The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1882-05-18

I . gWUIUIF. AIIW-
as God is my witness, have kept these
three vows to this hour. Shortly after
| L became Christian. That act settled
my temporal, as it settled my eternal
destiny"
YOndeT goes Saul of Tarsus on horse
PACK, at full gallop: Where is he going?
10 destroy Christians. 1t was play to
him to take charge of the hats and coats
of the people while they massacred be-
| lleYers IN the Gospel. YOnder goes the
same man. He is on foot this time.
Where is he going now? On the road
TO Ostia to die for Christ Instead Of
arrestlng and numbering, he has been
for years talking of love and kindness
and victory over death and resurrection
and heaven. They could not whip TeIi-
giOn out Of him nor scare it out of him,
They tried to give him enough of it by
putting him in a windOwless dungeon
and keeping him on small diet and with
out any cloak, and trying him as a
culprit, and mObbing him on the street.
But they could not freeze it out of him,
or sweat it out of him, or pound it out
of him. So they tried the sharp surgery
of the sword, and he is decapitated one
day of the year 66. PsThapslthe might
est intellect of the six thousand years
of the new worlds existence actually
dying one of the dupes of this Christian
religion. That is the melancholy thing
about this delusiOn of Christianity that
it has deceived the greatest minds of all
| the ages. If yOn should ask the vote of
the critics OF this country as to which
was the greatest poem ever written, by
large majority they would say Para
disc Lost" That poem was written by
one of those fools who believed in the
Bible-JOhn Milton. Benjamin Franklin
was one of the victims of Christianity,
judging from the letter he wrote to
Thomas Paine, urging him to burn up
| ia Cgn n
casiOn, saying: Gas to Jesus of Nazareth,
| think the system of morals and his re-
ligiOn, as he left them to US, is the best
the world ever saw or is likely to See."
Patrick Henry, the electric champion of
liberty, was entrapped by it when he
worth all other books which were ever
written" Benjam Rush, among the
wisest of the philosophers and anatOm-
lists of his day, was swindled by it so
that he wrote: christianity is the only
true and perfect religion" Isaac New
ton, the leading philosopher Of his day
decOyed by this religion so that he said:
II accept the Scriptures of God to be the
most sublime philosophy" David
| Brewster, before whose nam0 all the
scientists of the world bow, was cajOled
by this Christianity till he said: Il
have had this light for many years, and
oh, how bright it is to me-" President
|
: statesmen, was overcome by this delu-
sion till he acknowledged that he had
prayed when he said: Il invoke that
God in whom l am happy to believe"
David Livingstone, the African explorer,
overcoming lion and panther and saw
: age, yielded before this religion, and
} was found dead on his knees. William
: E. Gladstone, perhaps the greatest Of
living Englishmen, so utterly befOOle4
by this religion that he goes to church
3 every Sunday, and often goes into the
3 chancel and reads prayers for the con-
gTegatiOn,
Yea, even first rate infdels and all
! their-lives intdelS cannot be depended
3 on for steadiness against this delusiOn.
J Goethe, one of the leading skeptics,
| wrote: II must confess the majesty Of
l the Scriptures strikes me with astOnish-
ment." AllamOnt, the famous inidel,
| surrendered in his dying moments as he
cried out: "ThOu blasphemed yet most
indulgent Lord God, hell itself is a
, refuge if it hide me from Thy fTOwnp
YOltaiTe, the most talented infdel the
world has ever seen, having written 26O
separate publications, and the majority
of them spiteful against Christianity,
and being the most conspicuous libeTtine
of his day, might have been supposed
safe against the delusiOn of the Chris
tian religion. But at the last he begS
to take the sacrament of the Lords sup
per and to be buried with Christian
burial. Tom Paine, the God of modern
infidels, his birthday celebrated with
| great enthusiasm in New York and BOS-
ton, the paragon of Bible hateTs,
charged by his brother inidel, William
Carver, with drinking quart of brandy
a day at the latteT's expense and refus-
ing to pay for 1t, the most precious and
adOred name in the skeptic's calendar,
after stealing another mans wife and
bringing her from England to America,
and staggering along the streets so
filthy and drunken and prOfigate that
no decent man wanted to come within
hundred feet Of him-one would have
thought he could be depended on for
fidelity to his lifelong principles. But
no! He dies crying to the Lord Jesus
, for mercy. Powerful delusiOnl ALI
cOnquering delusiOn! WOrldshaking
delusiOnl
The stupcndous hoax of the Christian
religion has not only taken possession
of the picture galleries of the world,
giving to the old and young masters the
greatest subjects, as | showed you in a
former discourse, but even music has
been captured. Read over the pro-
grammes of the great musical Festival
in New York last week and find that the
greatest performances were on religious
themes, thousand singers deluded
enough to sing them and seven thOus-
and people deluded enough to hear
them. Beethoven deluded by Christi
anity till he composed the High Mass in
D major. Haydn deluded till he wrote
The Creation, and Handel deluded till
he cOmposedlthe OratOriOs of Esther and
Deborah and Jephtha, Israel in Egypt
and The Messiah. What is worse, this
great fallacy of religion has perpetuated
itself in most substantial architecture,
so that it seems we are never to get rid
of it. What are among the largest and
finest buildings of the world? st. Paul's,
st. Peters, and the Cathedrals and
churches of all ChristendOm. This hal
lucination, not content in being station
ary, gives in one year $6, 250 600 for mis-
sions to make ounces on the other side
of the water, and fools of people whom
we have never known. Deluded doctors!
Two hundred and twenty physicians
meeting weekly for devotion in the
Medical Prayer Union of London: De-
lIIded lawyers Lord Cairns, the highest
lawyer in Great Britain, and the legal
| oduiqor of tho Thr0na DrnaeliDO the