The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1895-02-02

Oriental and Occidental nations, thenin
the possession of Roman legions. It
was an age of extraordinary intellectual
movement; the age of Augustus, when
philosophers and orators abounded, when
Athens boasted of it's Areopagus, Alex
andria of it's academies, and Roman
thought, with Roman sword, swayed the
universe. Christ preached for three
years and was crucifed. His apostles,
poor, illiterate fishermen for the greater
par all of them without fans or iDflu.
ence, dispersed through the world preach.
ing Christ as the incarnate G ID, and pro.
claiming as His credentials miracles
chief of which His resurrection from the
dead. And the world believed; churches
or congregations of believers arose in all
cities of Palestine and Asia Minor; An.
tioch and Alexandria became powerful
centers OF the new religion; Paul preached
on Mars, Hill in Athens, made proselytes
in Theesalonia, in Corinth and through
the islands of the Aegean Sea. Peter
and Paul invaded. Rome: Slave and
freeman, the illiterate and the philoso-
pher, the poor and the rich, noble fami-
lies and the members Of imperial house,
holds, adhered to the crucifed. Pagan
philosophy wrote against the new faith,
and imperial regions we're employed to
eradicate it from the soil of the empire
the COLISEUM in Rome, the amphithea;;
tiers 10 Egypt and Greece, in Spain, Gaut
and Germany reeked with the blood Of
Christian martyrs. And yet the Chris:
tian Church grew and waxed so strong
in village and city, in cabin and palace,
in school and IN army, that the cross was
one day uplifted over the battlefield
near the Milvian bridge, and Constan-
tine, the victor, proclaimed Christ from
Rome's seven hills. And I shall be told
that the CONVERSION of the world in that
enlightened age was submission Of
cruelty and superstition, and that back
of the preaching of the apostles there
were not the miracles that they SO loudly
appealed to. .
On the miracles of Christ, the preach
ing of the apostles and the conversion Of
the world Istake my Christian faith, and
I fear not the leeions of unbelief.
CLEVER OBJECTIONS
1t is easy-to the silly ones 1t may ap-
pear clever-to tell what Christ has not
done, enumerating things that Hs never
intended to do, and that a Master from
heaven would be expected to speak of or
to do; to make a long record of crimes
and mistakes which followers of Christ
and of the Bible may have been guilty
OF through centuries, either because they
misunderstood Christ or His spirit, or
positively disobeyed Him, and then to
exclaim ''why thib?' 1 will tell you why.
He was man and did not know.
Let me put questions to the world
Was there in history ever an ideal Of
moral perfection offered to men, approach
ing in purity, in elevation, in fruitfulness
to that of Christ and tho New Tsstamentp
Was there ever in all history power for
good working in any comparable degree
as the Christian Church, which embodied
in her life Christ and. the Bible and
brought into full activity the principles
Of truth and purity given out in the
of Christ?
THE UNBEL1EvER's WORLD.
Unbelief would take US from our Bible
and our Jesus-What does it give us?
What is the message to us of the apostle
of unbelief, and what would his world
be? We know the world as it was be-
fore Christ; we know what it is after
Christ, wherever Christ's religion does
not reign. How is it that Christendom.
today, as during the past 1000 years,
means civilization? Where Christ is not
there is barbarism; there is servltude of
the weak, despotism OF the strong, inhu,
manity and immortality, unbridled and
by public opinion. Where
Christ is not, the family, with pure
woman as its queen, is not; scored natri.
mony is not. The little OF good in q
world without Christ comes from imita-
lion Of Christian nations, from the intro
luction into it's own body Of Christian
principles and practices. We will not
nave such world.
What will unbeief give ua? Itreplies,
j scientific, rational world, beginning
With itself and ending with itself. Let
is first be consistent, and from this