Milford chronicle., 1892-05-20


+ A man Ninety years old was telling m
"a few days ago how he put to flight a SCOT
er. Ny aged friend sai0-to the skeptic
'Did you ever read the history Of Josepl
Q in the BibleT' yes" said the man. &c !
d q ESs story, and as interesting a story as
f.. everNcsad" well, now said my Of,
friend suppose that account Of JOSEPH
stopped half way2" ooh, said the man
i. then it would not be entertaining.
! well, now said my friend, 1--WE have il
: this world only half of everything, and d,
! you not think that when we hear the las
I half things may be consistent, and that
! then we may find that God was rightS
Oh, friends, better load up with a few in.
terrogation points. You cannot afford ia
, be silent when God and the Bible and the
4 things Of eternity are assailed Your ST.
lence gives consent to the bombardment Of
your fathers house. You allow slur to
be cast on your mothers dying pillow.
In behalf Of the Christ, who for you
went through the agonies Of assassination
on the rocky bluff back Of Jerusalem, YOU
dared not face a sickly joke. Better load
up with few questions so that next time
you will be ready. Say to the scofTer: 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 Scriptures2 Are you in favor Of the
ten commandments? In your large and
extensive reading have you come across a
lovelier character than Jesus Christ? VIII
you please to name the triumphant death
beds Of inhdels and atheists
How do you account for the fact that
among the out and out believers in Chris
tianity were such persons rs Benjamin
Franklin, John Ruskin, Thomas CARLYLE,
Darlington Macauley, William Penn, Wal
ter Scott, Charles Kingsley, Horace Bush
nell, James A. Garfield, Robert E. Lee
Stonewall jackson, Admiral Foote, Ad-
miral Farragut, Ulysses S. Grant, John
Milton, William Shakespeare, Chief JUS
tice Marshall, John Adams, Daniel Web
ster, George Washington? How do you
account for their fondness for the Chris
/ tian religion? Among the innumerable
/ colleges and universities Of the earth will
| you name me three started by infidels and ,
now supported by inidels? Down in your
heart are you really happy in the position
you occupy antagonistic to the Christian
religion9 When do you have the most rap
turous views of the next worlds"
Go at him with few such questions and
he will get so red in the face as to suggest
apoplexy, 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 Turkish bath. You will put him on
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 rs you, shall such woman rs
you surrender to one Of the meanest spirits /
that ever smoked up from the pit-the /
dumb devil spoken Of in the text9
A PLEA FOR CHURCH SINGING.
But theHthere are occasions when this 4
particular spirit that Christ exercised |
when he said, Il charge thee to come out I
Of him" takes people by the wholesale. /
In the most responsive religious audience |
have you noticed how many people never
sing at ALI 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 not
one out of a hundred sings loud enough
to hear his own voice. They hum it.
They give a sort Of religious grunt They
make the lips go, but it is inaudible.
With a voice strong enough to stop a
street car one block away, all they can
afford in the praise Of God is about half
a whisper. With enough sopranos, enough
altos, enough basses to make small
heaven between the four walls they let the
60 by unimproved.
The volume Of voice that ascends from
the largest audience that ever assembled
ought to be multiplied about two thorsand
fold. But the minister rises and gives out
the hymn; the organ begins; the choir or
precentor leads; the audience are standing
so that the lungs may have full expansion,
and a mighty harmony is about to ascend,
when the evil spirit spoken of in my text ,
the dumb devil-spreads his two wings, /
one over the lips Of one-half the audience /
and the other wing over the lips of the /
Jther half of the audience, ard the voices I
'oll back into the Threats from which they +
started, and only here and there anything !
3 heard, and nine-tenths OF the holy power &
s destroyed; and the dumb devil, as he +
lies away, says, Il could not keep Isaac
Watts from writing that hymn, and /
'ould not keep Lowell Mason from com i
,osing the tune to which it is set, but I
mote into silence or half silence the lips r
rom which it would have spread abroad I
o bless neighborhoods and cities and then
Mount the wide open heavens" Give the Il
ong meter doxology the full support of I,
and those four lines would q
axe the whole earth for Cod. 7
During the cotton famine in Lancashire, Z
highland, when the suffering was some II
hing terrific, as the first wagon load OF Il
otton rolled in the starving people un- n
ooked the horses and drew the load them n
elves, singing until all Lancashire Joined a
! with triumphant voices, their checks n,
1pping with tears, Praise God, from n,
HON all blessings flow" When Commo- n
ore Perry, with his warship, the Missis- :,
lev 1fN i.ta Of To. t., Z
Rrded the shores with "Old Hundred" y,
Iayed by the marine band Glorious "Old IN
hundred, " composed by William Franc, Of al
ermany. u,
In a war prison, at 10 o'clock at night,
re poor fellows far from home and wound -
and sick and dying, one prisoner started 10
lie "Old Hundred Doxology.n and then a :,
ore Of voices Joined, then all the prison =
g on all the floors took up the acclaim =
ltil the building, from foundation to top =
one, fairly quaked with the melodious II
cription. A British man-ofw war, lying u
a foreign coast, heard voice singing y
at dexology, and Immediately guessed, y
id guessed Alright, that there was an Eng ~
ihman in captivity 30 the Mohammedans, =
ID in the small boats the sailors rowed to 4;
ore and burst iht0 a guardhouse and set -
e captive free, :.
4 tton hiiuW WHAT June tl6 tiuuipctS q III
shall play, hut it may be the IN
,xoiogy which IS now sounding across al
How much moro hearty ~
3 would be in our songs, and how easily u
E could drive back the dumb devil from
cur worsbiping ass9mblGgcs, If we 20
uld realize thai nearly all our hymns ~
we a stirring history. That glorious N
mn, Stand Up Tor jesus, was sug- -
sted by the last words Of Dudley Tying.
10 was dying from having his right 20
n torn on oy thrasning machine be
ia1 n5hn' w hAe FRIEND we Rave 10 Ca
sus, nesfe through eeienhoAe, con sal
r.ed in opaul..'e soul '9hah " ssalh- TIL
our Brooklyn Prospect park, at the n
ildren's May anniversary. and then an
lrted to encirclc the world ~