Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1894-07-19
But ! think. my friends, we had bet

ter keep the Bible little longer in
tact 1t has done pretty well for
good many years Then there are old
people who find it comfort to have
it on their laps and children like the
stories in it. Let us keep it for Curl
oslty, anyhow. If the Bible is to be
thrown out of the school, and out of
the court room, so that men no more
swear by it, and it is to be put in a
dark corridor of the city library, the
Koran on one side and the writings of
Confucius on the other, then let us
each one keep copy for himself, for
we might have trouble, and we would
want to be under the decisions of its
consultations; and we might die, and
we would want the delusion of the
exalted residence of Gods right hand,
which it mentions o! what an awful
thing it is to laugh in Gods face, and
hurl his revelation back at him.
After awhile the day will come
when they will say they did not
laugh Then all the hypercritisms,
all the caricatures, and all the
learned sneers in the Quarterly Re-
views" will be brought to judgment;
and amid the rocking of everything
beneath, and amid the flaming of
everything above, God will thunder:
''But thou didst laughn' / think the
most fascinating Laughter at Christiani-
ty ever remember was man in New
England He made the word of God
seem ridiculous, and he laughed on at
our holy religion until he came to die,
and then he said: MY life has been
a failure-a failure domestically; l
have no children; failure socially
for l am treated in the streets like
pirate; "a failure professionally, be-
cause | know but one minister that
has adopted my sentiments" For
quarter of century he laughed at
Christianity; and ever since Christiani-
ty has been laughing at him. Now, it
is mean thing to go into mans
house and steal his goods; but / tell
you the most gigantic burglary ever
invented is the proposition to steal
these treasures of our holy religion
The meanest laughter ever uttered is
the laugh of the sceptic.
The next laughter that shall men,
ton as being in the Bible, is the
laugh of Gods condemnati ton: He
that stitch in the heavens shall
laugh" Again: II will laugh at his
calamity" With such demonstration
will God greet every kind of great sin
and wickedness. But men build up
villainies higher and higher. Good
men almost pity God, because he is so
schemed against by men. Suddenly
pin drops out of the machinery of
wickedness or secret is revealed,
and the foundation begins to rock;
finally, the whole thing is demolished
What is the matter? l will tell you
what the matter is. That crash OF
ruin is only the reverberation of Gods
laughter. In the money market there
are great many good men, and a
great many fraudulent men. A fraudu-
lent man there says: Il mean to have
my million" He goes to work reckless
of honesty, and he gets his first $500 600.
He gets after awhile his $500, 900.
After awhile he gets his $500, coo.
Now" he says, Il have only one
more move to make, and l shall have
my million" He gathers up all his
resources; he makes that one last
grand move, he fails and loses all, and
he has not enough money of his own
left to pay the cost of the car to his
home. People can not understand this
spasmodic revulsion Some said it
was a sudden turn in Erie railway
stock, or in Western Union or in Hi
nois Central; some said one thing and
some another. They all guessed
wrong. will tell you what it was:
He that sitteth in the heavens
laughed" A man in New York said
he would be the richest man in the
city, He left his honest work as a
mechanic, and got into the city coun-
ellis some way. and in ten years
stole S15, 900, 900 from the city gov
eminent Fifteen million dollars!
He held the legislature of the
state of New York in the grip
of his right hand. Suspicious were
aroused. The grand jury presented
indictments. The whole land stood
aghast. The man who expected to
put half the city in his vest pocket
goes to Blackwell's island; goes to
Ludlow street Jail, breaks prison and
goes across the sea; is rearrested and
brought back, and again remanded to
Jail. Why? He that sitteth in the
heavens laughed" Rome was great
EN- ire; she had Horace and Virgil
among her poets; she had Augustus and
Constantine among her emperors. But
what mean the defaced Pantheon, and
the Forum turned into cattle market.
and the brohen-walled Coliseum, and
the architectural skeleton of her great
| aqueducts? What was that thunder?
"Oh!" you say, that was the roar
of the battering rams against her
walls" No. What was that culver?
''Oh" you say, that was the
tramp of hostile legions" No. The
| culver and the roar were the outburst
of omnipotent laughter from the de-
fed and insulted heavens. Rene de-
| fed God and he laughed her down.
| Nineveh defied God and he laughed
her down. Babylon defied God and
he laughed her down. There is great
difference between Gods laughter and
his smile. His smile is eternal beati-