The Gazette And Democrat

The Supremacy of the Bible in Politics,

If, as we have frequently endeavored to show, the Bible should have the entire Control of man, then the Christian must feel a deep interest in the political action of his country. He should be the Bible in this matter--the living epistle of the truth--to speak as it speaks, to act as it directs. The Bible does not withdraw the Christian from intercourse with men, or from the exertion of influence in political affairs. It countenances no monkish logic, no ascetic superstition. It brings the disciples of the Savior out into the light, and forward into the front rank of effort, and makes them an example to others in all the legitimate action of our world. Its design is to enlighten and sanctify men--to fit them for their duties as social, intellectual, and moral beings; to make them good citizens, wise and pure-hearted patriots, and through them to teach others, to show them what true patriotism is, and how the high functions of a citizen are to be performed. Christians, therefore, must go into the arena of political action. They must go into the primary meetings of the people, and help to give a right formation to the first elements of political influence; they must go to the polls, and make the ballot-box tell in favor of truth and righteousness. In a word, they are, by their example, to teach men what they are to do as good citizens, and the spirit with which they are to engage in political action.

Christians should feel an intense interest in the election of rulers and exert all their influence in having that election controlled by the great principles laid down in the Bible. They should do all they can do, in order to have good men elected to office: The political arena, we know, is indeed full of peril. The ordeal is a fiery one. But Christians cannot be excused from the duty on that account. Other duties are attended with peril, but they must be performed. So must this. They owe it to themselves, to their country, and to the world, and they will be kept from the evil if they put on the whole armor of God. No one has anything to fear while acting in accordance with the commands of the Bible. And the Bible is imperative here. It bids every man, of course the Christian citizen, to do what he can to have good men put in the place of power, and for obvious reasons. The place of power is the center of an immense circumference of influences, acting upon the minds of men either to elevate or debase them. The whole process of electing rulers leaves its own image upon those engaged in it. The principles upon which it is conducted affect the character of men. Is there no corrupting influence at work when all is felt to be right in politics; when all the arts of coping and overreaching men are practised; when votes are bought and sold, when men are hired to lie in wait to deceive? Is there no evil done when a wicked man is elected to office; when some Sabbath-breaker, some unblushing abettor of intemperance and profanity, some notorious and corrupt profligate is put up as a candidate for the place of power? No evil done when men palliate and endorse that wickedness in voting for such a man, and doing it in the face of the positive forbiddings of the Bible? And is there no evil done in the election of such a skeleton of what a ruler should be In the place of power that man is like the deadly Upas. His influence is killing to every bud and blossom of virtue around him. The land will mourn under his influence.

Christians must also feel an intense interest in the legislation of their country The laws exert a silent but mighty influence in forming the character of those who live under them. The laws of Lycurgus left their own impress upon the Spartan mind--had much to do in making that people what they were. The legislation of any country is an embodiment, so far as it goes, of the public sentiment of that country; and while it affects directly the civil conduct only of men, yet in controlling this, it affects also the thoughts and feelings of all The external bears upon the internal. The mind is acted upon by what it creates. In framing a rule of life it gives being to that which imparts direction to thought, existence to feeling, and character to the whole life. Laws, therefore, are something more than mere outward regulations. They have an inward bearing. They act upon the minds of men. They are to men as citizens what the doctrines of the Bible are to men as Christians. They lie at the foundation. They affect the entire superstructure.

The Christian, therefore, ought to feel an intense interest in the legislation of his country. He ought to exert every energy he has in bringing the laws of the land into sympathy with the elevation of men in all the aspects of their existence. Every arrangement in the civil condition should be subservient to the good of the inner life, We do not say that government should undertake to legislate for the heart, or attempt to extend its dominions over thought and feeling. But we do contend that it ought not to legislate against the heart; that it ought not to legalize iniquity, or to countenance that which sinks men in social, intellectual and moral being. The legislation of the earth should be in harmony with man's whole being. It should have on it the impress of Christianity, and every feature of it the spirit of true wisdom and exalted benevolence. For this the Christian can and ought to labor. For this he should exert all the powers of example, of precept, and persuasion.--N. Y. Evangelist.