Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1892-05-19


make response.
And vet here is our Christian religion,
which has done so much for you and so
much for the world that it will take all
eternity to celebrate it, and yet, when it
was attacked, you did not so much as say:
Il differ, object, am sorry to hear you
say that. There is another side to this"
You Christian people ought in such times |
as these TO 20 armed, not with earthly |
weapons but with the sword of the spirit. |
You ought to have four or five questions |
with which YOU could confound any man
who attacks Christianity.
sCoFFEE ROUTED.
A man ninety years old was telling me
few days ago how he put to Hight scott
en- My aged friend said to the skeptic,
Odd you ever read the history of Joseph
in the BibleY" Yes" said the man, lit is
a fine story, and as Interesting story as |
ever read" well, now" said my old
friend, suppose that account of Joseph
stopped half way?" "Oh, said tho man.
then it would not be entertaining"
"Wcll now" said my friend, I'VE have in
this world only half Of everything, and do
you not think that when we hear the last
half things may be consistent, and that
then we may find that tod was ltGht"
Oh, friends better load up with few in
tcrrogaton points. You cannot afford to
be silent when God and the Bible and the
things of eternity are assaulted. Your 81
lencc gives consent to the commandment Of
your fathers house. Nou allow n slur to
be cast on your mothers dying pillow.
In behalf of the Christ, who for you
wentd through the agonics OF assassination
on the rocky bluff back of Jerusalem, you
| dared not face II sickIy joke, Better load
| up with Il few questions so that next time
YOU will be ready. say to the scollcr; My
| dear sir, will You tell me what makes the
! difference between the condition of woman
| in China and the United States? What
do You think of the sermon on the mount?
/ How do you like the golden rule laid down
! in the Scriptures? Are you in favor of the
! ten commandments? In your large and
extensive reading have you come across
! lovclicr character than Jesus Christ? VIII
you please to name the triumphant death
beds of infidels and atheiats2
"1Iow do You account for the fact that
among the out and out believers in Chris
| ;ianity We're such persons as benjamin
Franklin, John Ruskin. Thomas Carlyle,
| Darlington Macauley, William Penn, Wal
ter Scott, Charles Kingsley, Horace Bush
nell, james A. GARFIELD, Robert f. Lee,
Stonewall jackson. Admiral Foote, Adj
mra Farraglt, Ulysses s. Grant John
Milton, William Shakespeare, Chief JUS
! tice Marshall John Adams, Daniel Web
ster. George WASHINGTON? How do you
account for their fondncss for the Chris
tinn religion? Among the innuinerabe
colleges and universities of the earth will
YOU name me three started by infidcls and
now supported by infdcls? Down in your
heart are you really happy in the position
you occupy antagonstic to the Christian
religion? When do you have the most rap
furious views of the next world"
Go Mt him with n few such questions and
he will get so rcd in the face as TO suggest
apoplcXy, and he will look at his watch
and say he has an engagement and must
go. You will put him in a sweat that will
beat a Turkish bath. You will put him on
n rout compared with which our troops at
Bull Run made no time at all Arm your
self not with arguments but interrogation
points, and promise you victory. Shall
such man as you, shall such woman as
YOU surrender to one of the mcanest spirits
that ever smoked up from the pit-the
dumb devil spoken of in the text?
FLEA FOR CHURCH SINGING.
But then there are occasions when this
particular spirit that Christ exercised
when he said, IL charge thee to come out
of him." takes people by the wholesale
In the most responsive religious audience
have you noticed how many people never
sing at all? They have book, and they
have "A voice, and they know how to read
They know many of the tunes, and yet
are silent while the great raptures of mu
sic pass by. Among those who sing moi
one out Of a hundred sings loud enough
, to hear mis- own voice. They hum it
They give IA sort of religious grunt. They
make the bps go, but it is inaudblc
| With voice strong enough To stop
street car one block away, all they car
afford in the praise of God is about hal
IA whisper. With enough sopranos, enough
, altos, enough basses TO make "A small
, heaven between the four walls they let tn,
, opportunity 90 by unimproved,
The volume of voice that ascends from
the largest audience that ever Assem- blec
1 ought to be multiplied about two Thousand
t fold. But the minister rises and gives GU
the hymn; the organ begins; the choir o
precentor leads; the audience are standin.
[ so that the lungs may have full expansion
= and mighty harmony is about to ascend
: when the evil spirit spoken of in my text
+ the dumb devil-spreads his two wings
e one over the lips of one-half the audienc
and the other wing over the lips of tn
I other half OF the audience, and the voice
r roll back into the Threats from which the
@ started and only here aud there anything
r is heard, and nne-tenths of the holy powe
a.. is destroyed and the dumb devil, as h
T., flies away, says, Il could not keep Isaa
i Watts from writing that hymn, and
g could not keep Lowell Mason from CON
It posing the tune to which it is set, but
r smote into silence or half silence the lip
Y from which it would have spread abroa
il to bless neighborhoods and cities, and the
J. mount the wide open heavens" Give til
IS long meter doxology the full support {
/, Chrstendom and those four lines Woul
q take the whole earth for God.
n During the cotton famine in Lancashire
&c England, when the suffering was some
/ thing terrific, as the first wagon load
# cotton rolled in the starving people III
hooked the horses and drew the load then
selves, singing until all Lancashire joine
@ in with triumphant voices, their check
ID sopping with tears, "Praise God, frol
~ whom all blessings flow" When Comm
. dore Perry with his warship, the Mssi