On the Election of Christian Rulers
Introduction
Ezra Stiles Ely (1786-1861) was born in Connecticut, graduated Yale, and was licensed to preach by the age of 18 in the Westchester parish as a Presbyterian minister. Later, he was preacher of the New York Almshouse before heading to Pine Street Church, Philadelphia. Ely was a confidant of Andrew Jackson—somehow involved in an advisory capacity in the Petticoat Affair—corresponded with Thomas Jefferson, among other important men, a proponent of the “Christian Party,” and founder of Marion College, Missouri before finishing his ministry back in Pennsylvania before passing at the age of 75.
Ely’s comparatively moderate, Scripture-laden vision for a Christian nation and pious citizen and ruler alike featured below should prove compelling to all well-meaning and reasonable Christians today. The excerpt below was taken from a sermon delivered on July 4, 1827, and later submitted, in the form below, to the Pennsylvania legislature after it had refused to grant an act of incorporation to the American Sunday School Union.
Sermon
Psalm 2:10-12:
“Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way; when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are they that put their trust in him.”
This Psalm represents the Lord Jesus Christ as the rightful sovereign of all lands. The nations may rage, and the people imagine vain things; the kings and other rulers of the earth may take counsel and perseveringly oppose the Lord and his anointed, saying, “Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us,” for we neither feel, nor will regard, the obligation imposed by Christianity; but it is all fruitless rebellion, for “he that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.” He will exercise his government over them, with, or without their consent; and if they are refractory, “then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my son: this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give the heathen,” i.e. all the nations, “for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for a possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces, like a potter’s vessel.”
On this exhibition of Messiah’s reign over all the inhabitants of the earth, whether Jews or Gentiles, the exhortation and benediction of our text are founded. Let all princes, kings, judges, and rulers of every description, says the Psalmist, be exhorted to be wise for themselves and their people; let them learn true wisdom; and act in conformity with their duty and privilege in serving the Lord with filial fear and r3everential joy. Let them render to the Son of God, in their private character and public stations, that submission of heart, and homage of their lives, which he claims, “lest he be angry and they perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little.” The benediction follows: “Blessed are all they,” whether nations or individuals; whether public rulers or private citizens, “that put their trust in him;” who is the Savior of sinners and the Governor among the nations.
Yes, “happy is that people that is in such a case: yea, happy is that people whose God is the Lord.”
We have assembled, fellow citizens, on the anniversary of our Nation’s birthday, in a rational and religious manner, to celebrate our independence of all foreign domination, and the goodness of God in making us a free and happy people. On what subject can I, on the present occasion, insist with more propriety, than on the duty of all the rulers and citizens of these United States in the exercise and enjoyment of all their political rights, to honor the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let it then be distinctly stated and fearlessly maintained in the first place, that every member of this Christian nation, from the highest to the lowest, ought to serve the Lord with fear, and yield his sincere homage to the Son of God. Every ruler should be an avowed and sincere friend of Christianity he should know and believe the doctrines of our holy religion, and act in conformity with its precepts. This he ought to do; because as a man he is required to serve the Lord; and as a public ruler he is called upon by divine authority to “kiss the Son.” The commandment contained in Proverbs 3:6, “in all thy ways acknowledge him,” includes public as well as private ways, and political no less than domestic ways. It is addressed equally to the man who rules, and to the person who is subject to authority. If we may not disown our God and Savior in any situation, it will follow that we are to own him in every situation. Infinite wisdom has taught us, that he who ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God. No Christian can gainsay this decision. Let all then admit, that our civil rulers ought to act a religious part in all the relations which they sustain. Indeed, they ought preeminently to commit their way unto the Lord that he may direct their steps; delight themselves in him, and wait patiently for him; because by their example, if good, they can do more good than private, less known citizens; and if evil, more harm. Their official station is a talent entrusted to them for usefulness, for which they must give account to their Maker. They are like a city set on a hill, which cannot be hid; and it is a fact indisputable, that wickedness in high places does more harm than in obscurity.
I would guard, however, against misunderstanding and misrepresentation, when I state, that all our rulers ought in their official stations to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. I do not wish any religious test to be prescribed by constitution and proposed to a man on his acceptance of any public trust.
