RELIGION AND POLITICS.

Observer, Volume XXIX, Issue 11, 28 November 1908, Page 3

RELIGION AND POLITICS.

An Unpalatable Mixture

TPHE pastor and congregation £ of tbe Baptist Tabernacle on Sunday last passed a reso* lution recording their gratitude to God for the success of Nolicense at tbe polls on tbe 17th inst. One may be permitted, humbly and without irreverence, to express a hope that these people do not want, to hold the Almighty responsible for all the statistics and all the logic employed by them during the campaign. Apart from that, however, is there not something grotesque in the performance of moving, seconding and carrying a "vote" expressing approval of what the Supreme Being has done? People are denounced for not going to church, but if tbe temples of religion are to be turned into political meeting-houses by those officially charged to keep them pure, then simple people, who try to be good for the sake of being good, had better keep awaj

Public opinion is fast crystallising into strong disapproval of the existing practice of mixing the graver political issues of the country with the No-license question. It is becoming more and more evident that men are selected for Parliamentary honours not to aid in conserving and enlarging the rights and privileges of free men, but for the purpose of what is called " moral reform " People do not like to say much, because of the ready aptitude of the " reformers" for casting obloquy, but there is an undoubtedly growing disposition to acknowledge tbat men are not to be made sober or moral by act of Parliament, and that even if they could be so made, it is not the function of Parliament so to make them.

And the reason is plain enough. To make men moral, some standard — or, rather, some special conception of a standard — must be assumed. Both standard and special interpretation may be superlatively excellent, but to make the observance of such standard obligatory means bringing us back to the old, old tyranny which has dominated every country in the civilised world at sometime or another, and which most of us hope has been finally abolished in the lands over which the Union Jack floats. There is no use in mincing matters ; the principle which informs the policy of the social "reformers" in this country is just the old, old principle of persecution, and it is necessary, in the interests of good government and pure religion, to purge both of the noxious influence.

If the Church and its concomitant moral agencies are powerless to make men clean, it is surely hopeless to expect that the police and the magistracy can effect the purpose. The civil law cannot even make men honest. It can punish them when their dishonesty is proved — sometimes — and to that extent it acts as a deterrent. To the same extent, and no more, the law may make men sober, But an achievement of that character must assuredly fall short of the religious ideal. If men are made sober by compulsion, without undergoing moral regeneration, it seems a little — well, incongruous, to carry resolutions on the subject in a church. The regulation of the liquor trade is one thing, and very properly it comes within the scope of Parliamentary legislation, but the mixing up of politics and spiritual affairs is not only ineffective in itseif, but it tends to make religion ineffective in its own distinct and special sphere. The action of the Tabernacle congregation is tantamount to thanking Providence for that which they could not trust Providence to do without the aid of the ballot box. If this system be the right one, what is to prevent the question of compuhory churchgoing from being put to the vote ? Surely religion is something better than the performances of some people would imply !