Many preachers in the past have been strong factors in the march of civilization, but courageous preachers have always been scarce. As a rule, they have been more conservators of the past than moulders of the future, clinging with grim tenacity to the traditions and teachings of the early fathers.
Among the Church of England preachers in Virginia, while nearly all opposed separation from the mother country, there were few so militant as the famous John Peter Muhlenberg, who, from his pulpit at Woodstock, Virginia, declared: "There is a time for all things, a time to preach and a time to pray, but there is also a time to fight, and that time has now come," and suiting the action to the word, threw off his gown, disclosing a uniform beneath, and followed by three hundred men of his congregation, marched to join Washington's forces.
In Colonial times in New England, the pulpit occupied a more general sphere and exerted more general influence than to-day. Ministers preached that the Hebrew Commonwealth was the model for the new Republic, and so strenuously that as an effect our government assumed that form which prevailed among the Hebrews under the judges and had the divine sanction.
In the agitation of the slave question, as a class, the preachers were mostly silent. Had they roused themselves to the defence of right, they could have created a public sentiment towards the inhuman and shameless traffic which would have destroyed slavery without the necessity of a civil war in which tens of thousands of lives were sacrificed and millions of money were lost.
Theodore Parker, Bishop Simpson, Albert Barnes, E. H. Chapin, Rabbis Sabato Morais and David Einhorn, and above all, Henry Ward Beecher, constituted the few conspicuous examples of the preachers who came out strongly for abolition, but the stand these great men took was effective, and once the die was cast, practically all the preachers became leaders in the movement for emancipation.
The attitude of Lincoln on slavery was not determined by churchmen. Lincoln made a wide distinction between churchmen and Christians. Christianity is unselfish service born of love; churchianity is often a form without a God, a wearing of religion as a cloak and not as an armor,—it never obeys a command unless it is too feeble to resist, and in many cases, is a perfidy and treason against the law of Christ.
In Springfield, when Lincoln found that twenty of the twenty-three ministers of the different denominations and the majority of the members of the principal churches were arrayed against him in his Presidential campaign, he drew forth from his pocket a New Testament, saying to some friends present: "I have carefully read the Bible and I do not so understand this book. These men well know that I am for freedom in the territories, freedom everywhere, as free as the Constitution and laws will permit, and that my opponents are for slavery. They know this and yet, with this book in their hands, in the light of which human bondage cannot live a moment, they are going to vote against me. I know that Liberty is right, for Christ teaches it and Christ is God. I shall be vindicated and these men will find that they have not read their Bible aright."
Despite the great abolition preachers and those who followed their example, some of the churches in Lincoln's time made a choice of public favor and sided with slavery, though, as has been stated, the majority of the ministers were strongly moved to follow in the lead of their distinguished brethren who had unfurled the flag of freedom, yet withal the church did not exert sufficient force to make herself a power in determining the issue. At this time the opportunity was afforded her of moulding public sentiment, and it may be readily inferred that had she possessed the solid Christianity of Abraham Lincoln the terrible war could have been averted and the country kept from being plunged in blood and gloom, but in this, the greatest of all crises, the church failed to do her duty as she should have done, and as a result, the bloodiest war of history devastated and almost desolated the land. Of course, once the war was declared the church stood solidly behind the President, but she had no other alternative compatible with reason and common sense, not to speak of patriotism. At length the preachers recognized the manner of man the country had in its great leader, and so they looked to him for counsel and for guidance. Lincoln was practically demonstrating that his religion was as good as theirs, and they, in turn, were now trying to make their religion as good as Lincoln's.
All along the Christianity of Lincoln had the true ring in it. It was of that type beautifully described in these lines:
"Creeds and confessions, high church or the low
I cannot say; but you would vastly please us
If some pointed scripture you would show
To which of these belonged the Saviour, Jesus.
I think to all or none. Not curious creeds,
Or ordered forms of church rule He taught,
But love of soul that blossomed into deeds
With human good and human blessings fraught.
On me nor priest nor presbyter nor pope,
Bishop nor dean may stamp a party name,
But Jesus with His largely human scope
The service of my human life may claim;
Let prideful priests do battle about creeds—
The church is mine that does most charitable deeds."