I do not wish any religious test to be prescribed by constitution and proposed to a man on his acceptance of any public trust. Neither can any intelligent friend of his country and of true religion desire the establishment of any one religious sect by civil law. Let the religion of the Bible rest on that everlasting rock, and on those spiritual laws, on which Jehovah has founded his kingdom: let Christianity by the spirit of Christ in her members support herself: let Church and State be forever distinct: but, still, let the doctrines and precepts of Christ govern all men, in all their relations and employments . ruler is not Christian he ought to be one, in this land of evangelical light, without delay; and he ought, being a follower of Jesus, to honor him even as he honors the Father. In this land of religious freedom, what should hinder a civil magistrate from believing the gospel, and professing faith in Christ, any more than any other man? If the Chief Magistrate of a nation may be an irreligious man, with impunity, who may not? It seems to be generally granted, that our political leaders in the national and state governments ought not to be notoriously profane, drunken, abandoned men in their moral conduct; but if they may not be injurious to themselves and their fellow men, who shall give them permission to contemn God? If they ought to be just towards men, ought they not also to abstain from robbing God, and to render unto him that honor which is His due? Our rulers, like any other members of the community , who are under law to God as rational beings, and under law to Christ , since they have the light of divine revelation , ought to search the scriptures, assent to the truth, profess faith in Christ, keep the Sabbath holy to God , pray in private and in the domestic circle, attend on the public ministry of the word, be baptized, and celebrate the Lord’s supper.
None of our rulers have the consent of their Maker, that they should be Pagans, Socinians, Mussulmen, Deists, the opponents of Christianity; and a religious people should never think of giving them permission, as public officers, to be and do, what they might not lawfully be and do, as private individuals. If a man may not be a gambler and drink to intoxication in the western wilds, he may not at the seat of government ; if he may not with the approbation of his fellow citizens, in a little village of the north, deny ” the true God and eternal life,” he may not countenance, abet, and support those who deny the Deity of our Lord Jesus Christ at Washington. In other words, our Presidents, Secretaries of the Government, Senators and other Representatives in Congress, Governors of States, Judges, State Legislators, Justices of the Peace, and City Magistrates, are just as much bound as any other persons in the United States, to be orthodox in their faith, and virtuous and religious in their whole deportment. They may no more lawfully be bad husbands, wicked parents, men of heretical opinions, or men of dissolute lives, than the obscure individual who would be sent to Bridewell for his blasphemy or debauchery. God, my hearers, requires a Christian faith, a Christian profession, and a Christian practice of all our public men; and we as Christian citizens ought, by the publication of our opinions, to require the same.
Secondly, since it is the duty of all our rulers to serve the Lord and kiss the Son of God, it must be most manifestly the duty of all our Christian fellow citizens to honor the Lord Jesus Christ and promote Christianity by electing and supporting as public officers the friends of our blessed Savior.
Let it only be granted, that Christians have the same rights and privileges in exercising the elective franchise, which are here accorded to Jews and Infidels, and we ask no other evidence to show, that those who prefer a Christian ruler, may unite in supporting him, in preference to any one of a different character. It shall cheerfully be granted, that every citizen is eligible to every office, whatever may be his religious opinions and moral character; and that every one may constitutionally support any person whom he may choose; but it will not hence follow, that he is without accountability to his Divine Master for his choice; or that he may lay aside all his Christian principles and feelings when he selects his ticket and presents it at the polls .” In all thy ways acknowledge him,” is a maxim which should dwell in a Christian’s mind on the day of a public election as much as on the Sabbath; and which should govern him when conspiring with others to honor Christ, either at the Lord’s table, or in the election of a Chief Magistrate.
In elucidating the duty of private Christians in relation to the choice of their civil rulers, it seems to me necessary to remark,
1. That every Christian who has the right and the opportunity of exercising the elective franchise ought to do it.
Many pious people feel so much disgust at the manner in which elections are conducted, from the first nomination to the closing of the polls, that they relinquish their right of voting for years together. But if all pious people were to conduct thus, then our rulers would be wholly elected by the impious . If all good men are to absent themselves from elections, then the bad will have the entire transaction of our public business. If the wise, the prudent, the temperate, the friends of God and of their country do not endeavor to control our elections, they will be controlled by others: and if one good man may, without any reasonable excuse, absent himself, then all may.
Fellow Christians, the love of Christ and of our fellow – men should forbid us to yield the choice of our civil rulers into the hands of selfish office hunters, and the miserable tools of their party politics. If all the truly religious men of our nation would be punctual and persevering in their endeavors to have good men chosen to fill all our national and state offices of honor , power and trust, their weight would soon be felt by politicians; and those who care little for the religion of the Bible, would, for their own interest , consult the reasonable wishes of the great mass of Christians throughout our land. If any good men in the community ought to abstain from the exercise of their rights in relation to the choice of civil rulers, they are those clergymen whose hearers are unhappily divided by the bitterness of party spirit. If it would prevent their usefulness as ministers of the gospel to show that they have any judgment and choice about public concerns, they may, doubtless, from expediency, refrain from voting for anyone but none have a right to disfranchise them, (as the state of New York has done) for fearing God and working righteousness. It is a pleasure to be able to say , however , that the people of my pastoral care never interfered with my personal rights as a citizen and a Christian ; and in most instances I am persuaded , that even a divided congregation will be perfectly willing that their pastor shall vote as he thinks best , if he will do it without becoming a preacher of party politics.
