sight and confession of evil we are again helped out of the evil into good. This is the sum and substance of personal religion. This is the "life hid with Christ in God." It is the steady purpose of doing what we can in the direction of duty, and the steady trust in God for power with which to do it. Either of the two, alone, is not enough. But joined together they are sufficient to lift us above the danger of lost opportunities. XXVIII. THE ETHICS OF THE BALLOT-BOX. "And they prayed, and said, Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, show whether of these two thou hast chosen. And they gave forth their lots, and the lot fell on Matthias.” Tap have in Christendom. HIS proceeding, recorded in the Book of Acts, was probably the first example of voting we Some persons think that this was not voting, but drawing a name from an urn. But in that case it would not have been said that "they gave forth their lots," for only one person could have drawn a single name from an urn. It is, therefore, the opinion of Mosheim and others that voting is here meant. If so, voting was considered, in this first instance, as a matter of conscience and religion. They wished to choose a man whose heart God would approve; they wished to elect a good man, and they prayed to God to enable them to do so. It is a duty to put religion into politics, and conscience into the ballot. The church and pulpit should abstain from party politics; but all the more should it lay down the principles by which voting ought to be directed. "What rules should an honest man adopt in voting?" is a question very proper for the pulpit. And as we are now on the eve of an election, I propose to consider this question. I have little to say of particular parties or of particular persons. But of parties in general I must say a word. In most free countries there are two great parties constantly contending for power, and most persons, in order to make their vote effectual, must select one or the other. When it is quite certain that one or the other of two parties must win, and the election is by a plurality, it is evident that I might almost as well stay at home as vote for a third party or third candidate. If, indeed, I think that the most important issue is represented by this third party or its candidate, then it may be my duty to vote for it, year after year, without any expectation of immediate victory, but in the hope of seeing the small party gradually becoming larger, and at last successful. Thus, for example, I voted, from 1840 to 1860, first for the Liberty party, then for the Free Soil party, and then for the Republican party, voting in the minority for twenty years, in that "friendless contest, lingering long, Through weary day and weary year,” till victory, born of endurance, came to us in 1860 in the election of Abraham Lincoln. |