Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1888-05-26

AfN'N' - 10y "'"' Nh~ Nv -
| the preacher, but may not be seen. Nc
refinement. No liberty. No hope foI
this life. No hope fer the life to come.
hinged nose. Cramped foot. Disfguret
face. Embrutcd soul. Now compare
these two conditions. How far toward
this latter condition that | speak of would
woman 20 if Christian influences wer,
withdrawn and Christianity were de.
stroyed? 1t is only a question Of dyna.
mics. II an object be lifted TO a certain
ing power be Withdrawn, how long before
that object will fall down to the point
from which it started? Ii will fall down,
and it will 90 still further than the point
from which it started.
CHRISTIANITY
has lifted woman up FIR N the very depths
OF degradation almost to the skies. If
that lifting power be Withdrawn she falls
clear back 10 the depth from which she
was resurrected, not going any lower be-
cause there is no lower depth. And yet,
Notwithstanding the fact that the only
salvation Of woman from degradation and
woe is the Christian religion, and the
only influence that has ever lifted her in
the social scale is Christianity, | have read
that there are women who reject Chris
tianity. make no remark in regard 10
those persons. | make no remark in re-
gard to them. In the silence NJ your own
soul make your observations.
II intidelity triumph and Christianity
be overthrown, it means the demoraliZa-
ton of society. The one idea in the
Bible that atheists 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 q great many Of them who would very
soon turn this world into a 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 flu
ture punishment for the same reason that
criminals hate the pe~nitentiary. Oh, |
have heard this brave talk about people
fearing nothing OF the consequences Of
sin in the next world, and ] have made
up my mind ii is mereiya coward s whist
ling TO keep his courage up. | have seen
men tiaunt their imm0ralities in the face
Of the community, and have heard them
defy the
JUDGMENT DAY
and scof at the idea OF any future con
sequence of their sin; but when they
came TO die they shriekcd until you could
hear them for nearly two blocks, and in
the summer night the n~eighbors got up
to put the windows down because they
could not endure the horror.
would M urnYt - .na Al ~ni1 train
with five hundred Christian people on
board go down through "A drawbridge
into a watery grave. would O want
to see five hundred Christian people 90
into such disaster, but | tell you plainly
that | could more easily see that than |
could for any p%rotraCted time stand and
see an mtidel die, though his pillow were
Of eider-down and under "A canopy OF YER
million. | have never been able 10 brace
up my nerves for such a spectacle. There
is something at such Y time so indescrib-
able in the countenanCe. just looked j n
upon ii for a minute or two, but the
clutch Of his fist was so diabolic, and the
strength OF voice so unnatural, l could
not endure it. There is no he'll, there is
no hell, there is no hell2" the man had
said for sixty years; but that night when
| looked in the dying room OF my inidel
neighbor, there WAS something on his
countenance that seemed to say: There
is, there is, there is, there isp'
MORAL RESTRAINTS.
The mightiest restraints today against
theft, against immortality, against liber,
tinism, against crime Of all sorts-the
mightisst 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 p~rofigacy, and he
will not clear the guilty. Take all the
idea Of r%etribution 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 today are Bible restraints.
Suppose now, these generals OF Athe.
ism and lnfdelity gothic victory, and sup
pose they m~srshalled a great army made
up of the majority OF the world. They
are in companies, in regiments, in brig
sdes-the whole army. Forward, march
| We hosts Of infidels and atheists, banners
flying before, banners flying behind, ban
ners inscribed with the words: No God
No Christi No punishment No restraints
| Down with the Bible! Do as you pleased
! The sun turned into darkness.
Forward, march, we great army OF inn
| dels and atheists. And first of all 20,
will attack the churches. Away will
those houses Of worshipl They hsv'
| been standing there go long deluding tn
people with consolation in their bereave
ments and VS.. ALL those Churche
| ought TO be extirpated, they have don
SO much to relieve the lost and brinl
home the wandering, and they have 81
long held up the idea OF eternal rest Nfte
the psroxysm Of this life is over. Turl
| the st, Peters and st. Psuls and the TEN
| Piles and tabernscles int club houses
| Away with those churchesl
Forward, narchl 70 great army Of iaf
dels and atheists, and mex, of all the,
scatter the Sabbath -schools-ths
sABBATH sCHooLA,
filled with bright eyed, bright-cheeke
little ones, who are singing songs on Sun
day Afternoon, and getting instructio
when they ought to be On the street. col
ners playing marbles, or swearing on tn
commons. Away with them! Forward
marchi 70 great army Of infidels TN
atheists, and neIt Of all they will attac
Christian asvlums-the institutions c