Some connect the idea of giving a vote, with the electioneering tricks which are too commonly the disgrace of a free people, but there is no necessary connection between voting and the suborning of votes. Let all the good set a worthy example in this matter, and discountenance those who would purchase to themselves places, by promises, lies, strong drink, and noisy declamation at taverns, grog shops and the polls, and these abominations , which have become too common in our land , will in a great measure cease. I could wish to see every professing Christian in attendance on elections; but rather let him never give a vote, than receive a treat for his suffrage. I propose, fellow citizens, a new sort of union, or, if you please, a Christian party in politics, which I am exceedingly desirous all good men in our country should join: not by subscribing a constitution and the formation of a new society, to be added to the scores which now exist; but by adopting, avowing, and determining to act upon, truly religious principles in all civil matters. I am aware that the true Christians of our country are divided into many different denominations; who have, alas! too many points of jealousy and collision; still, a union to a very great extent, and for the most valuable purposes is not impracticable.
For, 2. All Christians, of all denominations, may, and ought to, agree in determining, that they will never wittingly support for any public office, any person whom they know or believe to sustain, at the time of his proposed election, a bad moral character.
In this, thousands of moralists, who pro- fess no experimental acquaintance with Christianity, might unite and cooperate with our Christian party. And surely, it is not impossible, nor unreasonable for all classes of Christians to say within themselves, no man that we have reason to think is a liar, thief, gambler, murderer, debauchee, spendthrift, or openly immoral person in any way, shall have our support at any election.
Reformation should not only be allowed, but encouraged; for it would be requiring too much to insist upon it, that a candidate for office shall always have sustained an unblemished moral character, and it would be unchristian not to forgive and support one who has proved his repentance by recantation and a considerable course of new obedience. Some of the best of men were once vile; but they have been washed from their sins. Present good moral character should be considered as essential to every candidate for the post of honor. In this affair I know we are very much dependent on testimony , and that we may be deceived ; especially in those controverted elections in which all manner of falsehoods are invented and vended , wholesale and retail , against some of the most distinguished men of our country : but after all , we must exercise our candor and best discretion , as we do in other matters of belief . We must weigh evidence, and depend most on those who appear the most competent and credible witnesses. It will be natural for us to believe a man’s neighbors and acquaintances in preference to strangers. When we have employed the lights afforded us for the illumination of our minds, we shall feel peace of conscience, if we withhold our vote from everyone whom we believe to be an immoral man. Come then, fellow Christians, and friends of good morals in society, let us determine thus far to unite; for thus far we may, and ought to, and shall unite, if we duly weigh the importance of a good moral character in a ruler . Let no love of the integrity of a party prevent you from striking out the name of every dishonest and base man from your ticket. You have a right to choose, and you glory in your freedom: make then your own election: and when all good
men act on this principle it will not be a vain thing. Candidates then, must be moral men, or seem to be, or they will not secure an election. Moral character has now some influence in our elections, but not that place which it deserves . The law of public opinion excludes confirmed sots, and persons judicially convicted of high crimes and misdemeanors against the State; but it ought to render the election of all profane swearers, notorious Sabbath breakers, seducers, slanderers, prodigals and riotous persons, as well as the advocates of dueling, impracticable. I humbly entreat, that all who reverence the Lord’s day, will abstain from supporting by their suffrages the open violaters of the fourth commandment; that no sober man would vote for a tippler; that no lover of domestic purity would vote for one whom he knows to be lewd; and that no lover of order would support the profligate. Is this asking too much from the friends of good morals ? Are the openly wicked fit to rule a moral and religious people?
