The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-02-09
state of things on the superstition that they tri-


In the communities, and the cities, and the
nations where the Christian religion has reigned,
womanS condition has been ameliorated and I'M
proved, and she is honored and deferred to in a
thousand things, and there is not a gentleman
who does not take off his hat in her presence.
She may in the United States and England suf-
Ter some injustice, but she has more OF her
rights in Christendom than anywhere else. Ii
your associations have been good, you know
that the words wife, and mother, and sister and
daughter are suggestive of the most gracious
surroundings. The best schools and seminaries
OF the United States are for young women.
Then take woman's condition in lands where
christianity has made no or little Roadway
China, Egypt, Turkey, Assyria, Borneo. Bar
barry. The Burmese sell wives and daughters
like sheep. The Hindoo Bible forbids a woman
to hear music or sit at a window during the alb
sence of her husband. and allows a divorce if
the wife eats before her husband finishes his
meals. The Hindoo wife is consumed
on the funeral py1re of her hus-
the cat are better off. They were intended for
brutes and only expect to be treated as brutes.
But see the white bundles on the rivers in the
morning in China. Infanticide after infanti-
eide: Female children cast off because they are
females. See the women harnessed to piows
like oxen. Hidden from the sight of men by
barrlcades, and by wells, and by all styles of
cruel seclusion. Their birth a disaster, their
life a torture, their death a horror. The mis-
slonary of the cross in foreign lands to-day
breaches to an audience divided into two parts,
the men, who may sit as they will and do as they
VIII, and the women, cruelty hidden in a side
apartment, where they can hear and not be seen.
NO intelligence, no liberty, no refining influences,
no hope for this life, and no hope for the life to
come. Hinged nose, cramped foot, disfigured
lace, maltreated mind and embruted soul. How
far back toward that condition would woman go
II the Bible and Christianity were withdrawn is
only a question in dynamics. If an object be
lifted to certain point and be not fastened
tnere and the llttlng power be withdrawn, how
Tar Will the object fall4 Clear back to the point
from whence it was lifted. Christianity found
woman in the last point of degradation and
raised her almost to the skies. Now, let the
power that brought her up be withdrawn and
she will fall clear down to the depths from which
she was resurrected.
ANOTHER EFFECT OF RELIGIONS DOWNFALL.
Again. the downfall of religion and the tri-
umph of ~infdelity mean the Generalization of
society. The most obnoxious thing to infdelity
is the idea of retribution. Now, take all fear of
voluntary punishment out of society and let the
rule be that all go as they please and how long
before disintegration7 1 declare it-take the
fear of hell out of the minds of men and the
majority of them would soon make this world a
hell: The vast majority of those who are Of
fended at the idea of future punishment have
such unclean heart or lives that they are op-
posed to future retribution for the same reason
that a criminal dosen't like a penitentiary. All
this brave talk about not fearing punishment for
sin in the next world is only a towards whistling
to keep his courage up.
l have seen men talk very brave about the
future, and defy God. and faunt their immorali-
ties in the face of society, and challenge the
eternal, but in their last moments thew shrek
till you could hear them for two blocks, and the
nelghborS on a hot summer night had to put the
windows down because they could not endure
the sound. L had rather see a railroad train with
five hundred Christians on board 90 down
GnrOuOn a ORA w Nr10 90 Intn q uQfnrU Opa vh than
to see one infidel or one atheiet die, though it
were on a pillow of elder down and under
a canopy of vermillion. / would not want to
see the first catastrophe, yet l would be sure of
their happy destination; but 1 have never been
able to brace my neves up for the latter
spectacle, the terror on the brow is so unpar-
alleled, the clutch of the fist is so diabolic, the
strength of the voice is so unearthly. There is
70 HE'LL There is no hell! There is no helli' he
mad said over and again for forty years. But
there was something in that dying scene of my
infdel neighbor which seemed to say: ''There
is! there is! there is! there ISL Mightiest
barrier to atheist, and libertinism, and outlawry,
and crime of all sorts are the retributions of
eternity. Men may escape the law, for that is
done every day; but there is something down in
the offenders nature which says, "You cannot
escape God. He stands at the end of your road
of profiigacy." He will by no means clear the
guilty. Take the Bible idea of retribution out
of the world and Brooklyn, and New York, and
Boston, and Chicago, and Charleston. and New
OH ROAObA0 49, oPCOOlIJs
The only restraints on the evil passions of the
world to-day are Bible restraints.
Suppose, now, these giants in blasphemy sue
ceeded in marshaling a majority of the world
on their side. There they are in companies, in
regiments. in brigades. Forward, march! we
great army of infidels and atheists, Banners
flying before, banners flying behind, inscribed
with mo God, NO Savior" "Do as You
Down with the Bible" The sun turned into
darkness. Forward, march! The first assault
is upon the churches. Down with all the houses
of worship that have been occupied by people
who were deluded into being comforted over
their bereavements and their sorrows. They
deserve to be extirpated because they spent
much of their life in reforming inebriety and in
saving the lost and holding before the struggling
life is over. Let the ST. Pauls, and the st.
Peters, and the Trinitys, and the tabernacles
and the temples be turned into club houses or
places of merchandise! Forward, marchl Down
go all the Sabbath schools of bright-eyed, bright
faced children, singing songs and getting in
struction when they ought to have been playing
marbles in the streets or swearing on the com
mons.
Forward march, We hosts of inGdels and athe-
lists! Take the Bible, on which witnesses are
sworn, out of the courthouse and let loose testi
monv be unlimited. Forward, and down 60 ten
thousand asylums and hospitals of mercy, sup
ported by churches and Christian philanthropists;
prayers every morning by the sick, and prayers
over the dead. Never mind the blind eyes, and
the deaf ears, and the weakened intellects, and
the crippled limbs Let paralyzed old age pick
up its own food, and orphans find their own way,
and the half reformed go back to their old inia-
uities. With the broadax hew down the cross,
and split up the Bethlehem stable. Tear down
from Vatican, and Florence, and Venice. and
Dresden, and all the picture galleries of the
world, the mightiest works of art, for they are
religious-Claude's Burning Bush" and CHR
landajos Alteration of the Magi," and Rem
brandts Christ in the Temple" and Paul Yer
oneses Marriage in Cana" and Michael An
gelos "Last Judgment" And drive back all the
oratorios of Handel, and Haydn, and Beetho-
ven into the crypts of the ruined churches, for
they tell of the Messiah, or the creation, or Jeph-
tina, or Samson, or other Bible hero or heroine.
Forward, march! We hosts of infdels and athe-
lists; into the grave-yards, and cemeteries, and
tear down tha sn1lntnra frnm Graon mondia nato