THE 
 
 CHRISTIAN MINISTRY 
 
 IN RELATION TO 
 
 Politics and Public Ouestions. 
 
 % Sermon 
 
 PkEACHED r.EFOUE THE SVN'OD OF MONTUEAI. AND OTTAWA, 
 
 April i6th, 1S89, 
 
 IN 
 
 A 
 
 / 
 
 qURBEC, 
 
 REV. W. D. ARMSTRONG, M.A. Ph. D. 
 
 MODEKATOK. 
 
 THF SVNOl) rKVPF.UKl) THKIlt IIF.ARTV TirANKS TO TUK iMoniCUAroU I'OK HIS 
 
 AI!1,K ANll TIMF.LY niSCUV liSK, HKIUTKS'I'PK THK MANUSCRH'T FOlt 
 
 I'Uni.ICATION, AND AI'fOINTKD A COMMITTEK TO ARKANCJK 
 
 I'On TirK PRINTING AND CIRCULATION 
 
 OF TIIK SAMK. 
 
 OTTAWA ; 
 James Hope & Co., Pk ntkus ani> runi.rsilKB.s. 
 
 ]8H!». 
 
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY 
 
 IN RELATION TO 
 
 Polities and Public Questions. 
 
 Imtah, 62:6: — '■^ I have set Waiclnnen up07i Thy Walls, O Jerusalem." 
 
 Ministers of the Gospel are called heralds because 
 they herald forth or proclaim the King's message — the 
 Gospel of eternal life to a sin-ruined, guilty world. They 
 are called watchmen upon the walls of Zion, because 
 they are expected to be on the look-out and give warn- 
 ing against the approach of the foe. It is not only the 
 duty of the Christian Minister to seek to win new con- 
 quests for Christ, but to hold that which has already been 
 won, Is there any victory that Religion can win ? 
 Thither he is to carry her banner. Is there any ff)e 
 assaulting her tower ? It is his duty to seek to drive 
 the enemy from the gales. 
 
 In heralding the truth, and defending the truth the 
 sphere of the Christian minister takes in all classes of 
 men and all departments of life. But there is one great 
 department of life into which a minister is told he must 
 not intrude — a department of life too fraught with 
 weal or woe for the community, and for the souls of 
 men. I refer to the department of politics. 
 
 In the discussion that has arisen in this land in re- 
 ference to Jesuit aggression, ministers have been plainly 
 told, even by honourable legislators — ''preach the Gospel, 
 
V T / 
 
 leave politics alone." One might swiftly retort, "we 
 preach the Gospel antl therefore cannot let politics 
 alone." 
 
 The minister preaches prohibition, and the saloon- 
 keepers cry out — " What have we to do with thee. Let 
 us alone. Go, preach the Gospel." We preach against 
 unholy combinations in trade, and greedy monopolists 
 cry out, " What do ministers know about business ? 
 Let us alone. Go, preach the Gospel." Ministers 
 preach against dishonesty and truculency in politics, and 
 slaves to party cry out — " What do ministers know 
 about politics ? Let us alone. Go, preach the Gospel." 
 Do these men think that politics should be hermetically 
 sealed against the good iniluences of God's word ? Do 
 they think that the conduct of politicians should not be 
 weighed in the scales and measured with the measure of 
 the sanctuary ? 
 
 What is wrong with the politics of our land to-day 
 is that they are not permeated with the religion of 
 Christ, with righteousness, truth and charit}'. 
 
 One is tempted to ask what are the motives that 
 prompt this cry thai ministers should not take part in 
 politics and public questions ? In some cases I believe 
 it to be pure ignorance. They who make it do not know 
 what the preacher's function is. They do not expect 
 him to deal with the vital affairs of mundane life. 
 They are afraid his sanctity will be injured if he does. 
 Their ideal of a minister of the Gospel is a man who is 
 a sort of a child or novice in his knowledge of mankind 
 and of the ordinary affairs of life — not a man with soul 
 and mind and heart alive to all human interests, and 
 who, by the study of the noblest Book, and by reflection 
 
8 
 
 upon the ways of God in the history of the past, and 
 ]jy a mind trained to revolve around the poles of truth 
 and charity, is competent to speak to the profoundest 
 necessities of human life. 
 
