The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1878-12-19

The Rev. Mr. Cargi!c preached 81
the Baptist Church in Winchester last
Sunday. The audience was a good
one. Many old citizens that are sell
dom seen in places of worship were in
attendance and appeared 10 take much
interest in the discourse. Mr.. Cargile
made fine impression. He talked
about the signs OF the coming OF
Christ, aud said that these signs stand
out just as prominently along the great
highway Of time as do the signs along
the Nashville e. Chattanooga railroad
which indicate the travelcr's approach
to Chattanooga. We listened patients
II, therefore, to see what these signs
were, in the speakers opinion. Our
readers "a recoliecL that it is related
in the New Testament that the Apos-
ties lasLed Christ what should DE the
signs Of His coming and Of the end OF
the world, and in reply to this question
Christ said tina, there should be wars,
and pcstilence, aud earthquakes, dark
ening of the sun and moon, and falling
Of the stars, and after that he might
come at any tmr Now, Mr.. Cargile
t inks that the wars to which Christ al
ludel were the wars which followed the
division OF the Roman Empire into ten
kin adoms about the year 476; that the
postilence he had in his minds eye
was the terrible one which swept away
nearly one third of the people OF Eu-
rope in the 10th century; that the
earthquake was the mighty one which
DESTROYED the capital of Portugal in
l755. when the sun and moon were
darkcned in what he SAYS was mra">
ulous manner; and the falling of tue
stars WAS tina, which was said to have
occurred in 1893. The falling Of the
s.ars, 1t seems. was the last great sign
along the highway Of time, and VIC are
now urged to believe that Christ may
come at any moment. The speaker
alluded also to infilcls and said that
the existence of this large class OF
mortals was one Of the signs by which
we might know that the Kingdom OF
Of God was at hand; as the Bible de-
clared that when Christ came tie
would find the world al it was in the
days of Lot and Noah, Mr.. Cargile' S
sermon, looking ut it from theolog>
ical standpoint, was good one. But
what would the inf'lel say about it :
Many Of the greatest men that ever
lived were infdels, and as leading
members of this class in our country
We could point to Bcnjsmin Franklin
and Thomas Jefferson. These gentle
men were as familiar with the Bible
and with history as Mr.. Cargile, and il
they had listened to his discourse last
Sunday afternoon and been called up
on to reply to it, they would doubtless
have said that Christ never uttered the
words imputed to Him in the passage
referred to; that they were written by
some shrewd, cunning, and nnscrupu,
lous ccclesiastic, long after the death
of Christ; that it required no inspra-
ton to predict that there would be
wars, pcstlencc, earthquakes, ecllpses.
and such star-talling as We had in 1888,
inasmuch as these things hads doubt
less happened repeatedly in the world .
history and would probably happen
again that earthquakes, eclipses, and
star-raling so-callel, are gov' rned by
uhysical laws over which man has no
control; that pestilcnce is the result
almost entirely of failure to keep
towns and cities in proper SIS nltary
condition; and that war is merely the
faro table of the rich and powerful
with nations as dupes of game which
we hope to break up after awhile
But that the stars OF heaven, which are
millions and billions OF miles away,
did not fall to the earth i'll 1888 and
never will.