The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1893-09-13

and say: Go back TO your room now
and make up verdict. Agree on some
/ thing"
Well, my friends. there has been a
| great trial going on for centuries and
| for ages between skeptlclsm. the
| plaintiff, versus Christianity, the de-
/ PENDANT. The scientists have been Inn
paneled and sworn on the Jury, They have
| been gone for centuries. some OF them.
and they come back, and we say, Gen
tlemen OF the jury. have you agreed
! upon a verdict?" They say, mo. we
have not agreed" Then we say, go
back for n few more centuries and then
come In and see II you can agree. see
II you can render some verdict" Now.
there Is not the meanest prisoner In the
Tombs court who would be condemned
by jury that could not agree. and yet
you expect us TO renounce our glorious
Christianity for such a miserable YER
dict as these men have rendered. they
themselves not having been able to
agree.
Encouraging Thoughts.
But my subject shall no longer be de-
fensive-it must be aggressive. 1 must
show you that instead OF Christianity
falling back il Is on the march and that
the coming religion OF the world is to be
the religion of the Lord Jesus Christ
10000 times intensified. II is 10 take
possession OF everything-of all laws, all
manners, all customs, all cities, all ma
lions 1t Is going to be so mighty as
compared with what 1t has been-so
, much more mlghty-that 1t will seem
almost like a new religion.
adopt this theory because Christianity
has gone on straight ahead notwith-
standing all the bombardment and in
| fidelity has not destroyed church or
| crippled a minister or rooted out one
verse OF the bible, and now their am
munitlon seems TO be pretty much ex-
hausted. They can not get anything
! new against Christianity, and If Chris
| tianity has gone on under the bomDard-
ment of centuries and still continues 20
| advance may we not conclude that, as
the powder and shot of the other side
seem TO be exhausted. Christianity Is
going on with more rapid stride?
| l find an encouraging fact In the
thought that the secular press In this
| day and the pulpit seem harnessed I'm
| the same team for the proclamation Of
the gospel. Tomorrow there will not be
banker on Wall-st. or Safest or
| Third-st., who win not have In his
| pocket or ON his table treatlses on
| Christianity. calls TO repentance and
| scripture passages, twenty or thirty of
| them, in the reports Of the Christian
churches OF this city and other cities
Why that thing would have been inl-
possible a few years ago. Now, on Mon
| day morning and Monday evening, the
secular press spreads abroad more re-
| ligious truth than all the tract societies
| OF the country spread in the other six
days. Blessed be the tract socletiesl We
hail them and we hail these others.
1 say It would have been impossible a
| few years ago. Hundreds Of letters
| would have come TO the secular news
/ paper offices: stop my paper. We have
religion on Sunday. Don't give as any
through the week. Stop my paper"
But I have been told that many OF the
secular newspapers have their largest
circulation on Monday morning and the
whole population OF this country are be-
coming sermon readers. Besides that,
have you not noticed that papers pro-
claiming themselves secular almost ev-
cry week have religious discussions In
them?
Go back a few years, when there was
not a decent paper in the United States
that had not a discussion on the doc
trine OF eternal punishment. Small wits
made merry. know. but there was not
an intelligent man in the United States
that as a result of controversy in re-
gard TO eternal punishment, did not ask
himself the question, What Is to be
my eternal destiny?" And so some
years ago, when Tyndall offered his
prayer guage, there was not secular
paper in the United States that did not
discuss the question: docs God ever
answer prayer? May the creature i'm
press the Creator"
Are not all these facts encouraging to
every Christian and every philanthropy
list? Besides that the rising generation
are being saturated with gospel truth
as no other generation by this interna-
| tional series of Sunday-school lessons.
| Formerly the children were expected
only to nibble at the little infantile
scripture stories, but now they are
taken from Genesis to Revelation, the
strongest minds Of the country explain
ing the lessons to the teachers, and tho
and we are going to have in this coun-
try 100000 youth installed for Chris
tianity. Hear I'll Hear It'll
Besides that, you must have noticed
II you have talked on these great
themes that they are finding out that
while science is grand in secular d.
rections, they cannot give any comfort
TO a soul in trouble.
Talking with men on steamboats, and
in rail cars, find they are coming back
to the comfort of the gospel. They say,
Somehow human science doesn't COM
fort me when l have any trouble, and
1 must try something else, And they
are trying the gospel.
Take your scientific consolation to that
mother who has just lost her child. APP
ply the doctrine of the Survival of the
| Fittest;" tell her that her child died be-
cause its life was not worth as much
as the life of one that lived. Try that
| If you dare. Go to that dying man with
your transcendental phraseology and
| tell him he ought to have confidence in
the great "to be-" and the everlasting
! now" and the eternal what is lt?"