The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1882-03-30


were being made, plain farmer got up
and said: MIR. Chai. man, that nOmina-
tlOn must not be made; the Sunday
schools OF Illinois will defeat him" That
ended all prospect of his nomination.
The Christian religion is mightier to-
day than il ever was. / know infidelity
makes a guOd deal of talk in our day.
One intidel can make great ex i-ement,
but | will tell you on what principle il
is. 1t Is on the principle that if a man
Jumps overheard from a CunaTd steamer
he makes more excitement than all the
i've hundred people who stay on the
decks. But the fact that he Jumps over
bOard-dOes that stop the ship? These
men say that science is overcoming re-
hgiOn in our day. Do you believe that
the Bible account of the origin of life
will be OveTthrOwn by infidel scientists
who have fifty different theories about
the origin of lifep If they should come
up in solid phalanx, all agreeing on one
theory, perhaps Christianity might be
damaged; but there are not so many
differences of opinion inside the church
as outside the church. All denOmina-
tiOns agree on the radical doctrines of
the Christian religion. 1t makes me
sick to see these literary fOps going
along with copy of Darwin under one
arm and a case of tTanstiXed gTasshOD-
III.
talking about the survival of the fittest.
and HuXley's prOtOplasm and the nebu-
lar hypothesis. The fact is that some
naturaliSts, just as soon as they begin
to find out the difference between the
feelerS of wasp and the horns of
beetle, begin to patrOniZe the Almighty.
These men do not agree about anything.
They do not agree ON embryOlOgy; DO
not agree on the graduation of the species.
All split UP among themselves-nOt
agreeing ON anything. They come and
say that the churches of Jesus Christ are
divided on the great doctrines. All
united they are in Jesus Christ and in
the divinity of the Scriptures, while
they come up and propose to render their
verdict, and no two of them agree on
that verdict. Here these infidel scien-
lists have impaneled themselves as a
jury to decide this trial between Infideli-
ty, the plaintiff, and Christianity, the de-
fendant, and after being out for CEN
tuTies they come in to render their YER
dict. Gentlemen of the jury, have you
agreed on verdictP No, no. Then 90
back for another five hundred years,
and deliberate and agree on something.
There is not poor, miserable wretch in
the TOmbs court that could be condemned
by jury that did not agree on the YER
dict, and yet you expect us to give UP
our glorious Christianity to please these
men who cannot agree on anything. All.
my friends, the Church of Jesus Christ,
instead of falling back, is on the ad-
vance. L see the glittering of swords; |
hear the tramping of the troops; | hear
the laundering of parks of artillery.
Oh, my God and Savior, | thank Thee
that l have been permitted to see this
day-this day of Thy triumph, this day
of the confusion of Thine enemies. o,
Lord God, take Thy sword from Thy
thigh and ride forth to the victOryl /
am nightly encouraged because l find
among other things that, while this
Christianity has been bOmbarded for
centuries, inhdelity has not destroyed
one church, or crippled one minister, or
upTOOted one verse of one chapter of the
Bible. If that has been their magnif-
cent record for the centuries that are
past, what may we expect for the future?
The church all the time getting the
victory, and their shot and shell all
gone. have been examining their am
munitiOn lately. | have looked all
through their cartridge boxes. They
have not in the last twenty years ad-
vanced one new idea. They have utterly
exhausted their ammunition in the bat
tie against the church, and against the
Scriptures, while the sword of the Lord
Almighty is as keen as ever it was. We
are just getting our troops in line. They
are coming up in companies, and in
regiments and in battaliOns, and you
will hear a shout that will make the
earth quake and the heavens ring with
hallelujah. 1t will be this: Forward,
the whole liner
And then find another most encOur-
aging thought in the fact that the secu-
lar printing press and the pulpit seem
harnessed in the same team for the pro-
clamatiOn of the Gospel. Every Wall
street banker tomorrow in New York,
every State street banker tomorrow in
Boston, every Third street banker to-
morrow in Philadelphia, every banker
in the United States, every merchant,
will have in his pocket a treatise on
Christianity, call to repentance, ten.
twenty or thirty passages of Scripture
in the reports of sermons preached
throughout these cities and throughout
this land to-day. 1t will be so in Chi
cagO, so in New Orleans, so in Charles
ton, so in Boston, so in Philadelphia, so
everywhere. l know the Tract SOcie-
ties are doing grand and glorious
work, but l tell you there is no power on
earth to-day equal to the fact that the
American printing-preSS is taking up
the sermons which are preached to few
hundred or few thousand people on
Sunday morning and Sunday evening in
the morning and evening papers, scat
tering that truth to the millions. What
a thought it is! What an encourage
ment to every Christian man! Besides
that, have you not noticed that during
the past few years every one of the doc
trineS of the Bible came under discus
sion in the secular press? Do you re-
member few years agO-I think not
more than six or seven years agO-when
every paper in the United States had an
editorial on the subject, "Is there such
a thing as future punishment" It was
the strangest thing that there should be
a discussion in the secular papers on
that subject 1 know there were small
wits who made sport of this discussion,
but there was not an intelligent man
on earth who, as the result of that dis
cussiOn, did not ask himself the ques-
tiOn, What is going to be my eternal
destinyP" So it was in regard to Tyn-
dalPs prayer-guage. Some seven OF nine
years ago, you remember, the secular
papers discussed that, and with Just as
much earnestness as the religious
papers, and there was not a man in
Christendom who did not ask himself
the questions, ''Is there anything in
prayerp May the creature impress the