The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1882-05-18
CHRISTIANITY.
Compared With the Delusive Sys-
TENS of Former Ages.
How This Ensnaring Religion Has En-
trapped and DeCOyed the Greatest
Minds In Becoming its Champions
[BY t. DEWITT TALMAGE.l


and siXty-fOur new members ana bap-
tised fifty-fOur new candidates, making
the present membership Of the Taber-
nacle 2,751.
SUBJECT CHRISTIANITY AS DELUsIoN.
TExT-EzekieI xxi, 21: "He made his
arrows bright; he consulted with i'm
ages; he looked in the liver"
Two kinds of divinatiOn or human de-
vice by which the King of Babylon tried
to find out the Divine Will! number
of arrows with names on them were put
together and mixed up, and then the
King drew out one of them, and by the
name on it decided what city to attack.
Then an animal was slain, and by the
lighter or darker color of the liver, the
brighter or darker prospect of success
was inferred. HE made his arrows
bright; he consulted with images; he
looked in the liver" Stupid de1usiOnl
| In ali ages the world has had it's hallu-
| cinations and fables and chimeras, the
| one spoken of in the text no more absurd
| than thousand others of the past and
present, The world seems to love being
| hoodwinked. Jennie SOuthcOt came
forth in the latter part of the last CEN
| tury declaring that she had seen visions,
and chapels were built In her honor,
| and she had over one hundred thousand
| wOrshipers. ApollOnius, about the time
| of Christ, after being totally speechless
| for five years, went forth to disciple Ep-
| hesus, and Antioch, and Babylon, and
| Athens, and Sparta, and Greece, and the
| world, preached virtue, was said to cast
| out devils and raised the dead, and after
his own decease was said to have come
to resurrection. The ancieDts had their
Delphic oracle at which the PythO,
seated in ApOllO's Temple, would utter
a crazy iargOn, from which the people
guessed their own fortune or that of a
| nation, Sometimes a sentence would
be uttered which, by change of punctu-
alton, YOU can make read just opposite.
| A General going out to battle and deSlr-
ing to know of his safety in battle and
received this answer, which means one
t. ng if you put comma before the
word never, and means just the opposite
if YOU put a comma after the WORD never
"ThOu shalt go return never III war
shalt thou perish." "ThOu shalt go, re-
turn, never in war shalt thou perish;' OF
"ThOu shalt 90, return never, in wal
shalt thou perish" So that If the Gen
eral returned in safety it was according
to the Delphic oracle, and II he were
killed it was according to the Delphlc
oracle.
AS much did the ancient auguries de-
ceiye the world for centuries. The
priests by the way birds flew, or by the
intOnati0ns of thunder, or by the in
| ternal appearance of slaughtered ami
mails, presaged individual or national
destinies. The sibyls were said to be
inspired women, who lived IN caVeTns
and wrote prophecies in what are called
sibyline books. AS late as l829 man
rose in New York pretending to be dl-
vine being, and played his part so well
as to get some wealthy merchants to be-
come his disciples, turning their for
tunes into his discipleshi All ages
have had their necTOmancies, their lu-
carnations, their witchcTaft, their s0r-
ceTies, their divinatiOns and their delu-
siOns. No pTetense that they did any
| good. They disappointed, they deceived,
they degraded, they pauperiZed the peO-
pie. They were as cruel as they were
absurd. They never built hospital OF
healed a wound, or wiped away tear,
| or emancipated from bondage. Now
| it is charged that there is delusiOn
greater than these that l have men
TONED, namely, the delusiOn OF the
Christian religion. 1t has at the present
time, at least 2OO,0QO,OCO dupes. II bids
| fair to encircle the earth. 1t already
OVershadOws the Appalachian range on
this continent, and prepares to over
shadow the Balkan and Caucasian
ranges on another. This delusion has
conquered the United States and Great
Britain till they are styled Christian
nations, and threatens Africa, having
planted its batteries on the East, West
and South of that continent, is plotting
for the capture of the islands of the
| Pacific, and has already duped MllOnesla,
Micronesia and Malayan Polynesia, has
had the impeTtinence to lay siege to the
Indian Archipelago and BOrneO, Suma-
ira, Celebes and Java have felt its power.
| Even in the Fiji Islands, out of pOpu-
lation of 10000, 10000 have become
the victims of Christianity, and unless
we can in some way stop it, soon 1t will
swallow the globe. Supposing, for a
ing to its antagonists, is the tremendous
swindle of the ages, propose to show
| you what this delusiOn has accom-
| plished.
First, this delusion of the Christian
| religion has made wonderful transfor-
nations of human character. L can go
| down through any aisle in any church
| in ChristendOm and show you men who
| were intemperate, prOfane and nOtOri-
| Ously bad, but under the delusiOn of the
Christian religion have become sober
( and clean of speech and good, all their
associates acknowledging the change.
You could hardly believe 1t was the same
man. He changed all his associations,
gave up the cOmpanionship of those who
drank and gamDled ana raced nOrSeS,
and from that time found a joy in
churches and prayer-meetings So COM
plete was the delusion his wife and
children saw the difference. The home
that well-nigh went to ruin has been
reconstructed. The money that went
for rum goes for clothes, for books, for
education. He is another man. There
is as much difference between what he
is now and what he was before as be-
| tween dove and Vulture, as between
a rose and a nettle, as between day and
night. Powerful delusion! Admiral
Farragut, who was one of the most ad-
mired officers of the American navy,
was captured by this delusiOn. At Long
Branch, giving an account of his early
life, he said: "My father was sent down
to New Orleans with the little navy we
then had to look after the treason of
Burr. l accompanied him as a cabin
boy. had some qualities that thought
made man of me. could swear like
an old salt, could drink a stiff glass Of
gTOg as If 1 had doubled Cape Horn. l
was great at cards and fond of gaming
in every shape. At the close of dinner
one day my father turned everybody out
of the cabin, locked the door and said to
me-. David cw hat do Won mean to bep