The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1894-03-21

thousand Which is the more popular?
Why. of course the one that has 100000
circulation. And If this book has more
copies abroad in the world. If there are
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. the church is a col
lection Of hypocTites, and il is losing its
power. and it is fading out from the
world Is it? 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 1000
new Christian churches built i'm America
every year Does that look as though
the church were fading out as though
il were defunct institution? Which
institution stands nearest the hearts of
the people of America today? | do not
care in what village, or in what city, or
what neighbOrhoOd you go. Which in
stitution is it, Is it the postoffice? Is
fl the hOtel2 Is il the lecturing hall2
All, YOU know it is not. You know that
the institution 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 thou
sands of people standing and looking at
it-people who never go into a church
the tears raining down their checks. 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 do YOU send for? The postmaster.
the Encouragement, the hotelkeeper, al
derman? No. you send for A minister of
this bible religion. And if you have not
a room in your house for the obsequies
what 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 building where | can lay my dead
for a little while until we say a prayer
over it, No. You say, Give us the
house of God"
And If there is a song To be sung at
the obsequies what do YOU want? What
does anybody want? THE Marseillaise'
hymn God Save the Queen" our
own grand national air2 No. They want
the hymn with which they sang their
old Christian mother into her sleep or
they want sung the Sabbath-school
hymn which their little girl sang the
last Sabbath afternoon she was out be-
fore she got that awful sickness which
broke your heart. / appeal to your
common sense. You know the most en-
dearing institution on earth. the most
popular institution on earth today. IS
the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The mfidel says, "Intidelity shows its
successes from the fact that il is every
where accepted and il can say what 1t
will" Why my friends, infidehty is not
half so blatant in our day as IT was
I'm the days of our fathers. DO you know
that in the days of our fathers. there
were pronounced infdels in public au-
thority. and they could get any political
position? Let man today declare himself
antagonistic to the Christian religion,
and what city wants him for mayor
what state wants him for governor, what
nation wants him for president or for
king? Let man openly proclaim him
self the enemy Of our glorious Chris
tianity. and he cannot get a majority of
votes in any state, in any city, in any
county. in any ward of America.
Religion and Science.
DO you think that such a scene could
be enacted now as was enacted i'm the
days of Robespierre. when a shameless
woman was elevated as goddess and
was carried in golden chair to cathe-
dral. where incense was burned to- her.
and people bowed down before her as a
divine being. she taking the place of the
bible and God Almighty while in the
corridor of that cathedral We're enacted
such scenes of. drunkenness and debauch-
cry and obsCenity as have never been
witneSSed2 Do you believe such "A thing
could possibly occur in Christendom to-
day? No, sir. The police, whether of
Paris or New York. would swoop ON it.
| know infidelity makes a good deal of
talk i'm our day. 1t is on the principle
that if man jumps overheard from
Cunard steamer he makes more excite
ment than all the 500 people that stay
on the decks. But the fact that he
jumps overboaTd-does that stop the
ship Does that wreck the 500 pasSen-
Z ma Z III hon
a man jumps from lecturing platform
or from the pulpit into infidelity. But
does that keep the bible and the church
from carrying their millions of passen-
gers into the skies?
They say-these men-that science is
overcoming religion in our day. They
look through the spectacles of the infidel
scientists, and they say: 1T is impossi-
bic that this book can be true. People
are finding it out. The bible has got TO
go overheard. Science is going To throw
it overheard Do you believe that the
bibles account Of the origin of life will
be overthrow by inidel scientists who
have fifty different theories about the
origin Of life If they should come up
in solid phalanX. all agreeing on one
sentiment and one theory perhaps Chris
tianity might be damaged, but there are
not so many differences of opinion in
side the church as outside the church.
People used To say: There are so
many different denominations of Chris
tians. That shows there is nothing in
religion" l have to tell you that all de
nominations agree ON the two or three
or four radical doctrines of the Christian
religion. They are unanimous in regard
to Jesus Christ aud they are unanimous
in regard To the divinity Of the script
ures. How is il on the other side? All
split up. You cannot find two of them
alike Oh. ii makes me sick to see these
literary fops going along with a copy of
Darwin under one arm and a case of
transfixed grasshoppers and butterflies
under the other arm, telling about the
survival Of the fittest" and Huxley's
protoplasm and the nebular hypothesis
The fact is that some naturalists, just
soon they find out the differences
between the feelers OF a wasp and the
horns OF a beetle begin TO patrOniZe the
Almighty. while Agassiz. glorious Agas-
siz, who never made any pretensions to
being a Christian. puts his feet on the
doctrine of evolution and SAYS. Il see
that many of the naturalists of our day
are adopting facts which do not bear OBJ
servation or have not passed under OBJ
servatiOn." These men warning with
each Other-Darwin warning against La
marche, Wallace warning against Cope.
even Herschel denouncing Ferguson.
They do not agree about anything.
They do not agree on embryology: do
not agree on the graduation of the ;pe-
cies. What do they agree On2 Herschel
writes a whole chapter on the errors of
astronomy. La Place declares that the
moon was not put in the right place
He says that if il had been put four
times farther from the earth than Il is