THE CHURCH AND POLITICS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 450, 27 February 1909, Page 2

THE CHURCH AND POLITICS.

The editor of the Methodist Recorder has recently written in condemnatory terms concerning an a‘tempt to laitch the Wesleyan Methodist Church upon a political campaign. He insists that it is essential for the peace and prosperity of the Church that the “ honourable understanding ” to exclude party politics from its meetings and pulpits should be strictly observed. More recently be has published, in response to an appeal to his readers, the opinions of a number of men representing various shades of political thought, and these very strongly deprecate the attempted intrusion of partisan politics into Church life and work. One writer, himself an active political worker and president of a liberal association, says:—Eet us as a Church leave politics alone' Eet us mind our own business, and devote our time and energies to increasing our number and strengthening our Cause. Eet us stick to the grand principles on which our Church was founded, and we shall find that the triumphs of the future will far exceed the records of the past.” The I*ord Mayor of York says s—“ The position is getting so acute that soon —yes, and very soon, 100, unless there is an alteration in Methodism—there will only be room for members of one political party.” Sir R. Perks, M.P., speaks out in language not to be misunderstood on the question. He writes as follows:—“In response to your enquiry, I beg to say, without any hesitation, that I will be no parly to launching the Methodht Chuicli, or any other Nonconformist Church, into a campaign against the House of Dords. The task of adjusting the relations of the hereditary and non-representative House of Eords, and the popularly-elected House of Commons, so as to secure the due fulfilment of the decisions of the nation, is a constitutional problem of the greatest delicacy. I do not think that the solution of the difficulty will be rendered any easier by transferring the discussion from the political platform to the pulpits of Methodism, or the columns of our religious Press. For more than twenty-five years I have taken an active part in political controversy, and I frankly say that I think it would be a tactical blunder of the first magnitude for the liberal party to seek or accept the guidance - of the Nonconformist clergy on this issue. If the Tory Party choose to be dragged at the apron strings of their clergy, that is their concern. Don’t let us follow their example. I am as bitterly disappointed as anyone at the failure of Mr Ruuciman’s Education Bill and the rejection in so summary a fashion of the licensing Bill; but personally I think that the President of the Conference made a serious error in addressing his Presidental protest to Eord Eansdowne. The precedent so set may have very awkward consequences. What would be said of a Tory President (we have had such before and may have them again) who decided on his own responsibility, without any consultation with the Committees appointed by the Conference to act in such matters, to address a threatening

political letter to the leader of the Liberal Party, telling him that Methodism would never forget or forgive his conduct ? Fancy, for example, the uproar in the following Conference had the late Dr Osborn sent such a missive to Mr Gladstone!”