Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1894-03-30

! a EUIIs3
obsequies, what do you want? What does
anybody want? 'The Narseillaise' hymni
| 'God Save the Queen?" Our own grand
national air2 No. They want the hymn
with which they sang their old Christian
! mother into her last sleep, or they want sung
J the sabbath-schOOl hymn which their littl3
girl sang the last Sabbath afternoon she was
| out before she got that awful sickness which
broke your heart appeal to your common
! sense. You know the most endearing IN
! stitutiOn on earth, the most popular Institu-
tfOn on earth to-day is the church OF the
| Lord Jesus Christ.
The infideIs say, 'Tnfdelity shows it's sue
| cesses from the fact that it Is everywhere
| accepted, and it can say what it will" Why,
| my friends, intideiity is not half so blatant
! in days as it was in the days of our
! fathers. Do you know that in the days of our
| fathers there were pronounced infdels in
| public authority and they could get any
! political position2 Let man to-day declare
himself antagonist1c to the Christian re-
! Hgion. and what city wants him for mayor,
/ what State wants him Tor governor, what
nation wants him for president or for king?
| Let man openly proclaim himself the
| enemy of our glorious Christianity, and he
! cannot get majority of votes in any State,
| in any city, in any county, In any ward OF
! America.
Do you think that such a scene could be
! enacted now as was enacted in the DAYS of
Robespietre. when a shameless woman was
elevated goddess and was carried in
golden chair to cathedral. where incense
was burned to her and people bowed down
before her as divine being, she taking the
place of the Bible and God Almighty, while
in the corridor of that cathedral were en-
acted such scenes Cf drunkenness and de-
| bauchery and Obscenity as has never been
witnessed? Do you believe such thing
could possibly occur in Christendom to-day?
No, sir The police, whether of Paris or
New York. would SwOOp on II,
| know intidelity makes a good deal OF
talk in our day. 1t is on the principle that
if Il man Jump overheard from q Cunard
steamer he makes more excitement than all
the 500 people that stay On the decks. But
the fact that he jumps overboatd-does that
stop the ship? Does thar wreck the 500
I passengers? It makes great excitement
when a man jumps from the lecturng plat
form or from the pulpit in fidelity, but does
that keep the Bible and the Church from
carrying their millions of passengers into
the skies?
They say, these men, that science is over
coming religion in our day. They look
! through the spectaces of the inf1del scien-
lists, and they say sit is impossible 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 Bible account of the
origin of life will be overthrown by inf1del
scientists who have fifty different theories
about the origin of life? II they should come
up in solid phalanx, all agreeing upon one
sentiment and one theory, perhaps Christian
ity might be damaged, but there are not so
many differences of opinion inside the
church as outside the church.
People used to say, There are so many
different denominations of Christiens-that
shows there is nothing in religion" " I have
to tell you that all denominations agree on
the two or three or four radical doctrines OF
the Christian religion. They are unanimous
in regard to Jesus Christ, and they are
unanimous in regard to the divinity of the
Scriptures. How is it on the other side?
All split up-yOu cannot find two of them
alike. Oh. it makes me sick to see these lit
erary fOps going along with copy of Oar
win under one arm and a case of transtixed
grasshoppers and butterflies under the other
arm, telling about the Survival of the fit
test" and Huxley's protoplasm, and the
nebular hypothesis.
The fact is that some naturalists Just as
soon as they find out the difference between
the feelers of a wasp and tho horns of beetle
begin to patronize the Almighty, while Agas-
siz. glorious AgaSsi8 who never made any
pretenSlonS to being a Christian, puts both
his feet on the doctrine of evolution and
says, 81 see that many of the naturalists of
our day are adopting facts which do not
bear observation or have not passed under
observation These men warning against
each Other-Darwin warning against La
marche, Wallace warring 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 species What do
they agree on? 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 it had been
put four times farther from the earth than it
is now there would be more harmony in the
universe, but LiOnville comes up just In time
to prove that the moon was put in the right
place.
How many cOlOrs woven into the light?
Seven, says Isaac Newton. Three, says
David Brewster. How high Is the aurora
borealis? Two and a half miles, says Lias.
One hundred and sixty-eight miles, saws
Twining. How far is the sun from the earth?
Seventy-six million miles, says Lacale
Eighty-tWO million miles. says Humboldt
Ninety million miles, says Henderson. One
hundred and four million miles, says Mayer
only a little difference of 5000, 900 miles
All split up among themselves-not agreeing
on anything. They come and say that the
churches of Jesus Christ are divided on The
great doctrines. All united they are, in
Jesus Christ, in the divinity OF the Scrip
lures. While they come up and propose to
render their verdict, no two of them agree
on that verdict.
'Gentlemen Of the jury, have --ou agreed
on a verdict?' asks the court or the clerk Of
the jury as they come in after having spent
the whole night in deliberating. If the Jury
says, Yes. we have agreed" the verdict is
recorded, but suppose one of the jurymen
says, II think the man was guilty of MUIR
der. another says, ~ think he was guilty Of
manslaughter in the second degree" and
another man says, Il think he was guilty of
assault and battery, with intent to kill, the
judge would say: $50 back to your room
and bring in a verdict. Agree on something.
That is no verdict
Here these infidel scientists have impan-
eed themselves as Jury to decide this trial
between inf1delity, the plaintiff. and Chris
tlanity, the defendant, and after being out
for centuries they come in to render their
verdict. Gentlemen of the jury have you
agreed on Il verdict? No. no. Then go back
for another 500 years and deliberate and
agree on something. There Is not a poor,
miserable wretch in the Tombs court to-mOr-
row that could be condemned by jury that
did not agree on the verdict, and yet you e1-
pect Us to give up our glorious Christianity
to please these men who cannot agree on
anything.
All, my friends, the church Of Jesus Christ
instead OF falling back, is on the advance |
am certain it is on the advance. o Lord God,
take Thy sword from Thy thigh and ride
forth to the victory!
/ am nightly encouraged because find
among other things that while this Chris
tianity has been bombarded for centuries in
fidelity has not destroyed one church, or
crippled one minister, or uprooted one verse
OF one chapter Of all the Bible. The church
all the time getting the victory, and the shot
and shell Of its enemies nearly exhausted.
have been examining their ammunition
lately. l have looked all through their
cartridge boxes. They have not in the last
twenty years advanced one new idea. They
have utterly exhausted their ammunition i'll
the battle against the church and against
the Scriptures, while the sword of the Lord
Almighty is as keen as it ever was. We are
Just getting our troops into line They are
coming up in companies, and in regiments,
and in brigades, and you will hear shout
after awhile that will make the earth quake
and the heavens ring with "Alleluia ~ II
will be this. Forward. the whole line!"
And then find another most encouraging
thought in the fact that the secular printing
press and pulpit seem harnessed in the same
team for the proclamation of the gospel.