 If you accept the weak idepl that some have of the 
 Christian minister, or accept as true the wretched, mean, 
 untruthful portraitures that you sometimes find in the 
 modern novel, you may well say to such ministors, 
 " keep away from the vital, serious concerns of life." 
 
 But is this the type of the preachers of the Gospel 
 as you know them ? Is this the type of the ministry 
 of the Presbyterian Church in Canada ? Far from it. 
 Call the roll of our ministers from Halifax to Van- 
 couver, Presbytery by Presbytery. Take them man by 
 man and where will you find in this country a class of 
 men better educated, better grounded in the principles 
 of truth and liberty, more intense or wiser lovers of 
 their country or more assiduously intent upon bringing 
 the blessings of religion, virtue, comfort and good gov- 
 ernment to llie people ? Of the whole 900 you may 
 find a few who are not wise, who are not thoughtful, 
 you may find a few vain cemagogues. But 99 per cent. 
 of them belong to the class that I have described, and 
 no class in the land is more competent to form and ex- 
 press opinions on moral, social and politico 1 questions. 
 
 But in analysing this cry against ministers taking 
 part in public affairs, I think I can discern a tone ot 
 vanity which epitomized is this — " Preach your Gospel 
 and leave the great things of politics to us who are so 
 much wiser." Would I be wrong also in supposing that 
 sometimes the cry comes from the envious spirit — the 
 politician and the press vexed that others than 
 
themselves should have intluence in guiding the nation's 
 destiny ? 
 
 But whatever be the motive, whether it be to guard 
 the sanctity of the sacred office, or whether it be from 
 iiinorance of the true function of the preacher of the 
 Gospel, whether it arise from the spirit of vanity or the 
 spirit of envy, it is a wrong and injurious cry. Would 
 it not be wiser to say ? " Ministers of the Gospel come 
 to close quarters with your people in all that aftects 
 them and their intorests. Apply the principles of that 
 Book whose expounders you are, to the whole domain 
 of life. Bring religion into politics, into commerce, into 
 education, into everything — preach the Gospel so that it 
 may come to the lives of men. Do not hesitate to send 
 the shot and shell of Bible righteousness straight into 
 that group of profane Sabbath breakers, into that nest 
 of covetous traders or into that clique of political in- 
 triguers." 
 
 Now let me state three or four reasons why minis- 
 ters of the Gospel should take an active interest in all 
 public questions that affect the welfare of the nation ? 
 
 1. Preachers of the Gospel should take part in 
 politics and questions affecting the state because 
 they are, or ought to be, men of strong patriotic 
 SENTIMENTS. — Indeed it seems to me that no one imbued 
 with the teachings of the Bible can fail to be in the 
 highest sense patriotic. Where will you find national 
 feeling more intense ? Where will you find love of 
 country more ardent than among the Jews ? In Bible 
 history from Moses to Malachi what grand patriots stand 
 forth in he law-givers, the judges, the poets, the 
 prophets of Israel ! Where will you find more profound 
 
patriotism than in the intercessory prayer of Moses for 
 sinninj;- Israel ? Where will you find more practical 
 patriotism than in tlie self-denying, energetic Neheniiaii? 
 Where will you find greater depth and tenderness of 
 love for native land than in that grand old patriot pro- 
 phet Jeremiah ? Hear him: "Oh that my head were 
 waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might 
 weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my 
 people ! " The same spirit we recognize in that noble 
 Jewish patriot, the great Apostle of the Gentiles. And, 
 in all reverence be it said of Him who was the perfect 
 man on earth, the Son of God, that we descern the 
 spirit ol patriotism as well as of compassion in his tears 
 over the doomed Jeruso.lem. 
 
 This Bible is saturated with patriotism, and they 
 who catch its spirit and expound its meaning must be 
 patriotic. They cannot be indifierent to the welfare 
 and good government of their country. 
 
