The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1888-05-17

birth misfortune her lie torture.
Her death horror. The missionary OF
the cross to-day in heathen lands preach.
es generally to two groups-a group OF
men who do as they please and sit where
they please the other group woman hid
den and carefully secluded in side
apartment where they may hear the
voice of the preacher, but may not be
seen. No refinement No liberty. No
hope for this life. No hope for the life
to come. Hinged nose. Cramped foot.
Disfgured face. Embruted soul. Now |
compare these two conditions How far
toward this latter condition that | speak |
of would woman go if Christian intlu-
ences were withdrawn and Christianity.
were destroyed ? 1t is only question OF
dynamics. If an object be lifted to a
certain point and not fastened there, and J
the lifting power be withdrawn, how
long before that object will fall down to
the point from which it started 1t will
fall down, and will go still further than
the point from which it started. Christ
ianity has lifted woman up from the
very depths of degradation almost to the
skies. If that lifting power be with
drawn she falls clear back to the depth
from which she was FeSurrected, not 60
ing any lower because there is no lower
depth. And yet notwithstanding the
fact that the only salvation of woman
from degradation and woe is the Christ
ian religion, and the only influence that
has ever lifted her in the social scale is
Christianity-I nave heard that there
are women who reject Christianity.
make no remark in regard to them. In
the silence of your own soul make your
observations.
If infdelity triumph and Christianity
be overthrown, it means the demorailza-
ton OF society. The one idea in the
Bible that atheist and infdels most hate,
is the idea OF retribution. Take away
the idea of retribution and punishment
from society, and it will begin very soon
to disintegrate and take away from the
minds of men the fear OF hell, and there
are a great many OF them who would
very soon turn this world into hell.
The majority of those who are indignant
against the Bible because OF the idea OF
punishment are men whose lives are bad
| or whose hearts are impure, and who
| hate the Bible because of the idea OF
future punishment for the same reason
that criminals hate the penitentiary. Oh,
l have heard this brave talk about peo-
pie fearing nothing of the consequences
of sin in the next world, and have made
up my mind it is merely a coward's
whistling to keep his courage up. have
seen men flaunt their immoralities in the
face OF the community, and | have
heard them defy the judgment day and
scott at the idea of any future conse-
quence OF their sin: but when they came
to die they shrieked until you could hear
them for nearly. two blocks and in the
summer night the neighbors got up to-
put the windows down because they
could not endure the horror.
would not want to see rail train
with five hundred Christian people on
board go down through a drawbridge
into watery grave. would not want
to see five hundred Christian people go
into such disaster but ! tell you plainly
that could more easily see that than
could for any protracted time stand and
see an infidel die, though hisp pillows were
of elder down and under canopy OF YER
million. | have never been able to brace
up nv nerves for such spectacle. There
is something at such time so unde-
scribable in the countenance. l Just
looked in upon it for a minute or two,
but the clut, OF his fist was so diabolic,
and the strength of voice was 80 un-
natural, could not endure it. "There
is no hell, there is no hell, there is no
hell" the man had said for sixty years /;
but that night when looked in the dying
room of my infidel neighbor, there was
something on his countenance which
seemed to say "There is, there is, there
is, there is P'
The mightiest restraints to-day against
theft, against immortality, against liber-
tinism, 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 offend
er's soul there is the realization OF the
fact that they cannot escape God. He
stands at the end OF the road OF prohigacy
and he will not clear the guilty. Take
all idea of retTibuion 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 Sodoms. The only
restraints against the evil passions of the
; world to-day are Bible restraints.
Suppose now these generals Of atheism
|. ndintidelity gothic victory, and suppose
, they marshaled great army made up oi
the majority of the world. They are in
! companies, in regiments, in brigades-
the whole army. Forward, march ye
hosts of inidels and atheists, banner;
flying before, banners flying behind, ban
ners inscribed with the words: "Nc
{ God! No Christ No punishment NJ
, restraints Down with the Bible DE-
, as YOU please W The sun turned into
darkness.
! Forward, march! We great army of in
! will attack the churches. Away will
Z LLoao ho,.ou If ruOpdhip TThavr hn,,,
{ been standing there so long deluding tht
people with consolation in their bereave
/ ments and sorrows. All those churche
J ought to be extirpated they have dom
( 80 much to relieve the lost and brini
home the wandering, and they have 81
: long held up the idea OF eternal rest ate
4 the paroxysm of this life is over. Turl
a the St. Peters and st. Pauls and the tenn
a pies and tabernacles into club houses
Away with those churches
q ForW ard, march ye great army OF in
!, fidels and atheists, and next OF all the
scatter the Sabbath schools-the Sabbatl
/ schools filled with bright-eyed, bright
a checked little ones who are singing song
n on Sunday afternoon, and getting in
!. struction when they ought to be on tn
: street. corners playing marbles, or swear
+ ing Oh the commons. Away with them
n Forward, march ye great army of in
a fidels and atheists, and next OF all the
% will attack Christian asylums-the il
n stitutions of mercy supported by Chris
q tian philanthropies. Never mind tn
Ia blind eyes and the deaf ears and th
"a crippled limbs and the weakened il
teliects. Let paralyzed old age pick u
4 its own food, and orphans fight their ow
a way, and the half reformed go back
n their evil habits Forward, march! y
h great army of infdels and atheists, an
i11 with your battleaxes hew down the eros
= and split up the manger of Bethlehem