Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1899-06-01
SERMON
PREPARED ESPECIALLY FOH
YOUNG AND OLD.
Copyright, Louis Klopsch. 1sys

Deplorablc Condition Into Which In
? fidelity Would Plunge tho World.
TEXT: 1.-THE sun shall be turned Into dark
ness."-Acts H., 90.
Christianity Is the rising sur OF our time.
and men have tried with the uproiiing va
pors of skepticism and the smoke OF their
blasphemy to turn the sun into darkness.
Suppose tho archan gel. Of malice and hor-
TOR should be let loose O little while and be
allowed to ex%tinguish end destroy the sun
In the natural heavens. They would take
the oceans from other worlds and pom
them on the %lu-ninary OF the planetary sys-
tenn, and the waters go Kissing down amid
the ravines and the caverns, and there Is
explosion after explosion until there are
only q few peaks OF fire left in the sun. anil
these are cooling down and going out IN
til the vast continents Of flame are reduced
to a small acreage Of fire. and that whitens
and cools of until there are only a few
Goals left, n these are whitening and 60
ing out until there is not a spark left IN all
the mountains OF ashes and the valleys of
ashes aud the chasms OF ashes. An extin-
guished sun! A dead sun, A buried SUM
Let all worlds wall at the stupendous Oh
sequies.
OF course this withdrawal OF tho solar
light and heat throws our earth into a uni
versal chill, and the tropics become the
temperate, and the temperate becomes the
arctic, and there are frozen rivers and frozen
lakes and frozen oceans. From arctic to an
torctic regions the Inhabitants gather In
toward the center and find the equator as
the poles. The slain forests are piled up
into a great bonfire, and around them
gather the sbivering villages and cities.
The wealth OF the coal mines Is hastily
poured into the furnaces and stirred into
rage OF combustion, but soon the bonlres
begin to lower, and the furnaces begin to
go out, and the nations begin TO die. Coto-
paxi. Vesuvius, Etna, Strombolt. California
geysers, cease to smoke, and the Ice of
hailstorms remains unmelted in their
crater. All the flower. have breathed their
last breath. Ships with sailors frozen at
the mast, and helmsmen frozen at the
wheel, and passengers frozen in the cabin.
All nations dying, first at the north ard
then at the south. Child frosted and dead
in the cradle. Octosenarian frosted and
dead at the hearth. Workmen with frozen
hand on the hammer and frozen foot onthe
shuttle. Winter from sea to sea. All con-
gealing winter. Perpetual winter. Globe
OF frigidity. Hemisphere shackled to hem
fsphere by chains OF ice. Universal Nova
~Zembla The earth an ice foe grinding
against other ice foes. The archangels Of
malice and herIor have done their work,
and now they may have their throne: of
glacier and look down upon the ruin they
have wrought. What the destruction Of
the sun In the natural heavens would be
to our physical earth the destruction OF
Christianity would be to the moral world.
The sun turned into darkness.
Infdelity in our time is considered n
great joke. There are people who rejoice
to hear Christianity caricatured and to hear
| Christ assailed with quiGoie and Quirk and
misrepresentation and badinagean harle-
Qulnade. l propose to-day to take intidel-
| ity and atheism out of the realm OF iocu-
larity into one Of tragedy and show you
what iniidels propose and what, 1t they are
successful, they will accomplish. There
are those in all our communities who would
| like to see the Christian religion over
thrown and who say the woric would be
better without it. l want to show You
what is the end OF this road, and what i.
the terminus OF this crusade, and what this
world will be when atheism and infdelity
have %triumpbed over ii, IL they can. Isay,
II they can. reiterate 1t. II they can.
In the first place, it will be the complete
and unutteruble degradation OF woman
hood. l will prove it by facts and argu-
ments which no honest man will dispute.
In all communities and cities and States
and nations where tie Christian religion
has been dominant Woman'S condition has
been ameliorated and improved, and she IS
deferred to and honored in O. thousand
things, and every gentleman takes OF his
hat before her. II your associations have
been good, you know that the nam. al
wife. mother, daughter, suggest gruciou-
EuIECEDullsSs lou hlCH tHcIt are 10 BET
ter schools and semlnnries In this country
than the schools and seninaries for oui
young ladies. You know that while Won.
an may suffer injustice in England and the
United States, she has more Of her rights
in Christendom than she has anywhere
else.
Now, compare this with woman's conii.
tion in lands where Christianity has made
little or no RdyGnce-in China, In Barbav,
in Borneo. in Tartary, iD'Egypt. in Hindus.
tan. The Burmese sell their wives and
daughters as so many sheep. The Hfndoc
Bible makes it disgracetul and an outrage
fort woman TO listen to music or look oa'
of the window in the absence OF her hus.
band and gives as a lawful ground for di
vorce a woman's beginning to eat before
her husband has finished his meal. VIVA
mean those white hurdles on the ponds anC
rivers fn Chipa1n the morning? Infanticid.
Observation-Disclosures. FEMME children De
etroyed simply because they are females
Woman harnessed to the piow IS an OK
Woman yelled and ba,ricaded and in al
styles OF cruel seciusiou. Her birth q mis-
fortune. Her life n torture. Her death
horror. The missionary OF tue cross u
day In heather lands breaches generally t
two groups-a group OF men who do a
they please and sit where they please; III
other group. wsmen hidden and care
fully secluded in Il SHE apartment, wheE
they may hear the voice. OF tie preacher
but nay not he seen. No refinement. \
liberty. 10 hope fort this life. 10 hope T.
the lie to cone. Hinged nose. Crampef
foot. Disfgured face. Embruted soul
Now, compare taose two conditions
How far toward this latter condition that
Ispeak OF would woman 90 II Christian III
fuences were withdrawn and Christianity
were destroyed? Is is only n question Q
dynamics. II an object b, lifted - Il Ger
tain point and not fastened there and tt,
lifting power be withdrawn, ho| long be
fore that object vii fall down To th'
point from which i started? i
will fall down, and K Will &
still farther han ths point from whicI
1t started. Christianity has iiftet womai
up from the very dsrt!s ~ degradation
nln OFT to the skies. r that Hftlac pow
be withdrawn, she fa}3s clear bark - IN
depth from wAiea - 1As .esIrEsctci
no, going any lover. because there Is Il
lower depth. and vi Notwithstanding II
fac. that ths salvation q woman fron
de. radiation anl wos IS tae Christian r.
ligton-aod the cnly influence that Ia
ever lifted her in the social scaIes
Chris.iauity-I have rad teat there ~
women Who .eiect Christianity max
no remark IL .eSari;o those PERSONS. |
era e., -. r,rr 81 coal MAJ. -1ur ~