 The prophets were the preachers of their day, and 
 they did not hesitate to put themselves in close connec- 
 tion with the national life. Was there any defection 
 from loyalty ? They exposed it. Was there a vice 
 eating like a canker ac the heart of the nation s life, 
 they lifted up their voice against it. Were there men 
 or classes of men ready to sell their country for gold 
 or baitering for jjlace the liberties of the nation, they 
 denounced them in no measured terms. 
 
 But we the preachers of to-day are not to be like 
 the stout preachers of those olden times. Our voices are 
 to be weak and tunelul, the atmosphere around us so 
 quiet and holy that the great throb of life in good and 
 evil is not to be felt in it. Ours is a sacred calling. 
 
6 
 
 So sacred tluit \vc can see injustice in the land and 
 not rebuke it; — so sacred that we can see greed :if gain 
 and greed of phice leading men to sacrifice the interestfe" 
 of the nation and not denounce them ; — so sacred that we 
 are to look on the systematized misrepresentations of 
 party press, and platform, and not expose these mon- 
 strous shapes of falsehood and uncharitablencss ; — so sacr- 
 ed that we can look on the knife pointed at the heart of 
 our civil liberty and make no vigorous eflbrt to strike it 
 away ; — so sacred that we are calmly to look upon a 
 power advancing with stealthy yet steady step with 
 the a\owed object of fettering tlie very Gospel of 
 liberty that we preach, and yet we are not to utter 
 the warning cry or urge the marshalling of forces that 
 shall stay the advance of the enemy. 
 
 Away with such an idea of the preacher as this. 
 We will not let politics alone. The nation is God's in- 
 stitution. It can flourish only under God's truth, 
 baptized with the righteousness and charity that the 
 Gospel unfolds. 
 
 I raise no objection to the reverence and respect 
 paid to the Christian ministry for their office sake. T 
 recognize the truth that is at the bottom of the dislike 
 the people have to see their minister mingle too freely 
 in the common affairs of life. There is something in a 
 consecrated class of men just as there is in consecrated 
 buildings. But the Christian minister is a Christian 
 citizen, a Christian patriot, and in preaching the Gospel, 
 in a way and tone that becomes his calling, he is to sup- 
 port everything that makes for righteousness in a na- 
 tion, and to boldly strike down all wrong doing and in- 
 iquity, and he is not a meddler or intruder if he seek to 
 do this in the region of politics. 
 
2, TlIK PREACIIEU OF THE GoSPEL SHOULD TAKE 
 PART IN GREAT I'UBLIC QUESTIONS BECAUSE HE IS OR 
 OUGHT TO 15E A MAN OF PHILANTHROPIC SYMPATHIES. — 
 
 Is there anything alVecting the comfort, the welfare of 
 the people that is outside the minister's thoughts and 
 sympathies ? 
 
 Is there sufficient recognition of the benevolent 
 aspects of the Christian ministry, of the fact that they 
 •come seeking to bring blessings of the highest order to 
 the community, of the fact that by choice and consecra- 
 tion like their Master they have set themselves to go 
 about doing good ? 
 
 Look at the work and worldly reward of the Chris- 
 tian ministry 
 
 They seek to prepare themselves thoroughly by a 
 long continued course of study in the world's wisdom, 
 and by careful and prayerful study of God's Book of 
 Wisdom, and then they give themselves to the work of 
 delivering men from ignorance and vice and doom. 
 They relinquish dreamj of ambition. They live on 
 salaries scarcely sufficient to provide the necessities of 
 life, and give themselves without reserve to the advance- 
 ment ot the physical, intellectual, social and spiritual 
 welfare of mankind. 
 
 It is a paltry business to watch for failure in this 
 lofty ideal, and to gloat over spots in ministerial 
 character. 
 
 Look at the men as a class. Where do you find a 
 class of men giving themselves so thoroughly, so un- 
 reservedly, so continuously to the promotion of human 
 welfare ? 
 
