PARSONS AND POLITICS.

(To the Editor of the Bathurst Free Press.)

Sir, — For some time it has been the contention of a great number of people in the community that it is not one of the functions of a minister of religion to take any active part in politics — or to discuss (even without any display of partizanship) questions of a social or political character from the pulpit. Those who enquire fully into the flimsy arguments on which such a contention is based must speedily see its utter absurdity demonstrated. The great bulk of the people are just what their own environment makes them — if the laws that are in operation are unfair and unjust, and if the conditions brought about by the operation of such laws are oppressive and bad, how on earth can such people be expected to make good and reputable citizens. To have equitable laws, we must have fair and honorable men to frame them; to admit of the election of such a class of men, those who exercise the franchise should possess a knowledge of political questions ; — and who so well able, removed as he is from the arena of party politics, to educate the people in this direction as the often much-abused " parson ?" It is most assuredly one of his functions and one of his privileges to do this — and he should not shirk his duty out of fear, or neglect it because it has been asserted that it is not one which really devolves upon him. Why is it that there is such a feeling of indifference regarding the Churches in the hearts of millions of people scattered over the face of the globe to-day— why is it that a beggarly array of empty benches discourages the preacher as he steps into his pulpit Sunday after Sunday — why is that there is such a considerable falling off, as compared with former years, in the enthusiasm and monetary support accorded to all sectarian movements? Why — simply because there is an impression abroad — an impression which is shared by many heretofore ardent workers — that the churches are not doing those things which they might do to improve the condition of the masses and to alleviate the misery and remove the degradation which are the outcome of unjust and iniquitous laws and systems. Morrison Davidson asserts that the reason why Christianity had not become the inner organising-power of the State is because the clergy of all denominations "do not in the least understand the precepts of the religion they profess, — for, with the rarest exceptions, they have become mere legalists, with minds impervious to the Spirit of Truth that was to have guided them to all Truth " — and there are not wanting many who have been seized with the self-same idea. During the course of an address delivered a couple of years ago, Rev. Dr. Roseby spoke as follows :—

The Christianity that answers to Christ's own ideal is not a religion of the cloister or of the school. It is not a Christianity that deals in phrases and definitions, that is skilled in split ting theological hairs, and in anathematizing those who cannot. It is a Christianity which judges the fatherless and pleads for the widow, which lets the halo of its saintship shine into the cellar of the sweater and the garret of the seamstress, etc.

And until we have such a Christianity not only preached, but practised, the churches must go along on their downward march. Keir Hardie certainly spoke with the approval, not only of the workers but of the people generally, when he recently said, "Make the application of Christianity to present life a reality, and none will support it with more zeal than the workers." There is a great social question to solve, and Christendom may play a mighty part in effecting it. It will not be solved by the mere preaching of dogmatic sermons, but by the churches, one and all, throwing in their weight with the Right, and, without fear of the consequences, fighting, in and out of season, to literally wipe out of existence everything that savors of injustice and oppression, every party which aims at perpetuating the degrading conditions which exist and and are fostered by designing peoples throughout the world to-day.

 He's true to God who's true to man ; wherever
wrong is done,
To the humblest and the weakest, 'neath the all
beholding sun.
That wrong is also done to us ; and they are slaves
most base
Whose love of right is for themselves, and not for
all the race.

Yours, etc., J. CHAS. FITZPATRICK, Windsor.

Bathurst Free Press and Mining Journal (NSW ),  1893,http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article62181053