The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1895-03-06

Progress" Whenever father and
mother talked of religion they drew
down the corners of their mouths and
rolled up their eyes. If any one thing
will send boy or girl to ruin sooner
than another, that is it, If | had had
such father and mother | fear
should have been an infdel When l
was a boy in Sunday-school, at one
time we had teacher who when we
were not attentive, struck us over the
head with New Testament, and there
is way of using even the Bible so as
to make it offensive.
Others were tripped up of sllepticism
from being previously wronged by
some man who professed to be a Chris
tian. They had partner in business
who turned out to be a flrst-class
scoundrel, though professed Chris
tian. Many years ago they lost all faith
by what happened in an oil company
which was formed amid the petroleum
excitement. The company owned no
land, or If they did, there was no sign
OF oil produced; but the president of
the company was Presbyterian elder,
and the treasurer was an Episcopal
vestryman, and one director was
Methodist class leader, and the other
directors prominent members of Bap-
tist and Congregational churches. Cir
culars were gotten out telling what
fabulous prospects opened before this
company. Innocent men and women
who had little money to invest, and
| that little their all, said: 81 don't know
anything about this company, but so
/ many good men are at the head of it
that it must be excellent, and taking
/ stock in it must be almost as good as
joining the church."
So they bought the stock and per-
h0p7 recoivcd ore 6i-''na1 so as to
keep them still, but after while they
found that the company mad reorgan-
lied, and had different president, and
different treasurer and different di-
rectors. Other engagements, or i'll
health, had caused the former officers
OF the company with many regrets, to
. anu al llldJ Jllt
of that stock had to show for their in
vestment was beautifully ornamented
certificate. Sometimes that man look
! ing over his old papers, comes across
that cert ficate, and It is SO suggestive
that he vows he wants none of the re-
ligion that the presidents and trus-
! tees, and directors OF that oil company
professed. OF course, their rejection
OF religion on such grounds was un-
philosophical and unwise.
! am told that many of the United
States army desert every year, and
there are thousands of court-martials
every year. Is that any thing against
the United States government that
swore them in? And If Il soldier of
Jesus Christ desert. is that anything
against the Christianity which he
swore to support and defend? How do
you judge Of the currency of coun-
try? BY a counterfeit bill? o, you
must have patience with those who
have been swindled by religious pre-
tenders. Live in the presence of others
a frank, honest, earnest Christian lie,
tar' V.ry .neT be a.s. gl,G % lc same
Saviour upon whom your hopes depend.
Remember skepticism has always
some reason, good or bad, TOR existing.
Goethe's irreligion started when the
news came to Germany Of the earth
quake at Lisbon, November l, 1775.
That sixty thousand people should
have perished in that earthquake and
in the after rising of the Tagus so
stirred his sympathies that he threw
up his belief in the goodness of God.
Others have gone into skepticism
from natural persistence in asking
... I-.aon why. IL, he,o heen fear
fully stabbed Of the interrogation
| point. There are 50 many things they
cannot get explained. The cannot un-
derstand the Trinity or how God can
be sovereign and yet man free agent.
Neither can l. They say: 81 don't un-
derstand why good God should have
let sin come into the world" Neither
do ]. You say: "Why was that child
started in life with such disadvan-
tages, while Others have all physical
and mental eeuipment?" cannot tell.
They go out of church on Easter morn
ing and say: THAT doctrine of the
resurrection confounded nc" So it is
to me a mystery beyond unravelment.
l understand all the processes by
which men get into the dark. | know
them all. / have travelled with burn
ing feet that blistered way. The first
word which most children learn to
utter is Papa" or Mamma" but
think the first word l ever uttered was
"Why?' | know what it is to have a
hundred midnights pour their, dark
ness into one hour.
Such men are not to be scotfed, but
helped. Turn your back upon a
drowning man when you have the
rope with which to pull him ashore,
and let that woman in the third story
of house perish in the flames when
you have ladder with which to help
her out and help her down, rather than
turn your back scoffingly upon slsep-
tic whose soul is in more peril than the
bodies of those other endangered ones
possibly can be.
20, slepticism is dark land. There
are men in this house who would give
thousand worlds, If they possessed
them, to get back to the placid faith of
their fathers and mothers, and it is our
place to help them, and we may help
them. never, through their heads, but
always through their hearts. These
slseptics, when brought to Jesus viii
be nightly effective, far more so than
those who never examined the evil