 Look at them, and consider the noble conceptions, 
 
the sublime thoughts and sentiments they sow with 
 ceaseless energy in the hearts of men. Look at them as 
 individuals or in associations. What do you see ? You 
 see them, day and night, seeking to devise means for 
 promoting happiness, virtue and comfort among the 
 people, to promote every enterprise that aims at elevat- 
 ing and enobling the people. You find them entering 
 into conflict v/ith every foe that threatens the home, the 
 Church, the country. You find them establishing and 
 fostering schools in the higher and lower departments of 
 learning. You find them where help is needed for the 
 weak, sympathy for the suffering, comfort for the sorrow- 
 ing. You find them everywhere seeking to nurture in 
 the community, holy, upright men and women. You 
 find them more anxious often than the parents are for 
 the welfare of the children and the youth, more tender 
 than the children are for the comfort and cheer of the 
 aged. You find them everywhere the promoters of law 
 and order, good government and peace, so that they may 
 rejoice in, rather than resent, the name " spiritual 
 police." 
 
 The idea of telling such men to let politics alone, 
 when politics are not ministering to the welfare of 
 the country, when political parties are ready to barter 
 away, it may be, some of God's choicest gifts to the 
 people. These men are with their fellow men in their 
 profoundest needs, and from their sympathy with these 
 needs, and study of God's Law, know better than the 
 professional politician even, "what makes a nation great 
 and keeps it so." 
 
 I make bold to state, that, in all civilized communi- 
 ties, the most potent influences for good in national life 
 
9 
 
 come not from the press and the politican, but from the 
 school teacher and the preacher. The preacher who 
 does not hesitate to denounce wrong, the preacher who 
 does not hesitate to hold up a lofty ideal of citizenship 
 and a lofty ideal too of the sacred duties of the citizen's 
 representative, the preacher who quickens growing 
 minds witli great thoughts as to human dignity and 
 destiny, with far reaching, patriotic and philanthropic 
 ideas — is making citizens and statesmen. He may 
 occupy some back country pulpit or a pulpit in a metro- 
 politan city, — the country, the world may know little of 
 him, but God only knows the harvest that springs from 
 his sowing. 
 
 The following statement of Dr. Spring, should be 
 well pondered : "Many a sleeping genius, resposing with- 
 in the curtains of its own unconscious powers, has been 
 awakened to hope and action by the instructions of the 
 sanctuary. It were a curious and not unprofitable in- 
 quiry to institute how many well-educated men in Chris- 
 tian lai'ds have received the first impulse and suggestion 
 in their lofty career from the instructions of the Sabbath." 
 It is instructive to place in 'Connexion with this the 
 statement of one who was a) practical politician, Fowell 
 Buxton : — " Whatever I have done in my life for Africa, 
 the seeds of it were sown in my heart in Wheeler Street 
 Chapel." Therefore we say preach politics by applying 
 the Gospel to them, by applying the measure of God and 
 right to them. Saturate politics, if possible, with the 
 religion of Christ. Separation of Church and State 
 surely does not mean the separation of religion from 
 politics. 
 
 3. This leads to a third proposition — That Minis- 
 
10 
 
 TERS SHOULD TAKE PART IN GREAT PUBLIC QUESTIONS 
 BECAUSE TIIEY ARE, OR OUGHT TO BE, MORAL LEADERS IN 
 
 THE COMMUNITY. It is their duty, as the representatives 
 of religion and morality, to apply the highest ethical 
 principles to all the departments of life. 
 
 It is for the Minister to lead, not to be lead or 
 pushed on from behind. 
 
 Is it not true that great reforms are sometimes 
 germinated and cherished by the preaching of the 
 Gospel, could not exist or live without the preaching of 
 the Gospel, yet christless men are allowed to steal the 
 fruitage, and lead on with the humanitarian cry and so 
 Christ and His messengers are defrauded and dishonour- 
 ed ? Or it may be a press, ecjually christless, steps in 
 and claims the honour. The press, where it throws 
 itself upon the side of truth and righteousness, should 
 be welcomed as the great ally of the preacher. But 
 surely living men with throbbing hearts reaching their 
 fellow men with voice and eye need not yield in in- 
 fluence to the dead page of a newspaper or periodical. 
 
