Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1888-05-23

take away from the mlnQS OF men tue ioa
of hell, and there are great many OF then
who would very soon turn this world INTO
hell, The majority of those who are lndig
nant against the Bible because OF the ldes
of punishment are men whose lives are ba6
or whose hearts are impure, and who nate
the Bible because of the idea OF future
punishment for the same reason that criml
mails hate the penitentiary. Oh, have
heard this brave talk about people fearing
nothing of the consequences OF sin IN tne
next world, and have made up my mino
it is merely towards whistling to keep hii
courage up. have seen men fiaunt tnen
immoralities in the face Of the community,
and l have heard them defy the Judgment
Day and scoff at the idea of any future con-
sequence of their sin; but when they came
to die they shrieked nntil you could heal
them for nearly two blocks, and in the sum
mer night the neighbors got up to put the
windows down because they could not en-
dure the horror.
would not want to see rail-train with
five hundred Christian people on board &c
down through drawbridge into a watery
grave. would not want to see five hum
dred Christian people go into such disaster
but I tell you plainly that l could more
easily see that than could for auy protract-
ed time stand and see an infidel die, though
his pillow were of elder-down and under a
canopy of vermilion. l have never been
able to brace up my nerves the such spec
tacle. There is something at such time
SO indescribable in the countenance. just
looked in upon it for minute or two, but
the clutch of his fist was 30 diabolic, and the
strength of voice was so unnatural, could
- Sc hnM 10
no hell, there is no helll'' the man had said
for sixty years; but that night when look
ed in the dying room of nay intidel neighbor,
there was something on his counterance
which seemed to say: ''There IS, there is,
there is, there is ~ a.
The mightiest restraints today against
theft, against immortality, against libertln-
ism, against crime of all sorts the mightiest
restraints are the retributions of eternity.
Men know that they can escape the law,
but down in the offenders soul there is the
realization of the fact that they cannot
escape God. He stands at the end of the
road of proaigacy, and He will not clear
the guilty; Take all idea of retrihution
and punishment out of the hearts and minds
of men, and it would not be long before
Brooklyn and New York and Boston and
Charleston and Chicago became Sodons.
The only restraints against the evil passions
of the world to-day are Bible restraints.
Suppose now these generals of atheism
and infidelity got the victory, and suppose
they marshalled great army made up Of
the majority of the world. They are in
companies, in regiments, in brigades-the
whole army. Forward, march! ye hosts of
infidels and atheists, banners flying before.
banners flying behind, banners inscribed
with the words: mo God! No Christ!
No punishment! No restraints! Down
with the Bible! Do as you pleaseP' The
sun turned into darkness.
Forward, march! ye great army of inf
dels and atheists. And first of all you will
attack the churches. Away with those
houses of worship! They have been stand
ing there SO long deluding the people with
consolation in their bereavements ard sor-
rows. All those churches ought to be ex-
tirpated; they have done SO much to relieve
the lost and bring homo the wandering.
and they have so long held up the idea of
eternal rest after the paroxysm of this life
is over. Turn the st. Peters and st. Pauls
and the temples and tabernacles ioto club
houses. Away with those churches!
Forward, maich. ye great army of inf
dels and atheists and next of all they scat
ter the Sabbath schools-the Sabbath
schools filled with bright eyed, bright
checked little ones who are singing songs
on Sunday afternoon, and getting instruc-
tion when they ought to be on the street
corners playing marbles, or swearing on the
commons. Away with theml Forward,
march, ye great army Of ipfdels and athe-
lists, and next of all they will attack Chris
tian asylums-the institutions Of mercy
by Christian philanthropies.
Never mind the blind eyes and the deaf
ears and the crippled limbs and weakened
intellects. Let paralyzed old age pick up
its own food and orphans fight their own
way, and the half reformed go back to their
evil habits. Forward, march! ye great
army of infidels and atheists, and with your
battle-axes hew down the cross and split up
the manger of Bethlehem.
On, ye great army ofinfidels and atheists,
and now they come to the gravsyards and
the cemeteries of the earth. Pull down the
sculpture above Greenwood's gate, for it
means the resurrection. Tear away at the
entrance of Laurel Hill the figure of Old
Mortality and the chisel. On, ye great
army of infdels and atheists, into the grave
yards and the cemeteries; and where you
see "Asleep in Jesus" cut it away, and
where you find over a little child's grave;
"Suffer little children to come unto me-"
substitute the words ''delusion'' and
"sham," and where you find an angel in
marble, strike off the wing, and when you
come to family vault, chisel on the door:
'tDead once, dead forever"
But on, ye great army of ipfi1els and
atheists, on! They will attempt to scale
heaven. There are heights to be taken.
Pile hill on hill and Pelion upon Ossa, aud
then they hoist the ladders against the walls
of heaven. On and on until they blow up
the foundations of jasper and the gates of
pearl. They charge up the steep. Now
they aim for the throne of Him who liveth
forever and ever. They would take down
from their high place the Father, the Son,
the Holy Ghost. "Down with them'' they
say. down with Him from the throne!"
they say. "Down forever! Down out of
sight! He is not God. He has no right to
sit there Down with Him! Down with
Christ!' ,.....--.
A world without head, a universe with
out king. Orphan consultations. Faith
eress galaxies. Anarchy supreme A de-
throned Jehovah. An assassinated God.
Patricide, regicide, decide. That is what
they mean. That is what they will have,
if they can, if they can, if they can. Civil
ization hurled back into standardization,
and semi barbarism driven back into Hot
tentot savagery. The wheel of progress
turned the other way and turned toward
the ages. The clock of the centuries put
back two thousand years.N Go back, you
Sandwich Islands, from your schools ana
from your colleges and from your reformed
condition to what you were in 1S20, when
the missionaries first came. Call home the
five hundred missionaries from India and
overthrow their two, thousand schools,
where they are trying to educate the heather
and scatter the one hundred and forty thou
sand little children that they have gather
ed out of barbarism into civilization. %
literate all the work of DR.. Duff in India,
of David Abeel in China, of DR.. King I'D
Greece, of Judson in Burmah, OF David
Brainard amid the American aborigines.
and send home the three thousand mission
aries of the cross who are toiling in foreign
lands, toiling for Christ's sake. toiliDg
themselves into the grave. Tell these three
thousand men of God that they are of NO
use. Send home the medical missionaries
who are doctoring the bodies as well as the
souls of the dying nations. Go home, Lon
don Missionary Society. Go home, Amer
ican Board of Foreign Missions. Go home,
ye Moravians, and relinquish back into
darkness and squalor and filth and death
the nations whom ye have begun to lift.
Oh, my friends, there has never beer
such nefarious plot on earth as that which