The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1888-05-17

breaches generally to two groups
group of men who do as they please and
sit where they please; the other group
Of women hidden and carefully secluded
in side apartment, where they may hear
the voice Of the preacher, but may not be
seem 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 inf1u-
ences were Withdrawn and Christianity
were destroyei2 1t is only question Of
dyna1nics. If an object be lifted to q
certain point and not fastened there, and
the lifting power be withdrawn, how
long before that object win fall down to
the point from which it started7 It viii
fall down, and it will go still further
than the point from which it started.
Christianity has lifted woman up from
the very depths Of degradation almost to
the skies. II that lifting power be with
drawn she falls clear back to the depth
from which she was resurrected, not go
ing any lower because there is no lower
depth. And ye., notwithstanding the
fact that the only salvation Of woman
from degradation and woe is the Chris
tian religion. and the only influence that
has ever lifted her in the social scale is
Christianity-I have read that there are
women who reject Christianity. make
no remark in regard to those persons /
make no remark in regard to them. In thG
silence Of your own soul make your ob-
servations
II infidelity 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 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 pun
| ishment for the same reason that criminals
hate the penitentiary. Oh, have heard
this brave talk about people fearing moth
ing of the consequences of sin in the next
world, and have made up my mind j.
is merely towards whistling to keep
his courage up. have seen men haunt
their immoralities in the face of the COM
munity, and have heard them defy the
| Judgment day and scof at the idea Of
any future consequence 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 drawbridge into
watery grave. would not want to see
five hundred Christian people go into
such disaster but tell you plainly that
I could more easily see that than / could
for any protracted time stand and see an
infdel die, though his pillow were of
elder down and under a canopy of ver-
million. I have never been able to brace
up my nerves for such spectacle. There
is something at such time so indescrib-
able in the countenance. / just looked
in upon it for minute or two, but the
clutch of his fist was so diabolical, and
the strength Of voice was so unnatural,
could not endure it. ssThere is no hell,
there is no hell, there is no helli'' the
man had said for sixty years; but that
night when I looked in the dying room
of my infidel neighbor there was some
thing on his countenance which seemed
to say: ''There is, there is there is,
there isl"
~ The mightiest restraints today against
theft, against immortality, against iber
tinisrn, against crime of all sorts-the
| mightiest restraints are the retributions
of eternity. Men know that they car
escape the law, but down in the offend
er's soul there is the realization of the
fact that they cannot escape God. HI
stands at the end of the road Of prof
legacy, and he will not clear the guilty
Take all idea of retribution and punish
ment out of the hearts and minds Of men
and it would not be long before Brooklyn
and New York and Boston and Charles
ton and Chicago became Sodoms. The
only restraints against the evil passion
of the world today are Bible restraints
Suppose now these generals of Atheism
and 1nfdelity got the victory, and sup
pose they nnarshaled a great army mad
up of the majority of the world. They
, are in companies, IN regiments, il
brigades--the whole army. Forward
marchI ye hosts of infidels and atheists
banners flying before, banners flying be
hind, banners inscribed with the words
'.No Godl No Christi No punishment
No restraintsl Down with the Bible
Do as you pleasep The sun turned int
, darkness.
Forward, march, ye great army of in
idels and atheists. And first of all yo
. will attack the churches. Away wit
those houses Of worshipl They hav
been standing there so long deluding tn
people with consolation il their bereave
, ments and sorrows. All those churche
ought to be extirpated; they have don
30 much to relieve the lost and brin
: home the wandering. and they have s
> long held up the idea of eternal rest afte
the paroxysm Of this life is over. Tur
, the st. Peters and st. Pauls and the ten
pies and tabernacles into club house
Away with those churchesl
: Forward, marchl ye great army of IL
fdels and atheists, and next Of all the
scatter the Sabbath schools-the Sabbai
8 schools filed with bright eyed. brigl
q checked little ones who are singing sont
!, on Sunday afternoon, and getting instru
r tions when they ought to be on the sire
J. corners playing marbles, or swearing {
d the commons. Away with theml Fo
o ward, march, ye great army Of infide
0 and atheists, and nsxt of all they will a
8 tack Christian asylums-the institution
5 Of mercy supported by the Christis
8 philanthropies. Never mind the bliI
% eyes and the deaf ears and the cripple
n limbs and the weakened intellects. L
+ paralyzed old age pick up its own foo
n and orphans fight their own way, al
the half reformed go back to their ev
!. habits. Forward, marchl ye great arm
u Of infdels and atheists, and with yo1
q battle axes hew down the cross and SD
II up the manger of Bethlehem.
# On, ye great army Of infdels and ath
Il iets and now they come to the prav