 Preach the Gospel. Yes. And, when you preach, 
 be sure that you know what movements are among the 
 people, and adapt the Gospel to these movements. 
 There are great questions agitating the public now. 
 Are they to be left to editors and politicans ? Is the 
 Temperance question to be left to them ? Are ministers 
 not to speak out with regard to dishonest business com- 
 binations? with regard to debasing political combina- 
 tions ? Are they not to bring the law of righteousness, 
 and the Gospel of love to bear upon the great conllict 
 between Capitsil and Labour, upon that strife which the 
 Gospel alone can heal ? Are they not to stand up and 
 
11 
 
 organize and fight against the greed of gain and love of 
 pleasure that ^vonld defraud the working man of God's 
 great gift, the Day of Rest ? Are they not to lead out 
 iigainst party politics when party politicians seem ready 
 to sell our Protestant liberties to gain Papist votes? 
 
 The Protestant pulpit must be used to check 
 Papal aggression. Not long ago a Bill was introduced 
 into the Legislature of New York for the purpose of" 
 giving special privileges to Roman Catholic clergy in 
 public institutions. The Evangelical Alliance of New 
 York protested. Petitions were poured into the Legis- 
 lature at Albany — 1)ut it seemed as it the politicaus were 
 determined to pass the bill. The pulpit was appealed 
 to, and on a single Sunday thousands of sermons were 
 preached again -^t Papal aggression. The politicans heard 
 them, or heard the people talk about them. The State 
 was roused and the politicians felt themselves compelled 
 to throw out the Bill. 
 
 We are in the presence of a very decided Jesuit ag- 
 gression in our land. Shall we listen when politicians 
 iSay, — "mind your own business; do not intrude into 
 politics?" 
 
 But the Pope, the great parson, can intrude, and 
 the ])riest, whose exhortation commands the vote, with- 
 out educating it, is to be treated with consideration. 
 
 Shall we listen to their cant when they enjoin 
 upon Protestant ministers to be tolerant, — when all that 
 Protestant ministers are doing is to assert their rights and 
 the liberty of the Gospel in the face of an intolerance that 
 is formulated, systeuuitized and openly acknowledged — 
 an intolerance that curtly declares — " By our princples 
 we cannot give to you Protestants liberty, whilst we de- 
 mand liberty from you according to your principles ?" 
 
12 
 
 Protestant ministers, Presbyterian ministers will 
 not be hood-winked or silenced on this great question 
 that aftects their freedom and the welfare of the State. 
 
 Ministers of the Gospel should not hesitate to let 
 their people know that they are deeply interested in 
 this great question, that they are deeply interested in 
 every public question, that they give thought and study 
 to them, that they watch their progress, that they are 
 ready to fight for the right that is in them, and smite 
 the wrong that is in them. 
 
 But what do ministers know about these practical 
 things ? On a very slender thread of evidence there is 
 hung a weighty assertion, that ministers are not practical 
 men. It is not true. They are in the highest sense 
 practical. It is true the minister may not be able to 
 make a shoe, but he can tell when a shoe trade is 
 honestly carried on as quickly as another man. It is 
 true he may not be able to manage the intricacies of a 
 great railway line, but he can tell when these lines are 
 run so as to be injurious to the physicial and moral wel- 
 fare of the men employed. He may not be the most 
 competent man to manage a party caucus. But, by 
 applying God's measure, he can tell as well as any other 
 man whether political actions are right or wrong, and 
 therefore beneficial or injurious to the community. 
 
 Therefore, when they say to us, "keep to what you 
 understand, and do not meddle with politics," we may 
 reply that we have equal advantages even with politici- 
 ans, for understanding ethical questions in trade and 
 politics, and social questions in trade and jjolitics. 
 
 Ministers of the Gospel are inclined to take high 
 moral ground on every question, and simply because 
 they do so, other things being equal, their judgements 
 
13 
 
 will be sounder and safer than the judgments of those who 
 follow what is called practical, prudential policy. I have 
 no hesitation in saying that a strojig moral sense in a man 
 helps wonderfully to make his insight deeper, truer, 
 more far reaching than that of the man governed by the 
 idea of policy only. If God rules — then righteousness 
 and policy must be identical. A strong moral sense 
 developed by ^^he Gospel said,-''slavery is wrong ; it must 
 be abolished." The money interest fought against its 
 abolition, and policy argued against its abolition. But 
 the moral sense was right in its insight and won the 
 victory. So will it be for us in every case if we but 
 faithfully and fearlessly preach God's truth. 
 
