The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1881-09-15
What Christianity Has Done.

Reflect what kind of world this was
when the disciples of Christ undertook
to reform it, and compare it with the
condition in which their teachings have
put it. In its mighty metropolis, the
nentrn of lis ntellectnal aud political
power, the best men were addicted to
vices so debasng that | could not even
allude to them without soiling the paper
write upon, All manner Of unprin-
cipled Wickedness was practiced in the
private life Of the whole population
without concealment or shame, and the
magistrates were thoroughly and uni
versally corrupt. BeRevolence in any
shape was altogether unknown. The
helpless and the weak got neither JUS
tioe 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 a hospital,
asylum, almshouse, or organized charity
of any sort. The indifference 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 " special amusement
of The populaOe to witness the shows at
which Inen were compelled to kill one
another, to be torn in pieces by wild
beasts, or otherwise "butchered, to
make Roman holiday" In every
province paganism enacted the same
cold-blooded cruelties oppression and
robbery ruled supreme; murder went
rampaging and red over all the earth.
The Church came, and her light pene-
trated this moral darkness like a new
sun, She covered the globe with instr
tutions of mercy, and thousands upon
thousands of her disciples devoted
themselves exclusively 10 works of
charity at the sacrifice Of every earthly
interest Her earliest adherents we're
= killed without remorse-beheaded,
crucifed, sawn asunder, thrown to the
beasts, or covered with 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. This religion has come down
to us through the ages, attended all the
} way by righteousness, justice, temper
ance, mercy, Transparent. truthfulness,
lexuIting hope ,and white-winged charity.
Never WIS its influence for good more
plainly perceptibe than now. 1t has
not converted. purified, and reformed
! all men, for its first principle is the
freedom of the human will, and there
are those who choose 10 reject it. But
D to the mass Of mankind, directly and
t indirectly, it has brought uncounted
t benefits and blessings Abolish it--take
, away the restraints which it imposes
e on evil passions the admoni-
tions of its preachers--le all Christians
Il cease their labors Of charity-blot out
. from history the records Of its heroic
;. benevolence- repeal the laws it has
o enacted and the Institutions it has built
It up-let Its moral principles be aban-
doned and all its miracles Of light be
n extinguished--what would we come 10
: / need not answer this question the
= experiment has been partially tried.
: The French nation formally renOunced
q Christianity, denied the existence of the
!. Supreme Being, and so satisfied the
u hunger of the infdel heart for time.
What followed? ? Universal depravity,
n garments rolled in blood, fantastic
Il crimes unimagined before, which startled
:, the earth with their sublime atroci
Il ty. The American people have and
r, ought to have no special desirG to follow
a that terrible example of guilt and
misery.-J. S. Black.