Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1891-12-17
On saturday the skeptic saws to him.

used to do those things; was brought NJ,
| suppose, fs yon were, in religious
! family, and believed all those things, but
got over it: the fact is. since | came TO
town have read a great deal, and have
found that there are "A great many things
In the Bible that are ridiculous Now, foI
instance, all that about the serpent being
ursed TO crawl in the Garden of Eden be
elIse it had tempted our first PARENTS:
Ehy. you see how absurd it is: you
can tell from the very organization
Of the serpent that it had to crawl;
1t crawled before it was cursed Just
as well AS it crawled afterward; you
can tell from its organization that il
crawled Then all that story about the
whale swallowing Jonah, or Jonah swal-
lowing the whale, which was itS It don't
make any difference, the thing is absurd;
1t is ridiculous to suppose that 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 fibrine and
coagulated albumen, and Jonah would
have been changed from prophet into
chyle. Then all that story about the mi
raculous conception-why, it is perfectly
U
Of nature. This is the Nineteenth century.
Progress, sir; progress. | don't blamt
you, but after you have been in town AZ
long as | have you will think just as do
RELIGION NECESSARY.
Thousands OF youngmen are going down
under that process day by day, and there
is only here and there young man who
can endure this artillery of scorn. They
are giving up their Bibles. The light OF
nature They have the light of nature In
China; they have il in Hindostan; they
have it in Ceylon. Flowers there, stars
there, waters there, winds there, but nc
civilization, no homes, no happiness. Ian
Gets to cut and juggernauts to fall under
and hooks to swing on. but no happiness.
tell you, my young brother, we have to
take a religion of some kind. We have to
choose between four or five. Shall il be
the Koran of the Mohammedan, or the
Shaster of the Hindoo, or the Zendavesta
of the Persian, or the Confucius writings
OF the Chinese, or the Holy Scripturesf
Take what you will; God helping me, |
will take the Bible Light for all dark.
ness; rock for all foundations; balm for all
wounds. A glory that lifts its pillars OF
fire over the wilderness march. Do not
give up your Bibles.
ASK them what infdelity has ever done
to lift the fourteen hundred millions OF the
race ont OF barbarism. Ask them when
inldelity ever instituted a sanitary com
mission, and before you leave their society
once aud forever tell them that they have
insulted the memory Of your Christian
father, and spit upon the daathbed Of youi
mother and with swine's snout rooted up
the grave of your sister, who died believ-
ing m the Lord Jesus.
Ii these people scoif at you ms though re
ligion 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 Mil |
ton the poet.
HOLD on TO TEE BIBLE.
Young man, hold on to your Bible. 1t |
is the best book you eyer owned. 1t will |
tell you how TO dress, how to bargain, how
to walk, how to act, how to live, how 70
die. Glorious Bible! Whether on parch- /
ment or paper, in octave or duodecimo, on /
the center table OF the craving room or ia /
the counting room Of the banker. Glorious /
Biblel Light to our feet and lamp TO our /
path. Hold on to i'll
The second class Of insidious temptations |
that comes upon our young men is led on |
by the dishonest employer. Every COM /
mercial establishment is school. In nine \
cases out of ten the principles OF the EN-
ployer become the principles OF the EN-
ployee. I ask the older merchants to bear
me out in these statements. II, when You
were juststartingin life lin commercial life
You were told that honesty was not mar
ketable; that, though you might sell all
the goods in the shop, you must not sell
your conscience. that, while you were tn
exercise all industry and tact, You were not
TO sell your conscience; II you were taught
that gains gotten by sin were conbustiblc,
and at the moment Of ignition would he
blown on by the breath OF God until all
the splendid estate would vanish into
white ashes scattered in the w.iirlwind.
then that instruction has been 20 you
precaution and a help ever since.
There are hundreds of commercial estab-
lshments in our great cities which are
educating a 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 but sharpers.
What chance is there for young man
who was taught in an establishment that
II is right 70 lie, If II is smart, and that 4
French label is all that is necessary to
make thing French, and that You ought
always TO be honest when it pays, and that
it is wrong TO steal unless you do it welli
Suppose, now, a young man just starting
in life enters a place of that kind where
there are ten young men, ali drilled in the
infamous practices of the establishment
He is ready to be taught. The young man
has no theory of commercial ethics. Where
is he to get his theory He will get the
theory from his employers. One day he
pushes his wit little beyond what the es-
Enlistment demands of him, and he ieeces
a customer until the clerk is on the verge OF
being seized by the law. What is done in
the establishment He is not arraigned.
The head of the establishment says TO him,
"Now, be careful; be careful, young man,
Won might be caught: but really that was