The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1897-07-28
BILL ARP'S LETTER.
The Philosopher Talks of the Mysteries
of Nature.
atlanta Constitution.


These modern agnostics, skeptics,
atheists and infdels are having alively
time in the New York papers. The
columns are open to them audit keeps
our Christian and God-fearing people
busy in replying to their assaults upon
the Bible and Christianity. No two
of them seem to have the same faith
or to be fighting under the same gen.
eral, but they are all engaged in
storming the citadel, some on one side
and some on another and with differ
emit weapons of warfare. They are
pull-downers instead Of build-uppers.
One set assaults the miracles and
seem to have q special spite at Jonah
and the whale. Another set denounce
Jephthah for sacrificing his daughter
and denounces God for permitting it.
They are equally indignant against
David for having Josiah slain and
and against Samuel for ordering'Saul
to STAY the women and children and
cattle of the Amalekites. They de-
clare that all these stories are fakes
or, if true, hat God is a brute for
allowing such %outrages.
Some believe in the New Testament,
but not in the old, while others ridi-
cule the miraculous conception of the
Virgin Mary and pronounce it a wo-
mans trick to hide her shame. Some
write from a medical standpoint and
assert that man is by no means a per-
fect creation physically, but could be
improved on in many particulars-for
instance, the calf Of the leg should
have been in front and there should
have been one eye in the back of the
head and the elbow joint should have
had a back action, so that aman could
scratch his back and a woman button
her dress or fasten her skirt more con-
veniently. They declare that a per-
feet man should be built to run like q
horse and swim like fish and fly like
a bird. Shakespeare, they say, was
only indulging in a little tafy when
he wrote "what d piece Of work is
is man. How noble in season how
infinite in faculties; in form and
moving; how express and admirable;
in action how like an angel; in appre-
hension how like God !"
Some Of these writer's talk about
sacred and divine things with the most
shocking contempt and intimate that
nohodv Init towards and lunatics be-
lieve in them They would make
Voltaire and Tom Payne ashamed of
themselves. Now, if a man has
doubts about the miracles or the
divinity of Christ and is really seek
ing after the truth and expresses him
self in language that shows respect
for the faith of his fellow men, it is
all right but we are too helpless to
be vain or conceited. If l knew
where I came from or where I was
going or what would be my future
state, or if I could prolong my exist
ence or could foresee the calamities
of life and prevent them, [ could
afford to strut around and play Sir
Oracle. But I feel my helplessness
more and more every day, and like a
child in trouble I want to go to my
father. Whether there be a God or
not, all the good people I have ever
known or read about believed there is,
and it is disrespect to them to take
His name in vain. Addison says that
Sir Robert Boyle, who was the great
est naturalist that England ever pro-
duced, had the most profound venera-
tion for the Supreme Being and never
mentioned the name of God without a
pause-a Visible stop in his discourse.
No well-bred man is ever profane or
speaks the name Of God ~irreverently.
I cannot understand how medical men
who have studied the anatomy Of the
human body-this complex and won
derful machine-should ave- be skep-
tical about Gods existence. II I
knew how my will, which is inmate