The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1891-12-18

SO liberal that he will give away his
Bible, He is so ''liberal" that he will
give away the throne of eternal justice,
He is so "liberal that he would be
willing to give God out of the universe,
He is so ''liberaln that he would give
up his own soul and the soul of all his
friends. Now what more could you
ask in the way of liberallty9 The vic
tim Of this skeptic has probably Just
come from the country, Through the
Intervention Of friends he has been
placed in shop,
On Saturday the skeptic says to him,
"Well, what are You going TO do to-
morrow He says, II am going to
church" rs it possible2" says the
skeptic. swell, l used to do those
things was brought up, suppose,
as you were, in a religious family, and
| believed all those things, but l got
over it. The fact is, since | came to
town / have read great deal, and
have found that there are great many
things in the Bible that are ridiculous.
Now, for instance, all that about the
serpent being cursed to crawlin the Gar
den of Eden because it had tempted
our first parents; why, you see how alb
surd it is; you can tell from the very or
ganization of the serpent that it had to
crawl; it crawled before it was cursed
just as well as it crawled afterwards you
can tell from its organization that it
| crawled. Then all that story about the
whale swallowing Jonah, orJanah swal-
lowing the whale, which was it ? 1t don't
make any difference, the thing is absurd;
it is ridiculous to suppose that a man
could have gone down through the jaws
of a sea monster and yet kept his life;
why, his respiration would have been
hindered /; he would have been digested;
the gastric juice would have dissolved
the tibrine and coagulated albumen,
and Jonah would have been changed
from prophet into chyle. Then all that
story about the miraculous conception
why, it is perfectly disgraceful, Oh,
sir, | believe in the light of nature.
This is the Nineteeth century. Prog
ress, sir; progress. don't blame Won
but after you have been in town as
long as have you will think just as |
do"
Thousands of young men are going
down under that process day by day,
and there is only here and there a
young man who can endure this artil
lery of scorn. They are giving up their
Bibles. The light of nature! They
have the light of nature in China; they
have it in Hindostan; they have it in
Ceylon. Flowers there, stars there
waters there, winds there; but no civil
lization, no homes, no happiness, Ian
Gets to cut, and juggernauts to fall I'M
der, and hooks to swing to; but no
happiness. tell you, my young brother
we have to take religion of some kind
We have to choose between four or
five. Shall it be the Koran of the Mo
hammedan, or the Shaster of the Hin
| doc, or the Iendavesta of the Persian,
or the Coaiucius writings Of the Chi
nese, or the Holy Scriptures? Take
what you will; God helping me, will
take the Bible. Light for all darkness;
rock for all foundation; balm for all
wounds. A glory that lifts its pillars
of fire over the wilderness march.
Do not give up your Bibles If these
people scott at you as though religion
and the Bible were fit only for weak
minded people, you just tell them you
are not ashamed to be in the company
of Burke the statesman, and Raphael
the painter, and Thorwaldsen the
sculptor, and Mozart the musician, and
Blackstone the lawyer, and Bacon the
philosopher, and Harvey the physician,
and John Milton the poet
Ask them what infidelity has ever
done to lift the fourteen hundred mil
| lions of the race out of barbarism.
Ask them when infideiity ever institut-
ed a sanitary commission; and, before
you leave their society once and for
ever, tell them that they have insulted
the memory of your Christian father
and spit upon the deathbed of your
mother, and with swine's snout rooted
up the grave of your sister who died
believing in the Lord Jesus.
ALL sUFFICIENCY OF THE SCRIPTURES.
Young man, hold on to your Bible;
it is the best book you ever owned. 1t
will tell you how to dress, how to bar
gain, how to walk, how to act, how to
live, how to die. Glorious Bible!
Whether on parchment or paper in oc-
| tavo or duodecimo, on the center table
of the drawing room or in the counting
room of the banker. Glorious Bible!
Light to our feet and lamp to our path.
| Hold on to it!
The second class of insidious tempta,
tons that comes upon our young men
is led on by the dishonest employer.
Every commercial establishment is
school, In nine cases out of ten the
principles of the employer become the
principles of the employee. | ask the
4 older merchants to bear me out in these
statements
If, when you were just starting in
life, in commercial life, you were told
that honesty was not marketable, that
though you might sell all the goods in
the shop you must not sell your con-
science, that while you were to exercise
all industry and tact you were not to
sell your conscience-if you were taught
that gains gotten by sin were combusti-
BILE, and at the moment of ignition
would be blown on by the breath of
God until all the splendid estate would
vanish into white ashes scattered in the
whirlwind that instruction has
been to you precaution and help
ever since.
There are hundreds of commercial
establishments in our great cities which
are educating class of young men
who will be the honor of the land, and
there are other establishments which
are educating young men to be nothing