Blue-grass blade., 1892-02-20
A California Christian Preach
er Compares My In1idelity
With the "Christianity''
Of Rev. ]. s. Sweeney.
Of Paris, Kentucky.

(By Rev. Barton s. Gardner in The
Geographic Review
REBUKING PRACTICAL INFIDELITY.
While 'the Blue Grass Region"
ofKentucky has already been sur
passed in the production of fast
horses by "the wild and woody
West" a calamity calculated to
break and crush its heart to
smithereens, if it were not for the
bracing up power of its "old
Bourbon whisky" yet it has never
tbeless produced ga horse of an
other COLOR" so to speak, An
avowed infidel over there, a
grandson of old Barton w. Stone
of sacred memory, stalks abroad
among the churches and town
governments, with giant strides,
like a veritable Goliath, boldly and
yet modestly defying the armies
of King Alcohol and of modern
school Christians. He seems not
at all possessed of, or carried away
with the fattering poetic idea, as
some preachers and editors are,
that sin and iniquity are abstract
tions, lying around loose and in
masses of various sizes and shapes,
with no connection with any par
ticular person place or thing.
When wrongs have been per
petrated, and when outrageous
sins have been committed, he
seems to be fully persuaded that
some person is to blame, and that
the wickedness was performed in
some particular place. Hence he
makes no strained efforts to
avoid personalities" and "local
troubles" but makes terrifyingly
free use of the names of persons
and places, very much like the
New Testament does.
Neither does he delight to waste
his time and strength striking at
random at some impersonality a
thousand miles away. There is
directness about his warfare that
pleases me. My intention is to be
exceedingly careful not to fall into
any inconsistency that will bring
me in reach of his keen and mer-
ciless Blade. If he undertakes to
denounce the practical infdelity
of anyl preacher or church, he
does nor sneak around in the dark,
like some modern school disciples
that 1 have seen, struggling his
shoulders, nodding his head insin-
uatingly, and winking his eye
maliciously, but he boldly walks
up, and fguratively kicks the
front door out of the meeting
house, and calls out .you are the
guilty parties I mean."
To meet his aggressive warfare
against this practical infdelity of
church members, whose names
and sins he proclaims abroad
through his weekly paper, is quite
a different thing from getting
glory TO ones sell among admiring
partisans by fighting Ingersoll at
long range.
To enlist his facile pen in the
nefarious business of booming the
Liquor Traffic, some one sent Col.
Bob a jug of whisky as present.
While he sips that sweet bait,
and while the Christian (?) Presi-
dent of the United States gulps
down the barrel presented to him.
1 modestly suggest to our sweet
scented "pastors," con whom are
no flies" because they are so
sleek, that for change they give
the saucy Sucker a rest, and that
they busy themselves awhile root
ing out the more destructive unbe-
lief of the Pharisees in the
churches and that they defend
themselves and the churches
against the direct and terrific at
tacks of this mighty wielder of
the saucy Blue Grass Blade.
My young son, if you have an
idea that all this hue and cry of
"the movement" about 'passing
beyond the stage of debate and
going to work, and about "sweet-
spirited journalism" and SO forth
and 90 on, is all shrewd hoax to
draw away attention from the
practical infidelity which is being
cultivated in the churches by
preachers and papers "for revenue
only" if you have such an idea,
my son, don't let suspicious cloud
your Judgment, but study the out
come fairly, my verdant youth, in
places where "the movemen" has
had the best possible chances to
produce it's legitimate fruits. We
are all under divine obligation to
Judge trees fairly by their fruits,
whether it jumps with our feelings
and inclinations to do SO or not.
Here is case in point to study.
The church in Paris, KY, if my
Loisettean memory slips no cogs,
was among the first to switch off
into "the movement. AT least
it has had ample time to mature a
large crop of characteristic fruits;
And it has been grandly blessed
with most favorable circumstances,
far surprising Chorazin and Beth
saida and Capernaum in the mat
ter of heavenly privileges, and of
necessity, therefore, also in the
matter of solemn duties and re-
snonsibilities. For more than a
f rooro II has had for ifs