Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1892-05-16
withwhieh you could confound any man
who attacks Christianity.

I
A scoFFER ROUTED.
A man ninety years old was telling me
a few days ago how he put to fight scoff.
en- My aged friend said to the skeptic,
did you ever read the history of Joseph
in the Bible?" EYES," said the man; ut is
fine story, and as interesting story as ]
ever read" well, now" said my old
friend, suppose that account of Joseph
Chen It would not be entertaining. u
''Well now" said my friend, Eve have In
this world only half Of everything, and do
you not thinkythat when we hear the last
half things may be consistent, and that
then we may find that God was rightF'
Oh, friends, better load up with a few in
terrogation points. You cannot afford to
be silent when God and the Bible and the
things Of eternity nre assailed. Your 81
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 n slckly joke, Better load
up with few questions SO that next time
you will be ready. Say to the scoffer: my
dear sir, will yon tell me what makes the
difference between the condition of woman
In China and the United StatesP What
do you think of the sermon on the mount?
How do you like the golden rule laid down
in the Scripturesi Are you in favor of the
ten commandments In your large and
extensive reading have you come across q
lovelier character than Jesus Christ? Will
you please to name the triumphant death
beds of inildels and atheists9
GLOW do you account for the fact that
among the out and out believers in Chris
tianity were such persons MS 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 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 religionS Among the innumerable
colleges and universities of the earth will
you name me three started by infdels and
now supported by infidels? Down in your
heart are you really happy in the position
you occupy antagonistic TO the Christian
religion? When do you have the most rap
turous views of the next worldW
Go at him with few such questions and
he will get so red in the face as to suggest
0popleXy and he will look at his watch
and say he has an engagement and must
60 You will put him in n sweat that will
beat Turkish bath. You will put him on
a rout compared with which our troops Mt
Bull Run made no time ut all Arm your
self, not with arguments but interrogation
points, and | promise you victory. Shall
such a man as you, shall such a woman Us
You surrender to one of the meancst spirits
that ever smoked up from the pit-the
dumb devil spoken Of in the teXtP
A FLEA FOR CHURCH SINGING.
But then there Nre occasions when this
particular spirit that Christ exercised
when he said, 81 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 a 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 II hundred sings loud enough
to hear his own voice. They hum It.
They give u sort of religious grunt. They
make the lips go, but 1t is inaudible.
With voice strong enough to stop
street car one block away, all they can
afford in the praise of God is about half
whisper. With enough sopranos, enough
altos, enough basses to make "A small
heaven between the four walls they let the
opportunity go by unimpmved.
The volume Of voice that ascends from
the largest audienceethat ever assembled
ought to be multiplied about two thousand
fold, But the minister rises and gives out
the hymn, the organ begins; the choir or