The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1894-05-12

come extinct in the next six years. !
have to tell you that the room in
which Voltaire wrote that prophecy
not long ago was crowded from floor
to ceiling with Bibles from Switzer-
land. Suppose the congress of the
United States should pass law that
there should be no more Bibles printed
| in America, and no more Bibles read.
If there are forty million grown people
| in the United States, there would be
forty million people in an army to put
down such law and defend their right
to read the Bible. But suppose the con-
| gress of the United States should make
law against the reading of the pub
| LEGATION of any other book, how
many people would go out in such a
crusade? Could you get forty million
people to go out and risk their lives in
defense of Shakespeare's tragedies or
Gladstone's tracts of Macauley's His
! tory of England? You know that there
are thousand men who would die in
defense of this book. You try to in
suit my common-sense by telling me
the Bible is fading ont from the world.
1t is the most popular book OF the
century. How do | know il? know it
| just as know in regard to other books.
How many volumes of that book are
published? Well, you say, five thou-
sand. How many copies of that book
| are published? A hundred Thousand.
Which is the more popular? Why, of
course, the one that has one hundred
| thousand circulation. And if this bool,
has more copies abroad in the world,
If there are five times as many Bibles
abroad as any other book, does not
that show you that the most popular
book on the planet to-day is the Word
of God?
''Oh," say people, 1.-THE church is a
collection of hypocrites, and it is los
| ing its power, and it is fading out
from the world" Is it? A bishop of
| the Methodist church told me that
| that denomination averages two new
churches every day of the year. There
are at least one Thousand five hundred
new churches built in America every
year. Does that look as though the
church was fading out, as though 1t
| were defunct institution? Which
institution stands nearest the
hearts of the people of America
| to-day? j do not care in what
village or in what city, or what neigh
borhood you go. Which institution is
| it? Is it the post office? 1t it the hotel?
Is it the lecture hall? All, you know
| it is not. You know that the institu-
ton which stands nearest to the hearts
of the American people is the Christian
church. If you have ever seen a church
burn down you have seen thousands of
people standing and looking atit-peo-
Pile who never go into church-the
tears raining down their cheeks The
| whole story is told.
You may talk about the church be-
ing a collection of hypocrites, but
when the diphtheria sweeps your chill
dren off whom do you send for? The
postmaster? the attorney general? the
| hotel-keepcr? alderman? No, you
send for a minister of this Bible re-
| ligion. And if you have not room in
| your house for the obsequies, wha.
building do you solicit? Do you say;
''Give me the finest room in the hotel?'
Do you say: Give me that theater?'
Do you say: Give me a place in that
| public building, where l can lay my
dead tor little while until we say a
prayer over it?" No; you say
.'Givc us the house of God" And if there
is a song to be sung at the obsequies
what do you want? What does any
body want? The ''Marseillaise" hymn:
"God Save the Queen?" Our own grand
national air? No. They want the
hymn with which they sang their old
| Christian mother into her last sleep
or they want sung the Sabbath-schoo
hymn which their little girl sang the
/ last Sabbath afternoon She was out be
fore she got that awful sickness, which
broke your heart l appeal to YOU
4 common sense. You know the mos
endearing institution on earth, the
most popular institution on earth to
day is the Church of the Lord Jesu.
| Christ.
The infideis say: 'Infidelity show,
its successes from the fact that it i.
everywhere accepted, and it can say
what it will" Why, my friends, inf
deity is not half SO blatant in our day
as it was in the days of our fathers
Do you know that in the days of oul
fathers there were pronounced infidel
in public authority and they could ge
any political position? Let man to
day declare himself antagonistic to tn,
Christian religion, and what city want
him for mayor, what state wants hin
him for governor, what nation wants
him for president or for king? Let |
man openly proclaim himself the enem.
of our glorious Christianity, and he Cal
not get a majority of our votes in an.
state, in any city. in any county, in an.
ward of America.
Do you think that such seen
could be enacted now as was enacte'
in the days of Robespierre, when
shameless woman was elevated as
goddess, and was carried in COLDER
chair to cathedral, where incens
was burned to her, and people bowe,
4 down before her as to divine being, sh
taking the place of the Bible and Go
Almighty, while in the corridor of tina
cathedral were enacted such scenes @
!. drunkenness. and debauchery, and OF
scenity as has ne~er been wit
messed. Do you believe snch
thing could possibly occur in Chris
tendon to-day? No, sir. The pc
/. lice, whether of Paris or Ney