Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1891-12-15

bDtucDOdy tiSc pttyS iAio % ApShSSSf ACi
such young men we will not fight. We
would no more contend for them than
Tartary and Ethiopia would fight as to
who should have the great Sahara des-
trt. but for those young men who are
buoyant and enthusiastic, those who
nre determined to do something for
time and for eternity-for them we
will fight, and we now declare ever
llsting war against all the influences
that assail them, and we ask all good
i4en and pbiIanthropists to wheel into
lne, and all the armies of heaven to
bear down upon the foe, and we pray
Almighty God that with the thunder
bolts of his wrath he will strike down
and consume all these influences that
are attempting to destroy the young
men for whom Christ died.
THE CANT OF ''LIBERALITY."
The first class Of temptations that as
saults young man is led OIL by the
skeptic. He will not admit that lie is
an infidel or atheist. Oh, mol He is
u free thinker" He is one of your
Liberal" men. He is free and easy in
religion. Oh, how liberal he isl He Is
so liberal that he will give away bis
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.
lie is so "liberal' that he would give
up his own soul and the soul of all his
riends. Now what more could you
ask in the way of liberality7 The vic
Sim OF this skeptic has probably just
come from the country. Through the
Intervention of friends he has been
placed in shop.
On Saturday the slxeptic says to him,
well, what are you going to do to-
morrow" He says, II am going to
church" ''Is it possible" says the
skeptic. "Well, 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 a great deal, and l
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 crawl in the Gar
den of Eden because 1t 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 we'll as it crawled afterward; you
can tell from its organization that it
crawled. Then all that story about the
whale swallowing Jonah, or Janah swai.
lowing the whale, which was it2 1t don't
make any difference, the thing is absurd /;
1t is ridiculous to suppose that a man
could have gone down through the jaws
of II sea monster and yet kept his life +;
why. his respiration would have been
hndered he would have been digested
the gastric Juice would have dissolved
the fibrine 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 you,
but after you have been In town as
long as have you will think just as |
do.n
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 naturel 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
llzation, no homes, no happiness. Lam
Gets to cut, and juggernauts to fall un-
der and hooks to swing TO; but no
happiness. ! tell you, my young brother,
we have TO take a religion of some kind.
We have TO choose between four or
Eve. Shall it be the Koran of the Mo-
hammedan, or the Shaster of the Hin
doc, or the zendavesta of the Persian,
or the Confucius writings of the Chi
nese, or the Holy Scripturesf Take
what you viii; 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. II these
people scoif at you as though religion
and the Bible were lit 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 aud Mozart the musician, and
Blackstone the lawyer, and Bacon the
philosopher and Harvey the physician,
and John Milton the poot.
Ask them what intldelity has ever
done to lift the fourteen hundred mil
lions Of the race out of barbarian.
Ask them when inildelity ever institut-
ed 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 swlne's snout rooted
up the grave Of your sister who died
believing Ia the Lord Jesus
ALL suFFIcIRScy on rHK scRPrURRs
Young man, hold on 10 your Bible,
Il is the best book you ever owned. Ii