 I will take an illustration from a cause that has 
 recently received, in appearance at least, a strong back-set 
 — the cause of Prohibition. The clear moral judgment 
 says the liquor traffic is wrong, pernicious and ought to 
 be abolished. The practical politician sneers at this as 
 an extreme view. I take pleasure in recording my con- 
 fidence here that it will come, atid that sometime Prohi- 
 bition will be the cry of policy. 
 
 Let ministers, therefore, aim to be thoughtful, firm, 
 decided moral leaders in all those movements that 
 alTect the social and spiritual welfare of their fellow men. 
 And if some man nuzzling in the mire of party politics, 
 and absorbed in its low aims and intrigues, forgetful of 
 the light of heaven and the God that rules over all. turns 
 up his earth-attracted eye and says, "What do you know 
 about politics?" Answer, "from my position it is 
 possible for me to know even better than you do what 
 courses of politics tend to righteousness, honour, and the 
 country's weal." 
 
14 
 
 4. Preachers should N(»t keei* aloof from poli- 
 tics WHEN ANY question AFFECTING THE FREE INSTITU- 
 TIONS OP THE LAND ARE BEING DISCUSSED, BECAUSE IT 
 WAS THE PREACHING OF THE GOSPEL THAT MADE FREE 
 INSTITUTIONS POSSIBLE, AND ONLY IN THE SPIRIT OF THE 
 GOSPEL CAN TllEY BE MAINTAINED. 
 
 The iniiuence of preacliinii: in a nation's history is 
 not easily traced. But the inthience has been at the 
 very heart of the history of all modern free nations. 
 Kings and warriors, battles and political intrigues figure 
 largely in the historic page. But the mighty influences 
 moulding the national life cannot be chronicled as startl- 
 ing facts. 
 
 Yet there is enough on the surface to establish the 
 proposition I have laid down. 
 
 Trace the origin and development of national liberty 
 in Germany, and you find in its very life blood the 
 preaching of Luther; in Switzerland that of Zwingle 
 and Calvinj in England the preaching of Tyndall^ 
 of Craumer, of Ridley and Latimer and the Puritans; 
 in Scotland the preaching of John Knox and his associ- 
 ates and their thousands of successors ; in the United 
 States in their struggle for liberty, the preaching of 
 Witherspoon, the Mathers, Davies, Stanhope, Smith, &c. 
 So great was the influence that Horace Walpole, writing 
 of the revolution said : " There is no good crying about 
 the matter, Cousin America had run aw^ay with a Pres- 
 byterian parson and that was the end of it." 
 
 Let any one but thoughtfully trace the influence of 
 the Protestant Gospel and Protestant preacher in obtain- 
 ing and establishing the liberties of modern free nations, 
 and the sneer against preachers meddling in politics will 
 
16 
 
 be changed into profound respect for what preachers 
 have done in developing, defending and sanctifying the 
 free political institutions that are the boast of our Chris- 
 tian lands. Not too much, but too little, has the Pro- 
 testant pulpit been used of late for the declaration of 
 those principles of righteousness and liberty Avithout 
 which a nation can neither be exalted nor free. 
 
 Protestant ministers do not desire to be Popes in 
 politics. They do not desire, like the ecclesiastics of 
 Rome, control in political affairs. Nor do they consider 
 it in accord with their sacred duty to play the part of 
 the vociferous demagocrue. But as a class of citizens, 
 thoughtful, educated, imbued with the spirit of Gospel 
 liberty, as men of high moral inspiration and purpose, as 
 patriots, philnnthropists, as responsible moral leaders in 
 the comnmnity it is their right and their duty to speak 
 out calmly, yet fearlessly concerning every question that 
 affects the rights, the liberties, the virtue and the 
 happiness of the community in which God has cast their 
 lot.