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within its walls ; no human science, no learning or art of this world ; no case or interest which begins or ends with man ; but the holy faith of the Son of God and the truth as it is in Jesus." Any other course than this we believe degrades the Church by making her the partner of the State, and at length its tool and servant. This accomplished, and her dishonor and degradation are complete. Polluted by the hand of secular power ; her fair robes rent and soiled ; her head bowed and crownless ; her hands chained to Cæsar's chariot wheels ; behold the once fair bride of Christ !
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