Excerpt from Oration, Delivered on the Fifth of July, 1847: Before the Native Americans of Cincinnati Our clergymen are far from desiring to handle the weapons of partizan warfare; it would justly tarnish their fame, and ultimately ruin their influence. But that public sentiment which would exclude from the pulpit, or forbid a minister otherwise to discuss, the moral and religious bearings of our political action, is working incalculable injury to all con cerned. It serves to banish the word of God as a rule of conduct in politics; and public sentiment is corrupted by imperfect standards of morality. It dissociates the pulpit from the actual life of society; prevents it from vigorously seizing upon and moulding the forms of this present; serves to ren der its teachings barren and dull; tends to contract the intel lect of the preacher; to dwarf him to a pigmy, or shape him into a bigot with one idea; to cause the minister and his peo ple to dwell in separate worlds; - so that his discourses, touching none of the events which most excite and control the public mind, fall upon the ear as if composed in an un known tongue. Let a minister confine himself in his preaching to the truths of the gospel, but with these truths let him fearlessly sweep the whole field of human action. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.