Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1888-03-10
MOVE ON A STEP.


caused so much excitement in Cham
bersburg and talk +" in the papers,
is preparing for regular religious
campaign at Williams Grove when
the Granger exhibition takes place
this fall.
Why she should stir up so much
enthusiasm and excitement in religi-
Gus circles, is not quite plain to us.
The most of her success and notoriety
can however be traced to the bitter
opposition and denunciation of the
established churches and their pre-
siding ministers. And if they will
tolerate for moment our poor judg.
ment and limited knowledge of the
mysteries of religion and of human
nature, we should like to say few
plain words, at the expense of being
called anything they may see fit to
call us.
Why this opposition and denun.
citation of everything that comes
along in the religious line, that does
not just exactly fit in with some Or
thodox movement of salvation 7
Never having heard a reasonable
reason, we must surmise for our
selves: Not jealousy or rivalry !:
Then move on step. Is it because
these new emotions have no adopt
ed name or organization !? All sects
and creeds spring from obscurity. IL
it because these itinerants have no
church to worship in? Church build
ings are not an essential part of
faith they are the outgrowth of
usage, custom and necessity. None
of the great works of Christ we're
performed in church building, ex-
cept His kicking the thieves and
gamblers out of the temple which
they profaned. Then move, on a
step. "They say" the doings of
these faith healers, salyationists,
"cranks and crusaders of all kinds,
are money (living) making schemes
and the work of the devil. Is it pos
sible! Ruts like these take us back
in an unbroken line, in every form
and order of religion,-pagan, chris
tian, mystical and mythical, Ito the
creation of the world. Veil the face
of your boosted modern science and
civilization, for shame, until we re.
call the torture and burning of men
and women for witchcraft, black arts,
heresy, jealousy, narrow mindedness
and bigotry,-aIl In the name OF re-
ligion and with the sanction of Gods
own ordained servants. Now lift
the veil and move on step. Faith
healing and salvation by the aid of
the devil! Not man of them be-
leves it, and the number of old
women whose stock-in- trade such ar
garments are, is getting fewer every
day. We are taught that the devil
is the personification of evil and all
his works and pomps are darkness,
which the light of faith dispels. We
are forewarned in sacred writ that
he shall deceive, but the end of all
his deception is destruction. What
fear, then, to orthodox religion {?
Will not It's glory shine the more
Respondent In vain that labor in
which the hand of God is not; and
is it not easy for God to confound
His enemies by the mouths of in.
fantsg Then move on step.
But no intelligent person believes
that faith-heallng as practiced by
excitable women or magnetic man.
hood is the work of God or the devil.
Science and religion have found out
mode of living down greater de.
lusions then these. Medical science
is good enough authority for the as
sertion that the Imagination that
can bring on disease or Superinduce
death, can also dispel disease and
proloDg life. The sight of dentist
is the best cure for a toothache, but
when the dentist is out of sight the
toothache is in sightagain. So with
the result of Imagination and religi-
GUS enthusiasm and excitement.
Further than that some persons are
gifted with magnetic powers and
electric effects, which are intensified
by the condition of the mind or
faith as it is called, NOT super
natural faith, put the faith we must
have in our physician to make his
medicine the more effective the
faith I'VE have in ourselves to sue
coed in things for which our qualifi-
cations are not quite sufficient.
There is magnetism that charms
and holds spell-bound in social inter
course, in the pulpit and the bar
faith in which is natural and al.
lowable, and no work of the Lord or
the devil about it, outside OF the
regular course of human agencies.
Religion does no longer say that
the devil has hand in ventrilo.
quism or slight of-hand performance,
mt in waII,inu IN y,tor on co; Hin,