Charlotte messenger. [volume] (Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) 1882-18??, 1888-06-09
REV DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOLLYN DIvINE's SUNDAY
SERMON.

ness.-Acts IL, %.
Eolar eclipse is here prophesied to take
place about the time of the destruction of
ancient Jerusalem. Josephus. the historian,
says that the prophecy WIS literally fulfilled,
and that about that time there were strange
appearances in the heavens. The SUI was
not destroyed. but for a little while hidden.
Christianity is the rising sun of our time,
and men have tried with the uprolIing va
pors of skepticism and the smoke of their
blasphemy TO turn the sun into darkness
Suppose II e archangels OF malice ana horror
should be let loose little while and he al
lowed to extinguish and destroy the sun in
the natural heavens They would take the
oceans from other worlds and pour them on
this luminary OF the planetary system and
the waters 90 kissing down amid the ravines
and the caveTns, and there is explosion after
explosion until there are only few peaks of
fire lett IN the sun, and these are cooling
down and going out until the vast continents
OF flame are reduced to a small acreage of
fire, and that whltens and cOOis of until
there are only few Goals left, and these are
whitening and going out until there is not a
spark left in all the mountains of ashes and
the valleys OF ashes and the chasms of ashes.
An extIngushed sun. dead sun. A buried
sun. Let all worlds wall at the stupendous
obsequies
vi course this withdrawal of the solar heat
and light throws our earth into a universal
chill. and the tropics become the temperate
ana the temper ate becomes the Arctic. and
there are fro. en- rivers and frozen lakes and
frozen oceans From Arctic and Antarctic
regions the inhabitants gather in toward ths
center and find the equator as the poles The
slain forests are piled uD into a great bonfire,
and around them gather the shivering VIII
lagos and cities. The wealth of the coal mines
is hastily poured into the furnaces and
stirred into rage of combustion, but soon the
boDfires begin to lower and the furnaces be-
gin to so out and the nations begin to die.
COtOpaxi. Nesuvius, Etna. Siromboli, Cali
fornlan geyseTS cease to smoke and the ice
of hail storms remains unmelted IN their
craters. All the flowers have bFeathed their
last lreath. Ships with sailors frozen
at the mast and helmsmen frozen at the
wheel. and passengers frozen in the cabin;
all nations dying. first at the north and then
at the south. Child frosted aud dead in the
cradle. Octogenarian fTostad and dead at
the hearth. WOrkmen with frozen hand on
the hammer and frozen foot on the shuttle.
Winter from sea to sea. All congealing win
ter. Perpetual winter. JlOte of frigidity.
Hemisphere shackeI to hem sphere by
chains of ice. Universal Nova Zembla-
The earth an ice foe grinding against other
ice foes. The archangels OF malice and hor
ror have done their work, and now they may
take their thrones of glacier and look down
upon the ruin they have wrought.
What the destruction of tine sun in the
natural heavens would be to our physi-
cal earth, the destruction of Christianity
would be to the moral world. The sun
turned into darkness iniideIity in our time
is considered great joke. There are people
who re iOsce TO hear Christianity caricatured,
and to hear Christ assailel with quiDble and
quirk and Misrepresentation and badinage
and harleluinade.
| propose this morning TO take inidelity
and atheism out OF the realm of lOcuiarity
into one Of tragedy and show you what they
propose, and what. If they are successful,
they will accomplish. There are those in ali
our communities who would like to see the
Christian religion overthrow, and who saw
the world would be better without it. l want
to show YOU what is the end OF this road,
and what Is the terminus of this crusade
and what this world will he when atheism
and inti,ielIJy have triumphe1Over it. If they
can say, it they can. L reiterate it, if
they can.
In the first place. it will be the complete
and unutteTabe degradation OF womanhoOd.
will prove it by facts and arguments which
no honest man will dispute. In all com
munitieS and cities and states AMI nations
where the Christian religion has been domi-
nant, woman's condition has been ameli-
GRATED and improved. AMI she is deferred to
and honored in a thousand things, and every
gentleman takes off his hat before her. II
your associations have been good, you know
that the name of wife, mother daughter,
suggest gracious surroundings You know
there are no better schools and Summaries in
BROOKLYN or in any city Of this country than
the schools and semnaries for young ladies'
You know that while s-.man may suffer III
justice in England and She United States,
she has more OF her rigAts in Christendom
than she has anywhere else.
Now, compare this with woman's condi-
tion in lsn Is where Christianity has made
little or 10 advance-in China, in Barhary
in Borneo in Tartary. in Egypt. in Hindo-
stan The Burmese sell their wives and
daughters as 50 many sheep. The Hindoo
Bible makes it disgracetul and an outrage
for a woman to listen to music or look out of
the window in the absence of her husband,
and gives as lawful ground for divorce a
wOmans beginning to eat before her husband
has finished his meal What mean those
white bundles on the ponds and rivers
in China IN the morning. lnfantieide fol-
lowing infanticide Female children de
stroyed simply because they are female.
Woman harnesssd to pillow an OK No-
man veiied and harrIcaded, and IN all STYLES
OF cruel seelusion. Her birth a misfortune.
Her life torture. Her death a horror
The missionary Of the cross to-day in
b0athen lands breaches generally 20 two
groups "a group of men who do as
they please and sit where they please;
tile other group-wOmen hidden and care
fully secluded IN a side apartment where they
may hear the voice of the preacher but
may not be seen No refinement. No lib
erty. No hope for this life No hope for the
life to come. Hinged nose Cramped foot.
Distigurel face. Embruted soul. Now com
pare those two conditions How far toward
this latter condition that I speak Of would
woman go If Christian Influences were with
drawn and Christianity were DESTROYED. Il
Is only question Of dynamics If an Oh ject
be lifted to "A certain point and not fasien Il
there, and the lifting power be with lrawn.
how long before that object will fail down 70
the point from which IL startel. IL VIII
fall down, and it will go still further than
the point from "a hich it starte l. Christian
1ty has liitei woman up from the very depths
OF degradation almost to the skies II that
lifting power b. withdrawn she falls clear
back TO the sieTth from which she was rssur-
rected, n5t going any lower be -ause 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
Christianity j make no remark il, regart
70 those persons. l make no remarl, in re-
gard 70 them In the silence Of your own
soul make your observations
III lniidellty triumph and Christianity be
overthrow. It means the decentralization Of
society. The one idea in the Bible that atbe-
Isis auI inffiftfs mrs hat. Il