Mexico weekly ledger., 1881-09-15
What Christianity Has Done.

What Christianity Has Done.
Hon. jeremiah s. Black ~ reply to Robert q.
Ingersoll.l
Reflect what kind of q world this
was when the disciples of Christ. un-
dertook to reform it, and compare it
with the condition in which their
teachings have put it. In its mighty
metropolis, the center of its intellect
ual and political power, the best men
were addicted to vices to debaslng
that / could not ever allude to them
without soiling the paper l writ upon.
All manner of u~nprincipled wicked
ness was practiced in the private life
of the whole population without con-
cealment or shame, and the magis-
trates were thoroughly and univer-
sally corrupt. Benevolence in any
shape was altogether unknown. The
helpless and the weak got neither
Justice nor mercy. There was no
relief for the poor no succor for the
sick, no refuge for the unfortunate.
In all pagandom there was not Il hos
pital, asylum, alms-house, or organ
lzed charity Of any sort. The indlf-
ference to human life was literally
frightful. The order of successful
leader to assassinate his opponents
was always obeyed by his followers
with the utmost alacrity and pleasure.
1t was a special amusement of the
populace to witness the shows at
which men we're compelled to kill one
another, to be torn in pieces by wild
beasts, or otherwise ''butchcred to
make a Roman holiday" In every
province paganism enacted the same
cold-blooded cruelties: oppression
and robbery ruled. supreme; murder
went rampaging and red all over the
earth. The Church came. and her
light penetrated this moral darkness
like a new sun. She covered the
globe with institutions of mercy, and
thousands upon thousands of her dis
ciples devoted themselves exclusively
to charity at the sacrifice of every
earthly interest. Her earliest adhe.
rents were killed without remorse-
beheaded, crucified, sawn asunder,
thrown to the beasts, Or covered will
pitch, piled up in great heaps, and
slowly burnt to death. But her faith
was made perfect through suffering
and the law of love rose in triumph
from the ashes Of her martyrs. Thi:
religion has cone down to us through
the ages, attended all the way b,
righteousness, justice, temperance
transparent truthfulness, exultins
hope, and whltewinged charity. New
or was Its influence for good NOR
perceptible than now. 1t has no
!, converted, purified, and reformed al
men, for its first principle is the free
, dom of the human will, and Their
are those who choose to reject it
, But to the mass of mankind, Direct
! and indirectly, it has brought un
counted benefits and blessings
. Abolish it-take away the restraint
which it imposes on evil passions
o silence the admonltions of its preach
q ers-let all Christians cas- their ls
bors of charity-blot out from histor
. the records of fits heroic benevolence-
repeal the laws it has enacted and I'll
institutions it has built up-let il
a moral principles be abandoned an
o all its miracles of light be e%xtinguisl
ed-what would we come to? l nee
not answer this question: the exper
ment has beer partially tried. I'll
French nation formally renounce
Christianity, denied the existence
y the Supreme Being. and so Statistic
the hunger of the inidel heart for
y time. What followed? Universal d
d pravity, garments rolled in bloo'
fantastic crimes unimagined befor
= which startled the earth with the
sublime atrocity. The Amerie:
people have and ought to have l
g special desire to follow that terrib
. example of guilt and misery.
e Missouri Fairs. 1881.
l. Sedalia, Pettis county, Septemb
2O-fve days,
MontgomeryClty, Montgomery Co
n September 22-fve days.
Hannibal, Marion county, Septer
ID Der 27-five days.
r. California, Moniteau county, Sci
II TENDER 27-four days.
Ct st. Louis, st. Louis county, Oct
'e Der Six days.
y Edna, Knox county, October 4.
,, three DAYS.