Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 23:89 (Jan 1866)
Article: Political Economy And The Christian Ministry
Author: George Nye Boardman

BSac 23:89 (Jan 1866) p. 73

Political Economy And The Christian Ministry

Rev. George N. Boardman

The science that has for its object the laws of wealth must have many relations to a gospel intended specially for the poor. The names of Chalmers, Whately, and Wayland suggest to every mind an association of Political Economy and the Christian Ministry. The sermons of the period of the American Revolution show that the pulpit has heretofore in stirring times considered the public weal as properly coming under its survey. The essays of such men as Dr. Palmer, Dr. Thornwall, Prof. Hodge, called forth by our civil war, show that those who expound the laws of God consider it their right at least, no doubt their duty, to expound also the principles of civil government. The clergy of our land have never, to any considerable extent, relinquished the right to advocate such social virtues as temperance and the observance of the Sabbath, nor will they, until they expunge the decalogue from the Sacred scriptures, cease from their efforts to suppress profaneness and licentiousness. Still it may be questioned whether they have not left these works too much to occasions and transient excitements, whether they have sufficiently considered that the godliness which they preach has the promise

BSac 23:89 (Jan 1866) p. 74

of the life that now is, as well as of that which is to come. Domestic comfort, the supply of physical want, the use of worldly wealth, might have been made themes of popular discourse far more frequently than they have been, since in their connection with practical morality they force themselves upon the consideration of one who fills the office of both pastor and preacher.

It will be the aim of this Article to state some of the advantages to be derived by the Christian minister from the study of political economy; also some of the advantages which his profession gives him for the pursuit of this science. Our purpose will not require a collation of the various definitions of political economy; it will be sufficient to say we use the term in its broadest sense, as the science of wealth, meaning by wealth not merely that which has exchangeable value, but that which contributes to man’s temporal weal or well-being.

I. It will be in place to begin with a few remarks on political economy as an intellectual discipline. The members of the clerical profession have generally recognized the importance of occasional intellectual exercises, undertaken for the purpose of retaining the culture of the mind at its highest elevation. For the promotion of such an end no science is superior to political economy, while none is so nearly related to the great subjects on which the preacher of the gospel dwells. There is no science that makes a larger demand upon some of t...