Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1894-03-24
j. II. MILLER & SONS.

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| to the fact that the American printing
press is taking up The sermons which are
preached TO Il few hundred or a few
thousand people. and on Monday morn
| ing and Monday evening, IN The morning
and evening papers, scattering that truth
to the millions. What thought it is!
What an encouragement for every Chris
! tan mani
A GLORIOUS FACT.
Besides that, have you noticed that
during the past few years every enc of
| the doctrines of the Bible came under dis
cussion in the secular press? Do you not
remember few years ago, when every
paper in the United States had an edi-
4 torial or the subject, is There Such a
| Thing as Future Punishment 1t was
the strangest thing that there should he
a discussion in the secular papers on that
subject. but every paper in the United
States and in Christendom discussed,
SIS There Such Thing as Retribution?'
know there were small wits who made
sport of the discussion, but there was
not an intelligent man on earth who, as
the result of that discussion, did not ask
himself the question, What is going to
be my eternal destiny" So it was in re-
gard to Tyndall's prayer gauge.
| About Il years ago, you remember,
the secular papers discussed that, and
with just as much earnestness as the re-
ligious papers, and there was not a man
in Ckristendcm who did rot ask himself
the questions: Is there anything in pray
er? May the creature impress the Gre
ator?' Oh, what mighty fact, what
/ glorious .fact-the secular printing press
and the pulpit Of the church of Jesus
| Christ harnessed in the same team
| Then look at the international series
of Sunday school lessons. Do you know
that every Sabbath, between and
o'clock, there are 6. 900, geo children study
ing the same lesson-a lesson prepared
by the leading minds of the country
and printed in the papers-and then these
subjects are discussed and given over to
the teachers, who give them over to the
children? So, whereas, once, and within
our memory, the children nibbled here
and there at story in the Bible, now
they are taken through from Genesis to
Revelation and we shall have 900, 600
children forestalled for Christianity. My
soul is full of exult&tion. | feel as if |
could shout will shout, "Alleluia, the
Lord God omnipotent reignethi'
SCIENTIFIC CONSOLATION.
Then you notice a more significant
fact, if you have talked with people on
the subject, that they are getting dissat-
isfied with philosophy and science rs
matter of comfort. They say it does not
amount to anything when you have a
dead child in the house. They will tell
you, when they were sick and the door of
the future seemed opening, the only com
fort they could find was in the gospel
People are having demonstrated all over
the land that science and philosophy cam
not solace the trouble and woes of the
world, and they want some other reli-
gion, and they are taking Christianity,
the only sympathetic religion that ever
came into the world.
You just take your scientific consola-
ton into that room where mother has
lost her child. Try in that case your
splendid doctrine of the survival OF the
fttest." Tell her that child died because
it was not worth as much as the other
children. That is your survival of the
fttest. Go to that dying man and tell
him to pluck up courage for the future
Use your transcendental phraseology up
on him. Tell him he ought TO be conf
dent in ''the great to be-" and the .'ever-
lasting now" and the eternal what is
it." just try your transcendentahsm
and your philosophy and your science on
him.
Go to that widowed soul and tell her
it was geological necessity that her
companion should be taken away from
her, just as i'll the course of the worlds
history the megatherium had to pass out
of existence, and then you go On in your
scientific consolation until you get to the
sublime fact that 50,000,000 years from
now we ourselves may be scientific spec
linens on Il geological Shelf petrifed
specimens of an extinct human race.
And after you have got all through
with your consolation, if the poor afflict-
ed soul is not crazed by it, win send
forth from this church the plainest
Christian we have, and with one half
hour Of prayer and reading Of Scripture
promises the tears viii be wiped away,
and the house from floor to cupola will
be flooded with the calmness Of an In
dian summer sunset. There is where
see the triumph of Christianity. Peo-
pie are dissatisfied with everything else.
They want God. They want Jesus Christ.
Talk about the exact sciences. There
is only one exact science. tits not math-
ematics. Taylor's logarithlns have many
imperfections. The French metric svs-
tenn has many imperfections. The only
exact science is Christianity-the only
thing under which you can appropriately
write, ''Quod erat demonstrandum. You
tell me that two and two make four.
| do not dispute it, but it is not so plain
that two and two make four as that the I
Lord God Almighty made this world 7
and for man, the sinner, he sent his only /
begotten Son TO die.
| put on the witness stand to testify
in behalf of Christianity the church /
on earth and all the church in heaven.
Not so, not thousand, not a million.
bat all of the church on earth and all
the redeemed in heaven.
A QUESTION OF TESTIMONY.
You tell me James A. Garfield was in I
augurated president of the United States
on the 4th Of March, 1881. How do | I
know it, You tell me there We're q. 900 I
persons who distinctly heard lis inau-
gural address. deny both. | deny that (
he was inaugurated. deny that bis in
augural address was delivered. You
ask why. l did not see it; did not hear /
1t. But you say that there were %, 600 I
persons who did see and hear him. saw /
! cannot take it anyhow. l did not see
and hear him. Whose testimony will I
you take? You will not take my testi- +
mony. You say: lyon know nothing
about it; you were not there. Let US
have the testimony of the 20,000 persons
who stood before tie capitol and heard
that magnificent inaugural" Why, of
course that is as your common sense die
tates.
Now hero nsy. rfs,.<, t,,u., - In - !, t1,.,.<