The Willimantic Journal

A Lesson from the Recent Elections.

(Synopsis of a discourse delivered by the Rev. W. T. Worth, Sunday, Nov. 17th.)

Rev. W. T. Worth, the pastor of the Methodist Episcopal church in this village, delivered a discourse Sunday afternoon, on "A lesson out of the late political campaign." The audience was large, considering the storm.

The text was Nehemiah vi:3—'I am doing a great work so that I cannot come down; why should the work cease whilst I leave it and come down to you.'

In his introduction the speaker dwelt on the way in which Nehemiah gained the opportunity to rebuild Jerusalem, the method in which the work was performed, and the efforts of his enemies. Skill and persistence are evident in the six approaches of Sanballat and his friends. Four times they call the Governor to council; once they falsely accuse him of plotting rebellion, and once they bring false rumor of a purpose to assassinate him: To all these Nehemiah returns substantially the answer of the text. It agrees in intensity with the answer which every earnest man makes when side issues seek to allure him from the main purpose of his life. This was the spirit which made Dr. Kane spurn the temperate zone for the regions of everlasting winter. This made John Howard disdain the calm life of a cultured English gentleman, that he might plunge into the sorrow and sin of dark prisons, and mitigate their horrors. This made One greater than all men, who came into the world for one great purpose, sink every other interest, and cry to every earth-born voice, "I have a baptism to be baptized with, and here am I stationed until it be accomplished." These seem to us high and distant examples of earnest, single-purposed living. Sometimes we think they are too far away to profit us, but this is a mistake. We have a right to use all lives as our inspirations to work. Yet we are touched by those things which are nearest to us.

Now I have thought that this special trait in our late political strife may be profitably dwelt upon to indicate the manner in which all men should act in matters which concern their spiritual life. It is true that an intense, absorbing earnestness, amounting to enthusiasm, properly marks every man, no matter what are his party affiliations. If political principles are true, or believed to be so, they should be embraced without lukewarmness. A man thus acting is not diverted by compromises, nor discouraged by false reports, and the question of personal success is secondary with him. This earnestness is revealed in his construction or study of his party platform; in his public or private efforts to convince men of opposite views; in his disregard of bodily comfort when the strength of parties is measured at the polls; and in the depth of his sorrow or height of his joy when results are known.

Now these are all well enough. Political parties, like Christian denominations, have their uses. What one does not discover of political truth; the other may see. If nothing else, the one may serve as an irritant to keep up circulation in the other.

The preacher then drew a contrast. A party leader, a voter, each do "a great work" in shaping legislation, and in selecting legislators, by whom a nation may be turned to iniquity or to righteousness. But all men are doing an infinitely greater work in spiritual things.

1. Some are busy with the foundations of the Christian life.
2. Others are employed in the completion of Christian character.
3. And to all who have begun the believer's life, there comes a plain duty to lead as many as possible into it. All of this work will utterly cease if those who are set apart for its performance leave it for less important things. It is sometimes said that religious zeal is liable to go beyond appropriate bounds, and to choose impossible methods, of course we are to use right methods, but we must be ready to face all taunts flung at us by the cool blooded, who declare us excessively enthusiastic. And one of the hints we get out of the political campaign is that the hearty, zealous, self-sacrificing efforts of the strongest political partisans, may, in their spirit, be copied into our Christian life, to the immense advantage of the cause we profess to love. The above points were elaborated and illustrated.

The discourse closed with an appeal to all present, to use the spirit of the text as the motto for church work, and for individual life.