Cannot drunkenness, gambling, debauchery, and habitual contempt for the Sabbath, be banished, by the suffrages of a moral people, from our halls of legislation and benches of justice? ” When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.” “If a ruler hearkens to lies, all his servants are wicked.” All who profess to be Christians of any denomination ought to agree that they will support no man as a candidate for any office, who is not professedly friendly to Christianity, and a believer in divine Revelation. We do not say that true or even pretended Christianity shall be made a constitutional test of admission to office; but we do affirm that Christians may in their elections lawfully prefer the avowed friends of the Christian religion to Turks, Jews, and Infidels. Turks, indeed, might naturally prefer Turks, if they could elect them; and Infidels might prefer Infidels; and I should not wonder if a conscientious Jew should prefer a ruler of his own religious faith; but it would be passing strange if a Christian should not desire the election of one friendly to his own system of religion.
While every religious system is tolerated in our country, and no one is established by law, it is still possible for me to think, that the friend of Christianity will make a much better governor of this common- wealth or President of the United States, than the advocate of Theism or Polytheism. We will not pretend to search the heart ; but surely all sects of Christians may agree in opinion , that it is more desirable to have a Christian than a Jew , Mohammedan , or Pagan , in any civil office ; and they may accordingly settle it in their minds , that they will never vote for anyone to fill any office in the nation or state , who does not profess to receive the Bible as the rule of his faith . If three or four of the most numerous denominations of Christians in the United States, the Presbyterians, the Baptists, the Methodists and Congregationalists for instance, should act upon this principle, our country would never be dishonored with an avowed infidel in her national cabinet or capitol. The Presbyterians alone could bring half a million of electors into the field, in opposition to any known advocate of Deism, Socinianism, or any species of avowed hostility to the truth of Christianity.
If to the denominations above named we add the members of the Protestant Episcopal church in our country, the electors of these five classes of true Christians, united in the sole requisition of apparent friendship to Christianity in every candidate for office whom they will support, could govern every public election in our country, without infringing in the least upon the charter of our civil liberties. To these might be added, in this State and in Ohio, the numerous German Christians, and in New York and New Jersey the members of the Re- formed Dutch Church, who are all zealous for the funda- mental truths of Christianity. What should prevent us from co – operating in such a union as this ? Let a man be of good moral character, and let him profess to believe in and advocate the Christian religion, and we can all support him. At one time he will be a Baptist, at another an Episcopalian, at another a Methodist, at another a Presbyterian of the American, Scotch, Irish, Dutch, or German stamp, and always a friend to our common Christianity. Why then should we ever suffer an enemy, an open and known enemy of the true religion of Christ, to enact our laws or fill the executive chair? Our Christian rulers will not oppress Jews or Infidels; they will kiss the Son and serve the Lord; while we have the best security for their fidelity to our republican, and I may say scriptural forms of government.
It deprives no man of his right for me to prefer a Christian to an Infidel. If Infidels were the most numerous electors, they would doubtless elect men of their own sentiments; and unhappily such men not unfrequently get into power in this country, in which ninety – nine hundredths of the people are believers in the divine origin and authority of the Chris- tian religion. If hundreds of thousands of our fellow citizens should agree with us in an effort to elect men to public office who read the Bible, profess to believe it, reverence the Sabbath, attend public worship, and sustain a good moral character, who could complain? Have we not as much liberty to be the supporters of the Christian cause by our votes, as others have to support anti-Christian men and measures? Let us awake, then, fellow Christians, to our sacred duty to our Divine Master; and let us have no rulers, with our consent and cooperation, who are not known to be avowedly Christians. It will here be objected, that frequently we must choose between two or more candidates who are in nomination, or must lose our votes; and that no one of the candidates may be of the right religious and moral character. I must answer, that every freeman is bound to give his voice in such a manner as he judges will best conduce to the public good; and that it is not usually beneficial to give a suffrage for one whose election is wholly out of the question. If no good man is in nomination he must choose the least of two natural evils, and support the better man to exclude the worse. But I pray you, who make, or should make, our nominations? Are they not the people who select their own candidates? And are not the majority of the people in profession Christians? The influence of the friends of Christ ought to be exerted, known, and felt in every stage of our popular elections. If we intend to have our civil and religious liberty continued to us, and to transmit our institutions unimpaired to posterity, we must not suffer immoral, unprincipled, and irreligious men to nominate themselves to office, and then tell us , that we must elect them or have no rulers . We have good men in abundance to fill all civil offices, from the highest to the lowest; and it is the fault of all
the numerous Christians of our country if such are not elected. It will be objected that my plan of a truly Christian party in politics will make hypocrites. We are not answerable for their hypocrisy if it does. There is no natural tendency in the scheme to make men deceivers; and if real enemies of the Christian religion conceal their enmity, that concealment is for the public good. We wish all iniquity, if not exterminated, may, as if ashamed, hide its head. It will be well for our country when all men who expect office are under the necessity of appearing honest, sober, pure, benevolent, and religious. It will be well for us when men cannot expect to retain, if they for a time occupy high places, by bribery, deception, coalition, and hypocrisy. It is most of all desirable that public officers should be good men, friends of God, followers of Jesus Christ, and lovers of their country; but it is a matter of thankfulness if they are constrained to seem such persons ; for in this way vice , and the propagation of vice by evil example , is prevented .
