| Show The Church and Political Evils The duty of the churches in reference to the ballot has been discussed recently in religious publications This has been specially so in regard to corruption at the ballot box The fact cannot be denied tht a great deal more money is used at elections than is needed for necessary expenses ex-penses The purchase of venal voters is charged against both the great political parties Candidates may not be directly rcsponslbla for this They contribute liberally lib-erally very often to campaign funds and do not trouble to inquire how It is spent Each party incites the other to increased expenditure and corruption in one promotes pro-motes corruption in the other on the questionable policy of fighting the devil with fire What have the churches to do with all that This much The churches can set their face against ail kinds of evil and should use their great influence to putdown put-down any prevailing wrong Political corruption is one prominent sin political falsehood and trickery fs another Tho churches cast do two things in this direction direc-tion They can proclaim against tho iniquity and can discipline those of their members who are known to engage in it The law is so lame and halting in its pursuance of political transgressors that it is able to effect but little in the purification purifica-tion of the political system And because the law is so lax people get to look upon political chicanery and fraud as something that is not essentially criminal while many go oo far as to consider it perfectly justifiable justi-fiable Get there is the code of I the professional politician and anything any-thing to beat the enemy his motto The church therefore as tho exponent of truth and the champion of right ought to take up tho matter and make plain the wrong and evil of political corruption It is true that men who practically engage en-gage in the giving and taking of bribes and In the trickery and dishonesty of electioneering election-eering tricks are not usually of the class who have the fear of GOD before their eyes They are perhaps chiefly beyond the power of preaching and outside the influence of religious circles But there are church members who wink at tho sins and condone the iniquities of the godles class and some who are participators in the wrong by the furnishing of funds for its perpetration Tbese ought to ho treated as though guilty of gross transgressions The churches can proclaim in unmistakable unmistak-able tones the evil to society and the eternal consequences of corruption and fraud in politics as well as of other forms of unrighteousness and can thus do much to bring about needed reforms They can make such evils disgraceful When church members are known to be guilty of them they can do more than frown they can bring them to trial and condemnation Political lying is no moro justifiable than ordinary common vulgar lying It must he as culpable in the sight of Deity and ought to be so in the view of the church Crookedness aud double dealing duplicity and deceit no matter by whom practiced or under what pretext committed are as vile in politics as In other affairs of life and ought to be so considered and understood under-stood by respectable people and certainly by all religious people The defamation of personal character which seems to be a permitted method in politics of reaching a desired end is another of the evils that the churches can denounce and help to put down It is despicable at any time and under any circumstances I Libel shnuld be no more permitted in politics poli-tics than in every day affairs The character char-acter and reputation of all men ought to be guarded against the slanderer no matter How prominently they may figure before the public Of course if a man is really vulnerable and chooses to risk exposure ha throws himself open to attack But even then tho tendency to ventilate scandal and cast up mire and dirt ought to be discountenanced discoun-tenanced |
