Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1894-03-24

Could you get 100000 people to &c
out and risk their lives in defense Of
Shakespeare's tragedies or Gladstone's
tracts or Macaulay's History of Eng
land% You know that there are 1000
men who would die in defense of this book
where there is not more than one man
who would die in defense of any other
book, You try to insult my common
sense by telling me the Bible is fading
out from the world.
tits the most popular book of the cen
tury. How do know it? l know it just
as | know in regard to other books. How
many volumes of that book are publish
edp Well, you say, 5000. How many
copies of that book are publishedP A
hundred thousand. Which is the more
popularf Why. of course the one that
has 100000 circulation. And if this book
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 today is the word of God?
oh" say people, "the church is a col
lection of hypocrites, and it is losing its
power, and it is fading out from the
world" SIS it3 A bishop of the Metho-
dist church told me that that denomina-
ton averages two new churches every
day of the year. There are at least 800
new Christian churches built in America
every year. Does that look as though
the church were fading out, as though it
were -defunct institution? Which in
stitution stands nearest the hearts of the
people of America today2 I do not care
in what village, or in what city, Or what
neighborhood you go. Which institution
is it? Is it the postoffice? Is it the no.
tel? Is it the lecturing hall3 All, you
know it is not. You know that the in
stitution which stands nearest to the
hearts Of the American people is the
Christianschurch. If you have ever seen
church burn down, you have seen
thousands of people standing and look
ing at it-people who never go into a
church-the tears raining down their
cheeks. The whole story is told.
AN UNPOPULAR BELIEF.
You may talk about the church being
a collection of hypocrites, but when the
diphtheria sweeps your children off
whom dosgou send for2 The postmaster,
the attorney general, the hotel keeper,
aldermanf No, you send for minister
of this Bible religion. And if you have
not room in your house for the obse-
quies, what building do you solicit? Do
you say, Give me the finest room in the
hotel?' Do you say, Give me that
theater?n Do you say: "Give me place
in that public building. where can lay
my dead fur little while until we say a
prayer over itr' No. You say, "Give
us the house. of Cod"
And if there is song to be sung at the
obsequies ghat do you wantf What
does anybody want? "The Marseillaise'
hymn. "Gbd Save the Queen" Our own
grand national air? No. They want the
hymn with which they sang Weir old
Christian mother into her last sleep. or
they wantsshpg the Sabbath school hymn
which thee little girl sang the last Sab
bath afternp6n she was out before she
got that agfp sickness which broke your
hee a MY the most endearing in sansa
ton on earth, the most popular institu-
ton on earth today, is the church of the
Lord Jesus Christ.
The infidels say, "In6delity shows its
successes from the fact that it is every
where accepted, and it can say what it
will" Why, my friends, infdelity is
not half SO blatant in our days as it was
in the days of our fathers. Do you know
that in the daysof our fathers there were
pronounced infidels in public authority
and they could get any political position?
Let man today declare himself antag-
onistic 10 the Christian religion, and
what Gift wants him for mayor, what
state waits him for governor, what ma
ton waits him for president or for king?
Let a MN openly proclaim himself the
enemy d our glorious Christianity, and
he cannt get majority of votes in any
state, many city, in any county, in any
ward ofAmerica.
RELIGION Is SCIENCE.
Do " b think that such q scene could
be enated now as was enacted in the
days o. Robespierre, when shameless
woman was elevated as a goddess and
wa carried in golden chair to cathe-
dr., where incense was burned to her
an people bowed down before her as a j
dime being, she taking the place of the
Bile and God Almighty, while in the !
cridor of that cathedral were enacted
s,hscenes of drunkenness and debauch- s
y and obscenity as have never been 6
ltnessed? Do you believe such thing e
ould possibly occur in Christendom to- t
ay? No, sir! The police, whether of O
aris or New York, would swoop on it. i
| know inidelity makes good deal Of t
Tx in our day. 1t is on the principle t
lat if a man jump overheard from s
unard steamer he makes more excite il
ent than all the 500 people that stay on v
lie decks. But the fact that he jumps
'erboard-does that stop the ship? Does g
at wreck the 500 passengers? Itmakes Il
eat excitement when man jumps rt
ON the lecturing platform or from the D
llpit into infidelity, but does that keep p
e Bible and the church from carrying tt
eir millions of passengers into the in
les? n,
They say, these men, that science is to
grooming religion in our day. They v
ok through the spectacles of the infdel til
entists, and they say: at is impossi-
that this book can be true. People
e finding it out. The Bible has got to dr
overheard. Science is going to throw tn
overheard" Do you believe that the Gu
BILE account of the origin of life will re
overthrown by infdel scientists who pa
We 80 different theories about the Or to-
n of life? If they should come upin SOL III
phalanx, all agreeing upon one senti- IN
mt and one theory, perhaps Christiani- a
mi chit ha 6ono0ad hr1t tbara ora not EIl