National Republican., 1888-05-14
INFIDELITY AND ATHEISM.
REV. DR. TNLMAGE ON TIE
DANGER or TIE AGE.
IL They Should Succeed They Would
Dynamite the World and Turn It
Into u Mad House, Lazaretto, and
Pandemoniun.

BEooRNN May i3.-This morning the Rev
II. Dewitt ralmagc, u. d., preached AZ the
Tabernacle TO an oycrnowing congregation.
The hymn beginning
"Stand up my SOUL shake on thy fears,
And gird the Gospel arinur on"
was sung with magnificent effect. Dr. TAI
IMAGES subject was "Obscurntion,' and his
text THE sun shall he turned into dark.
ness"-Acts H. %. lie said
solar eclipse Is here pruphcs1d to take place
about the time Of the destruction of ancient
Jerusalem. JoseplIus, the historian, says that
the prophecy was literally fulfilled, and that
about that time there were strange appear.
ances in the heavens. The sun was not dc.
st9iyGd,, hut lor little while hidden. ,,,.,,
aud men have tried with the uprollng vapors
Of skenticism and the smoke of their bias.
phcmy Is to turn the sun into darkness, Sup.
pose the arclangclS Of malice and horror
should be let loose a little while and be
allowed to cXtinguiSh and destroy the sun
IN, the natural heayens' They would
and pour them on this lumiuary Of
the planetary system, and. the waters go
Kissing down amid the ravines and the cav
crns, and there IS explosion after explosion,
until there are only few peaks Of fire left in
the sun, and these are cooling down and going
out until the vast continents of flame are re.
duCed TO Il. small acreage of fire, and that
few Goals left. and these are whitening and
going out until there iS not II spark left In all
ashes and the chasms of ashes. An Cxtin
guished sun. A dead sun. 4 buried sun.
Let all worlds wall at the stuoendous oh.
seQuies.
Of course, this withdrawal of the solar light
and heat throws our earth into Il universal
chill and the tropics become the temperate,
and the temperate becomes the Arctic, and
there are frozen rivers and frozen lakes
and frozen oceans. From Arctic and Ant
arctic regions the inhabitants gather in to.
ward the center. and find the equator as the
poles. The slain forests are piled up into
q great bonfire, and around them gather the
shiNerng villages and cities The wealth of
the coal mines Is hastily poured into the fur
naces and stine into rage of combustion but
soon the bonfrcs begin 10 lower, and the fur.
naCes begin TO 90 out and the nations begin
tndie. Cotopaxi Nesuvius, Etna' stromboli,
ice, of hail storms remains unmoved in
their crater. All the flowers have
blreathcd their last breath. Ships with sailors
frozen in the mast, and helmsinen frozen at
all nations dying first at the north and then
at the south. Child frosted and dead In the
cradle. 00ctoggenarianl frosted and dead at the
hammer and frozen foot on the SHUTTLE. Win.
ter ter wiM;n i%m sro.,o sea to ,o sea- Alfohhsea;
by Chains of ice. Universal Nova. Zembla.
The earth an ice foe grinding against other
ice focs. Tie archangels Is of malice and hor.
ror have done their work, and now they may
take their thrones of glacier and look down
upon the ruin they have wrought.
What the destruction of the sun in the natu-
the destruction Of Christianity would be to
the moral world. The sun turned into dark
ness. lniidclity IN our time Is considered a
great iSke. There are nsople who rejoice to
Christ assailed with bubble and quirk and
Misrepresentation and badinage and harle
quinadc.
propose this morning To take infdeity and
atheism out of the realm of iocularity into one
of tragedy, and show You what they propose
and What II they are successful, they will ac-
munlties who would like to see the Christian
religion oyerthrown, and who say the world
would be better without II. want to show
you what is the. end Of this road, and what is
world will be when atheism and iniidelity
have triumphed over II. i they can. say, If
'nGy hs lS !t paee W VI + be fy e sa
unmtterable degradation Of womanhood. |
will prove II by facts and arguments which no
honest man Will dispute; In nall communities
Christian religion has been dominant, woman S
| condition has been ameliorated and improved.
and she Is deferred to and honored in a
| thousand things, and every gentleman takes
| off his hat before her If your associations
| have been good, you know that the name of
| wife, mother. daughter, suggest gracious sur
| schools and seminares in Brooklyn or In any
| city of this country than the schools and semi.
naries for our young ladies. You know that
while woman may suffer Injustice in England
| else.
| Now, compare this with woman's condition
| In lands where Christianity has made little OF
| no advance-in China, In Barbary, In Borneo
| in Tartary, in Egypt, in llindostan. The Bur
mese sell their wives and daughters as 50
| many sheep. The Iiindoo bible makes II dis.
| graceful and an outrage for woman TO listen
| TO music or look out of the window In the alb
senee Of her husband, and gives as lawful
nshsd bs
| What mean those white bundles on the ponds
| and rivers in China IN the morning. Infanti
eide following infanticide. Female children
destroyed simply, because they are female
Woman harnessed TO plowas an OK. Woman
yelled and barrlcaded, and In all styles OF
cruel secluson. Her birth misfortune. llel
| life a torture. Her death horror. The mis-
sionary of the cross to-day in heather land,
| breaches generally 10 two groups-a group %
men, who do as they please and sit where
they please; the Other, group women hiddelI
where they. may hear the voice of thu
preacher, but may not be seen. No. refine
n nment' No liberty; No hope for this life. NJ
Cramped foot. Disfgured face. Embrutet
soul. Now compare these. two conditions
Hoy far toward this latter condition
Christian Influences were Withdrawn and
| Christianity We're destroyedS II Is only q
question OF dynamics. If an object be lifted
TO certain point and not fastened there, ant
the lifting power be withdrawn, how long be
fore that object will fall down to the point
from which i started' twill fall down ant
IL will go still further than the point from
which 1t started. Christianity mas lifted
woman from the very depths Of degradation
almost to the skies II that lifting power bt
withdrawn she falls clear back to the depth
from which she was resuilected, not ,goini
any. lower because there Is no lower depth
And yet, notwithstanding the fact that the
only salvation of woman from degradation ant
woe is the Christian, religion, and the only In
fluence that has eyer lEted her IN the s0cia
are women who reject Christianity. max,
no remark IN regard TO those persons. In tn,
silence of your own soul make your observa
| tiOns.
ii mfdelity triumph and Christianity b,
society; The one idea in the Bible that athe
lists and intidels most hate, is the idea of retrI
button. Takeyaway the idea of retributioi
and punishment from society. and II wilbegil
very soon To disinteglate, and take away fron
are a great many of them who would YER
soon turn this world into hell. The lnalorit
of those who are indignant against the Bibl
because OF the idea of punishment are mel
whose lives are bad Or whose hearts are i'm
pure, and who hate the Bible because of til,
idea of future punishment for the same reaso
that criminals hate the penitentiary Oh,
have cheard this brave talk about people fearin
nothing oi the consequences of sin In the mex
world, and ] have made up my mind II Il
merely a cowards whistlng to keep his cour
age up, have seen men Haunt their immor
alitieS in the face of the community and
have heard them defy the Judgment Day ant
soon al the idea OF any future consequence q