Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1892-05-20


quick, and either with an indignant
word, or doubled up fist. make response
And yet 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: 81 differ I
object. am sorry to hear you say
that There is another side to this. {"
You christian people ought in such
times as these to go 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 christi
anity. A man 90 years old was telling
me few days ago how he put to fight
a scoffer. My aged friend said to the
slSeptic: "Did you ever read the his
tory of Joseph in the Bible?" yes"
said the man, lit is fine story, and as
interesting a story as 1 ever read. !"
"Well now" said my old friend, sup
pose that account of Joseph stopped
half way?" "Oh," said the man, "then
it would not be entertaining. "Well
now" said my friend, 1--WE 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 we may find that God was
right?" Oh friends, better load up
with "a few interrogation points. You
cannot afford to be silent when God
and the bible and the things of etern-
ity are assailed. Your silence gives
consent to the bonn bardment Of your
fathers house. You allow a slur to be
cast on your mothers dying pillow.
In behalf of the Christ, who for you
went through the agonies of assassina-
ton on the rocky bluff back of Jeru-
salem, you dared not face a siclSly joke.
Better load up with few questions so
that next time you will be ready.
Say to the scoffer: 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 a lovelier character than Jesus
Christ? viii you please TO name the
triumphant death beds of infdels and
atheists? How do you account for the
fact that, among the out and out be-
levers in christianity were such persons
as Benjamin Franklin, John RuslSin,
Thomas Carlyle, Darlington Macaulay,
William Penn, Walter Scott, Charles
Kingsley, Horace Bushnell, James A.
Garfield, Robert +, Lee, Stone
wall Jackson, Admiral Foote, Admiral
Farragut, Ulysses S. Grant, John Mil
ton, William Shakespeare, Chief Justice
Marshall, John Adams, Daniel Web
ster, George Washington? How do
account for their fondness of the
Christian religion? Among the i'll
Vulnerable colleges and universities of
the earth, will you name me three,
started by infidels and now supported
by infidels? Down in your heart are
you really happy in the position you
occupy antagonistc to the Christian
religion? When do you have the
most rapturous views of the next
world?" Go at him with q 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 en-
gagement and must go. You will put
him in n sweat that will beat Turkish
bath. You will put him on rout com
pared with which our troops at Bull
Run made no time at all. Arm your
self, not with arguments but interroga-
ton 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?
BE out and out, up and down for
Righteousness. If your ship is afoat
on the Pacific ocean OF. Gods mercy,
hang out your colors from masthead.
Show your passport if you have one.
Do not smuggle your soul into the
harbor of heaven. Speak ont for God!
This morning close up the chapter of
lost opportunities, and pitch it into
East river, and open a new chapter.
Before you get to the door on your
way out this morning shake hands
with some one, and ask him to join
you on the road to heaven. Do not
drive up to heaven in two-whecled
''sullSy" with room only for one,
and that yourself, but get the big
gest gospel wagon you can find, and
pile it full of friends and neighbors,
and shout till they hear you all up and
down the skies, Come with us, and
we will do you good for the Lord hath
promised good concerning Israel" The
opportunity for good which you may
consider insignificant may be tremen-
dous for results, as when on the sea,
Capt. Haldane swore at the ships crew
with an oath that wished them all in
perdition, and Scotch sailor touched
his cap and said, Captain! God hears
prayer, and we would be badly off il
your wish were answered" Capt. Hal
dane was convicted by the sailors re-
mark and converted, and became the
means of the salvation of his brother
Robert who had been an infidel, and
then Rolart bac,,,a ., 80 fbe