Editor of The Homiletic Review:
It is assumed that Mr. Taft denies the proper deity of the Lord Jesus Christ.
With the majority of Christians this truth is fundamental, distinguishing, essential, and vital.
We can not properly use the word "Christian" or speak of a Christian man, a Christian citizen, a Christian country, or even a Christian civilization, unless we thereby tacitly acknowledge the deity of Jesus. Christianity is Christ received in His resurrection, life, and glory (Rom. i. 4). The risen Christ is the only rational explanation of modern history. There is not a single fundamental verity of the Christian faith but must be interpreted in the light of the evangel of the risen Christ. St. John makes the denial of the incarnation of the Son of God the criterion of Antichrist. It is therefore vitally important.
What then should be the attitude of the Christian citizen toward the candidacy for President of a man who repudiates all that makes Christian life or Christian citizenship or Christian civilization even possible? A man who, however much he may talk about the "spirit of Christianity" must be a Christless man—with a Christless creed.
We examine with microscopic scrutiny the attitude of a candidate regarding tariff, labor, corporations, etc., etc. Does a Christian voter say by his indifference that it does not matter what a candidate thinks about Christ? Is it safe to "count out" Christ as a factor in the affairs of a so-called Christian nation? Are national policies and essential Christian principles to be divorced? Can a Christian member of the Church of Christ aid in placing at the head of the nation a man who denies Christ as head of the Church? If he can— then his Christian citizenship becomes a counterfeit and a sham. The attitude of a presidential candidate to Christ ought to be of great consequence to a conscientious Christian voter.
Will some one explain how a Christian voter becomes passionately devoted to the bringing in of the Kingdom of Christ and can cooperate with the Holy Spirit in His work, when by his vote he would place at the head of the nation as his representative a man who not only denies the crown rights of Christ, but denies also the present-day, personal ministry of the Holy Spirit? It is hard to discover how such a vote, as the exprest energy of Christian citizenship, can truly represent that for which a Christian citizen ought to stand.
Christian men and Christian churches send Christian missionaries to the Christless nations to proclaim Christ as the divine Son of God; the only, all-sufficient Savior and Redeemer—Christ as Christ—Is the very essence of the gospel they carry. Will the same men aid in elevating as our own national leader a man who, however much he may commend mission work or talk about "the spirit of Christianity" or "Christian civilization"—nevertheless in denying the Deity of Christ denies the essential character of the One who alone makes Christianity possible? What a spectacle for a Christian nation, so-called, to present to the gaze of the Christless nations of the earth.
Keeseville, N.Y. Rev. W. C. Taylor
Source: The Homiletic review, Volume 56, pp. 419-420
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