The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1888-03-01

lneSe questions ARE not lngerSOllS
arguments unanswrrableI What are
you going to do about it?-having been
submitted to college president by sew
eral of his students, he replied as fol-
lows: 80 you are out half dollar apiece
are you? No, no, | cannot answer him.
Boys. | recall the incident in my eager
and impetuous youth of wasting
pound and half of bird shot on Q small
owl. | followed him from tree to tree,
and shot away as much as hat full
of feathers, and when he died of fatigue
found that his body was about as large
as robins and | could put it to no
earthly use. He was deceptive target.
Ii understand the gentleman from Pc.
Oria, he wishes to llberate youth from
the incubus and thraldom of supers:i-
ton. That devastating influence of the
country clergyman on $500 per annum
and donation is what worries Robert,
and he proposes Ia cure it and eradicate
it for the trltllng plttance of $3.50 per
lecture, For fifty cents he proposes to
liberate your mind from that influence
which was filtered into it from the
trembling lips of your mother, and free
you from the chains of superstition load
ed upon your soul by the rough but low
ing hand of your father. Of course he
worries about you more than those old
fogies did-for fifty cents, You look
around you in the city here, and you
discover several millions of dollars in
vested in hospitals seminaries. asylums
forced on the suffering community by
this same mythical, miraculous and
superstitous incubus of religion. You
90 L. kn Daprtn haE
his little public institutions are. founded
BY is peCu lar teachings, and he says in
an absent minded manner, Fifty cents
at the door Boys, you see sometimes a
poor mans little funeral procession,
with democratic wagon and little cof.
fin in it,so small you could carry il under
your arm. A poor couple walk behind
it with breaking hearts. Their baby is
in the little coffin. 1t was their all.
Their hearts are broken. Oh, if we only
had Bob here to itell them about liberty
and myths and miracles-for fifty cents,
How it would cheer them up. But, you
say, There so many infidels,' Boys you
are mistaken. An infidel is an abnor
NAL growth and nature feels funny once
in a while and creates freak-e. g., the
living skeleton. the fat woman, the two
headed girl. So there is about one inf
del to million sane men, The most OF
these noisy fellows are amateur intidels
They talk Ingersoll in fair weather and
pray themselves hoarse every time il
thunders. A well developed. case oi
cholera morbus will KIN, ok their infidel-
ity out of them and leave them in a cold
sweat, like china dog in an ice house
| know them. The most of them are
like the boy who runs away from home
and comes back to stay with his father
nights, Then again. boys, take a look
around you when you invest another
fifty cents in liberty and compare the
crowd with the kind of people you fine
| in almost any church. Is it the odor u
sanctity you smell? Hardly, boys hardly
But you can eat peanuts there and chok,
on the shells, while you applaud th'
funny joke about the heaven where yoI
know in your hearts your dear mOthe
is. or hear the humble Nazarene rldicul
ed who, you think, and always viii
think, gave home to your weary ole
father when he left the earth. Yes, boy
his arguments are unswerable, and
think the seasons will come along ant
the churches will continue to bloom
and all nature will most exasperatingl!
and calmly perform her functions i
Robert is not answered. You know
when the first steamer crossed the AT
antic great philosopher was deliver
ing a most conclusive argument to prov
that by no possibility could steam yes
sci cross the ocean, and that provoking
steamer came snortIng sizzling an
splurging right into the harbor, Boys
so will Gods foolish children go righ
on praying and preaching and dyin
and going 10 heaven in spite of argu
ment.-[ Christian Thought.