Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1888-08-15

IN NOOA > AOOOO- :
can headquarters and the Democratic heat
tquarters. Suppose should go into one {
these headquarters pretending to be
sympathy with their work, at the same tim
lelectioneering for the opposite party.
would soon find that the centrifugal fore
was greater than the centripetal Now,
a man enters denomination of Christian.
taking solemn oath, as we all do, that W
will promulgate the theories of that demon
lnation, and then the man shall proclair
some other theory, he has broken his oatt
and be is an out-and-out perjurer. Never
theless, l declare for largest liberty in re
ligious discussion. l would no more hav
the attempt to rear monument to Thoma
Paine interfered with than / would hav
interfsred with the lifting of the spendi
monument to Washington. Largest libert
for the body, largest liberty for the mind
largest liberty for the soul.
Now, want to show you, as matter o
| advocacy for what believe to be the right
| the splendors of orthodoxy. Many hav
supposed that its disciples are people of fla
| skulls, and no reading, and behind the age
and the victims of ofgullibility. shall show
you that the word orthodoxy stands for thu
greatest splendors outside of heaven. Be
hold the splendors of its achievements. AL
the missionaries of the Gospel the worlG
round are men who believe in an entire Bi
BILE. Call the roll of all the missionaries
who are to-day enduring sacrifices in the ends
of the earth for the cause of religion and ths
worlds betterment, and they all believe in
an entire Bible. Just as soon as mis-
sionary begins to doubt whether there
whether there ever was Garden of Eden,
or whether there is any such thing as future
punishment, he comes right home from Bey.
rout or Madras, and goes into the insurance
business! All the missionary societies this
day are oficered by orthodox men, and are
supported by orthodox churches.
Orthodoxy, beginning with the Sandwich
Islands, has captured vast regions of barba-
rism for civilization, while heterodoxy has
to capture the first square inch. Blatant
for many years in Great Britain and the
United States, and strutting about with a
peacockian braggadocio it has yet to capture
the first continent, the first State, the first
township, the first ward, the first space of
ground as big as you could cover with the
small end of sharp pin. Ninety-nine out
of every hundred of the Protestant churches
of America were built by people who be-
lieved in an entire Bible. The pulpit now
may preach some other Gospel, but it is a
heterodox gun on an orthodox carriage.
The foundations of all the churches that are
of very great use in this world to-day were
laid by men who believed the Bible from
lid to lid, and if cannot take it in that way
1 will not take it at all; just as if I received
letter that pretended to come from a
friend, and part of it was his and part some-
body else's, and the other part somebody
else's and it was sort of literary mongre-
lism, would throw the garbled sheets into
the waste basket.
No church of very great influence to day
but was built by those who believed in an
entire Bible. Neither will church last
long built on part of the Bible. You
have noticed, suppose, that as soon as a
man begins to give up the Bible he is apt to
preach in some hall, and he has an audi
ence while he lives, and when he dies the
church dies. If thought that my church
in Brooklyn was built on a quarter of a
Bible, or half Bible, or three quarter of
Bible, or ninety-nine one-hundredths of a
Bible, I would expect it to die when die;
but when know it is built On the entire
word of God, know it will last two hun
dred years after you and I sleep the last
sleep. Oh, the splendors of an orthodoxy,
which with ten Thousand hands and ten
thousand pulpits and ten thousand Christian
churches, is trying to save the world
In Music Hall, Boston, for many years
stood Theodore Parker battling orthodoxy,
giving it, as some supposed at that time, its
death wound. He was the most fasclnat-
ing man I ever heard or ever expect to hear,
and came out from hearing him thinking,
in my boyhood way, "Well, that's the
death of the Church" On that same street
and not far from being opposite, stood Park
Congregational church. called by its ene-
mics ''Hell-fre Corner" Theodors Parker
died aud his Church died with him, or, if it
is in existence, if is so small you cannot see
it with the naked eye. Park Congregational
church still stands on sHell-ire Corner, -
laundering away the magnificent truths OF
this glorious orthodoxy just as though The
odore Parker had never lived All that
Boston, or Brooklyn, or New York, or the
world ever got that is worth having came
through the wide aqueduct of orthodoxy
from the throne Of God.
Behold the sp!endors of character built
up by orthodoxy. Who had the greatest
human intellect the world ever knews
Paul. In physical stature, insignificant; in
mind, head and shoulders above all the
giants of the age. Orthodox from scalp To
heel. Who was the greatest poet the ages
ever saw, acknowledged to be so both by
intidels and Christians? John Milton, see.
ing more without eyes than nybody else
ever saw with eyes. Orthodox from scalp
to heel. Who was the greatest reformer
the world has ever seen, SO acknowledged
by inidels as we'll as by Christians? Martin
Luther. Orthodox from scalp to heel.
Then look at the certitudes. o man, be.
lieving in an entire Bible, where did you
come from? Answer: 81 descended from
a perfect parentage In Paradise, and
Jehovah breathed into my nostrils the
breath of life. am son of God." O
man, believing in half and-hal Bible, be-
lieving in Bible in spots, where did you
come from? Answer: cit is all uncertain:
in my ancestral line away back there was
an orang-outang and a tadpole and poly.
wog, and it took millions of years to get
me evoluted.' o mau, believing in Bible
in spots, where are you going to when you
quic this world? Answer: "Going into a
great to be, so on into the great some where,
and then [ shall pass through on to the
great anywhere, and shall probably arrive
in the nowhere" That is where l
thought you would fetch up. o mat, be-
lievipg in an entire Bible, and believing
with all your heart, where are you going
to when you leave this world? Answer:
81 am going to my Fathers house; l am
going into the mpauionship of my loved
ones who have gone before; am going to
leave all my sins, and am going to be with
God and like God forever and forever"
Oh, the glorious certitudes of orthodoxy!
Behold the splendors of orthodoxy in it's
announcement of two destinies,
Palace and penitentiary. Palace with
gates on all sides through which all may
enter and live on celestial luxuries world
without end, and all for the knocking and
the asking. a palace grander than if all
the Alhambras and the Versailles and tho
Windsor Castles and the Winter Gardens
and the imperial abodes of all the earth
were heaved up into one architectural glo-
ry. At the other end of the universe
penitentiary where men who want their
sins can have them. Would it be fair that
you and should have our choice of Christ
and the palace, and other men be denied
their choice of sin and eternal degradation?
Palace and penitentiary. The first of no
use unless you have the last. Brooklyn
and New York would be better places to
live in with Paumopl otraat ;a;l opd tl,a