Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1898-07-14

the arguments and the useful lives and
the illustrious deaths of its disciples is
on the increase. What is the cause
I charge upon infidelity and agnosti-
cism this whole thing. II there be no
hereafter, or II that hereafter be bliss
full without reference to how we live
and how We die, why not move back the
folding doors between this world and
the next? And when our existence here
becomes troublesome why not pass
right over into Elyslum? Put this
down among your most solemn refiec-
tons. There has never been a case OF
suicide where the operator was not
either demented, and therefore ire
sponsible, or an infidel. / challenge all
the ages and | challenge the universe.
There never has been a case OF self-de-
struction while in full appreciation of
his immortality and of the fact that
that immortality would be glorious or
wretched according as he accepted
Jesus Christ or rejected him.
You say 1t is business trouble or
you say 1t is electrical currents. or 1t is
this or Ii is that or 1t Is the other
thing. Why not go back, my friend,
and acknowledge that in every case II
is the abdication OF reason or the
teaching of infidelity, which practical
ly says: IF you don't like this life get
out of 1t, and you will land either in
humiliation, where there are no notes
to pay, no prosecutions to suffer, no
govt to torment, or you will land where
there will be everything glorious and
nothing to pay for it," Infdelity has
always been apologize for self-immo-
lation. After Tom Paine's age of
Reason" was published and widely
read there was a marked increase of
self-slaughter.
Salmon p. Chase, chief Justice of the
Supreme Court of the United States,
appointed by President Lincoln. will
take the witness stand "Chief Justice
Chase, please to state what you have
to say about the book commonly called
the Bible" The witness replies: There
came aiime in my life when | doubt
ed the divinity of the Scriptures, and /
resolved as lawyer and Judge I would
try the book as / would try anything
in the court room, taking evidence for
and against. 1t was a long and serious
and profound study, and using the same
principles of evidence in this religious
matter as l always do in secular mat
ters, l have come to the decision that
the Bible is a supernatural book, that
1t has come from God, and that the
only safety for the human race is to
follow its teachings" Judge, that will
do. Go back again to your pill
low of dust on the banks of the Ohio"
Next l put upon the witness stand
president of the United States-John
Quincy Adams. President Adams,
what have you to say about the Bible
and Christianity" The president re-
plies: Il have for many years made 1t
a practice to read through the Bible
once year. My custom is to read four
or five chapters every morning imme-
diately after rising from my bed. 1t
employs about an hour of my time, and
seems to me the most suitable man
ner of beginning the day. In what
light soever we regard the Bible,
whether with reference to revelation,
to history or to mortality, it is an in
valuable and ineXhaustible mine OF
knowledge and virtue" Chancellor
Kent, what do you think of the Bible?"
Answer, mo other book ever addressed
itself so authoritatively and so pathet-
ically to the judgment and moral sense
of mankind" Edmund Burke, what
do you think of the Bible?" Answer:
81 have read the Bible, morning, noon
and night, and have ever since been
the happier and the better man for such
reading"
Young men of America, come out of
the circle of infidels-mostly made up
OF cranks and imbeciles-into the COM
pany of intellectual giants, and turn
your back on an infidelity which de-
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