It will be objected, moreover, that my scheme of voting on political elections according to certain fixed religious principles, will create jealousies among the different denominations of Christians. But why should it? Our rulers which we have elected are of some, or of no religious sect. If they are of no religious denomination, they belong to the party of infidels. If they are of any one of the denominations of true Christians, it is better, in the judgment of all true Christians, that they should be of that one company than in the fellowship of infidels. Let a civil ruler, then, be a Christian of some sort, we will all say, rather than not a Christian of any denomination. If we fix this as a principle of our political morality, we shall all be gratified in turn, and in part, by having Christian rulers of our own description. I am free to avow , that other things being equal , I would prefer for my chief magistrate , and judge , and ruler , a sound Presbyterian ; and every candid religionist will make the same declaration concerning his own persuasion ; but I would prefer a religious and moral man , of any one of the truly Christian sects , to any man destitute of religious principle and morality.
Suffer, my Christian fellow citizens, a word of exhortation. Let us all be Christian politicians; and govern our- selves by supreme love to our blessed Master, whether we unite in prayers or in the election of our civil rulers. Let us be as conscientiously religious at the polls as in the pulpit, or house of worship. This course of conduct will promote good government and true religion in our country at the same time. Our public rulers then will prove a terror to them who do evil, and a praise to them who do well . Let us choose men who dare to be honest in their own religious creed, while they are too much of Christians and of republicans, to attempt to lord it over the faith of others. Let us never support by our votes any immoral man, or any known contemner of any of the fundamental doctrines of Christ, for any office: and least of all for the Presidency of these United States; for ” blessed are they who put their trust in Christ. ” The people who with their rulers kiss the Son, shall experience special divine protection, and be a praise in the whole earth. Let us elect men who dare to acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ for their Lord in their public documents. Which of our Presidents has ever done this? It would pick no infidel’s pocket, and break no Jew’s neck, if our President should be so singular as to let it be known, that he is a Christian by his Messages, and an advocate for the Deity of Christ by his personal preference of a Christian temple to a Socinian conventicle. It would be no violation of our national constitution, if our members of Congress should quit reading of newspapers and writing letters on the Lord’s Day, at least during public worship in the Hall of Representatives. If all our great men should set a holy example of reverence for the Sabbath and the worship of Almighty God, it would not convert them into tyrants; it would not make our national government a religious aristocracy; it would not violate our federal constitution.
We are a Christian nation: we have a right to demand that all our rulers in their conduct shall conform to Christian morality; and if they do not, it is the duty and privilege of Christian freemen to make a new and a better election. May the Lord Jesus Christ forever reign in and over these United States and call them peculiarly his own. Amen.
Image: President’s Levee, or all Creation going to the White House from Library of Congress: View of crowd in front of the White House during President Jackson’s first inaugural reception in 1829. Wikimedia Commons.
There appears to be a few typos in the 8th paragraph. There’s a repeated line from the previous sentence as well as a sentence fragment.
That is a powerful conclusion – “demand rulers conform to Christian morality’ – and curious that writers at American Reformer have Nothing – ABSOLUTELY NO-THING – to say about years of Mr Trump’s continual lies and ‘bearing false witness’ (deception and bluster to intend and summon harm on others – ‘his retribution’, his petty or vicious bullying and threats, etc). It is as if American Reformer put the Ten Commandments on the back shelf, preferring instead their multiply-degreed and lucrative career/financial orientations. It is as if they do not care about the Hebrew Scriptures, that time and again report how we KNOW – ACTUALLY KNOW! – the ‘wicked ruler’ by what he is/does. Trump is/does many of the precise things the Hebrew context considers a defilement/abomination of God’s righteousness. Also, it is increasingly sad and shocking that writers with American Reformer apparently have nothing to say about the explicit example and direct teaching of Jesus of Nazareth. The tendency is SO GREAT at American Reformer to omit Jesus, a first century Israelite/Jew, and discussion of the Hebrew texts in their authentic meaning, that I wonder if some secret anti-Semitism is at play, just as it had been for centuries in theological thinking. It is not a ‘woke’ thing to observe: it is a FACT from a continual lineage of anti-Semitism in Christian thinking and writings.