Page:The Moral and Religious Bearings of the Corn Law.djvu/6

6 interested in the present subject. Believing as I do, sincerely, that the corn law produces more poverty than all other causes put together, excepting, perhaps, drunkenness, how can I evince my charity to the poor, if I do not, in every possible way, seek its utter extinction? Surely, if I feel it a duty to contribute of my property to keep others from starving, it is my duty to endeavour to destroy laws which make them starve; and if I should not think the sanctuary or the sabbath desecrated by the advocacy of a temporal charity, I cannot suppose that their sanctity is violated by an attempt to promote the abolition of the Corn Law. "Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath-day, or to do evil?" The subject may be political, but what of that? Because men have chosen to make bad laws upon various subjects, are they thus placed beyond the lawful province of the minister of Christ? Have no political subjects a moral and religious bearing? May not moral and religious principles be applied to them? May not moral and religious interests be affected by them? I am happy to be unable to point out any religious class from whom this objection can come consistently. Not from the Church of England; for its condition and character as an Establishment involves the most direct and perfect union of religion and politics that ingenuity can invent, or power and authority bring to pass. Not from our Wesleyan brethren; for it is not long since their ministers generally thought it right to condemn from their pulpits a government bill of education. Not from the great mass of dissenting sects; for a few years ago slavery and apprenticeship formed the topics of ministerial discourse among them throughout the length and breadth of the land. If it be wrong to discuss political questions in the pulpit, "let him that is without sin cast the first stone."

I propose to confine myself to the moral and religious bearings of the Corn Law, because these are most appropriate to the present occasion and place, and because they are the most important.