The Brookhaven leader., 1891-04-16

OhO bidih AZ biS InOSb dangerous point
of the journey. But the lightning
train, not knowing there was any inn
pediment in the way, came down crush
ing out of the mangled victims the i'm
mortal souls that went speeding instant
ly to the God and to Judgment 1t was
only joke. He thought it would be
such fun to stop the train. He stopped
it! And so infidelity is chiefly anxious
to stop the long train of the Bible, and
the long train of the churches, and the
long train of Christian influences, while
coming down upon us are death, judg-
ment and eternity, coming n thousand
miles minute, coming with more force
than all the avalanches that ever slipped
from the Alps, coming with more
strength than all the lightning-express
trains that ever whistled or shrieked, or
Numbered across the continent.
Now, in this sentiment of infidel
thinkers l can not join, and propose
to give you some reasons why can not
be an infidel, and so / will try to help
out of this present condition any who
may have been struck with the awful
plague of skepticism.
First, can not be an infidel because
infidelity has no good substitute for the
consolation it proposes to take away.
You know there are millions of people
who get their chief consolation from this
book. What would you think of cru
SADIE of this sort? Suppose man should
resolve that he would organize a con-
spiracy to destroy all the medicines
from all the apothecaries and from all
the hospitals of the earth. The work
is done. The medicines are taken and
they are thrown into the river, or the
lake, or the sea. A patient wakes up
at midnight in a paroxysm of distress,
and wants an anodyne. oh" says the
nurse, ''the anodynes are all destroyed;
we have no drops to give you, but in
stead of that I'll read you a book on the
absurdities of morphine, and on the abb
surdities of all remedies" But the man
continues to writhe in pain, and the nurse
says: 'l'll continue to read you some
discourses on anodynes, the cruelties of
anodynes, the indecencies of anodynes,
the absurdities of anodynes. For your
groan I'll give you a laugh" Here in
the hospital is patient having a gan
grened limb amputated. He says, "Oh,
for ether. Oh, for chloroform." The
doctors say: "Why, they are all de-
stroyed;- we don't have any more chic
reform or ether; but l have got some
thing a great deal better. I'll read you
phamphlet~ against James Y. Simp-
son, the discOverer of chloroform as
an anasthetic, and against Drs.
Agnew and Hamilton and Hosack
and Mott aud Harvey and Abernethy."
"But," says the man, 81 must have some
anesthetics." NO" say the doctors,
''they are all destroyed, but we have
got something a great deal better"
"What is that?" Fun" Fun about
medicines. Lie down, all we patients
in Bellevue hospital and stop your
groaning-all ye broken-hearted of all
the cities and quit our crying; we have
the catholicon at last! Here is dose of
wit, here is a strengthening plaster of
sarcasm, here is bottle of ribaldry
that you are to keep well shaken up
and take spoonful of it after
each meal, and if that does not
cure you, here is solution of bias
phemy in which you may bathe, and
here is a tincture of derision. Tickle
the skeleton of death with a repartee!
make the king of terrors cackle! For
all the agonies of all the ages, a joke!
Millions of people willing with up
lifted hand toward Heaven to affirm
that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is full
of consolation for them, and yet in
fidelity proposes to take it away, giving
absolutely nothing, except fun. Is
there any greater height, or depth, or
length, or breadth, or immensity of
meanness in all G DDS universe?
Infdelity is a religion of don't
know" Is there God? Don't know!
Is the soul immortale Don't know! If
we should meet each other in the future
world will we recognize each other?
Don't know! A Areligion of don't know"
for the religion of II know" 81 know
in whom l have believed" 81 know
that my Redeemer liveth." Infidelity
proposes to substitute a religion of
awful negatives for our religion of glo-
rious positives showing right before us
world of reunion and ecstasy, and
high companionship, and glorious wor-
ship. and stupendous victory; the might
lest Joy of earth not high enough to
reach to the base of the HimalGEa of
uplifted splendor awaiting all those
who on the wing of Christian faith will
soar toward it
Furthermore, l can not be an infdel
because of the false charges infdelity
is all the time making against the Bible.
Perhaps the slander that has made the
most impression, and that some Chris
tians have not been intelligent enough
to deny, is that the Bible favors polyg-
amy. Does the God of the Bible up
hold polygamy, or did He? How many
wives did God make for Adam? He
made one wife. Does not your COM
mon sense tell you when God started
the marriage institution He started it
as He wanted it to continue? II God
had favored polygamy He could have
created for Adam five wives, or ten
wives, or twenty wives just as easily
as He made one. At the very first of
the Bible God shows Himself in favor
of monogamy and antagonistic to
polygamy, Genesis ii, "a.
Therefore shall a man leave his IA
ther and mother, and shall cleave unto
his wife" Not his wives, but his wife.
How many wives did God spare for
Noah in the ark? Two and two the
birds; two and two the. cattle; two and
two the lions; two and two the human
race. If the God of the Bible had ia
vored a multiplicitv of wives He would