The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1899-08-07

try and lived for themselves and lived
luxuriously and been at last put into
brilliant sepulchers. What a delusion!
Yea, this delusion of the Christian re-
ligion shows itself in the fact That II
goes to those who are In trouble. Now,
1t is bad enough to cheat man when he
Is well and when he Is prosperous; but
this religion comes to a man when he Is
sick and says: "You will be well again
after awhile; you are going into a land
where there are no coughs and no pleu-
risies and no consumptions and no Ian
gushing; take courage and bear up"
Yea, this awful chimera Of the gospel
comes to the poor, and 1t says to them.
"You are on your way to vast estates
and to dividends always declarable."
Comfort to the Bereaved.
This delusion of Christianity comes to
the bereft, and 1t talks of reunion before
the throne and Of the cessation of all sor-
row, and then, to show that this delusion
will stop at absolutely nothing, it goes to
the dying bed and fills the man with an
ticipations. How much better 1t would
be to have him die without any more hope
than swine and rats and snakes! Shovel
him under! That is all. Nothing more
. left Of him. He will never know any
thing again. Shovel him under! The
soul is only superior part of the body,
and when the body disintegrates the soul
disintegrates. Annihilation, vacancy, ev-
erlasting blank, obliteration. Why not
present all that beautiful doctrine to the
dying instead Of coming with this hoax,
this swindle of the Christian religion, and
%b~t 1vviv, t,otp ~
another life until some In the last hour
have clapped their hands, and some have
shouted, and some have sung, and some
have been so overweight with joy that
they could only look ecstatic7 Palace
gates opening, they thought-diamond
coronets flashing hands reckoning, or
chestras sounding. Little children dying
actually believing they saw their depart
ed parents, SO that, although the little
children had been so weak and feeble and
sick for weeks they could not turn on
their dying pillow, at the last, in a paro1-
ysm Of rapture uncomfortable, they
sprang to their feet and shouted: Moth
er. catch me! am comingp'
And to show the immensely of this
delusion, this awful swindle of the Cos
pei of Jesus Christ, open a hospital
and l bring into that hospital the
people, and 1 take you by the hand
that hospital and ask few questions.
ask, Dying Stephen, what have you
to say?' Lord, Jesus receive my
spirit" "Dying John Wesley, what
have you to sayT "The best Of all is
God is with US" "Dying Edward Pay
son, what have you to say?" II float in
a sea of glory" dying John Bradford,
what have you to say?" IF there be
any way Of going to heaven on horse
back or in fiery chariot, it is this"
dying Neander, what have you to
say" II am going to sleep now, good
night dying Mrs. Florence Foster,
what have you to say?" "A pilgrim in
the valley, but the mountain tops are all
agleam from peak to peak" "Dying
Alexander Mather, what have you to
say?" 1.-THE Lord who has taken care
of me so years will not cast me off now;
glory be to God and to the Lamb!
Amen, amen, amen, amen!" "Dying
John Powson, after preaching the gos-
pei so many years, what have you
to say? "My death bed is a bed of
roses" dying DR.. Thomas Scott, what
have you to say?' "This is heaven be-
gun" dying soldier in the last war,
what have you to say?' Boys, am
going to the front" dying telegraph
operator on a battlefield of Virginia,
what have you to say?" "rhe wires are
I'll laid and the poles are up from Stony
!'oint to headquarters" "Dying Paul,
what have you to say?" II am now
lady to be offered, and the time of my
departure Is Mt hand; have fought the
good fight, have finished my course, l
have kept the faith. o death, where is
thy sting? o grave, where is thy vic
tory? Thanks be unto God who giveth
us the victory through our Lord Jesus
Christ"
A Glorious Dclusion.
o my Lord, my Cod, what a delusion,
what glorious delusion! Submerge me
with it, fill my eyes and ears with it, put
1t under my head for pillow, this delu-
sion; spread it over me for canopy, put
it underneath me for IN outspreading
wing, roll it over me in ocean surges TO-
600 fathoms deep. If in6deity and IL
atheism and if humiliation are reality
and the Christian religion is delusion,
give me the delusion.
The strong conclusion of every reason
able man and woman is that Christianity
producing such grand results cannot be
n dellsion. A lie, cheat, a swindle, a
halucination, cannot launch such glory
of the centuries. Your logic and your
common sense convince you that a bad
cause cannot produce an illustrious re-
suit Out of the womb of such mon
ster no such angel can be born. There are
many who began with thinking That the
Christian religion was a stupid farce who
have come to the conclusion TINT it is Il
reality. Why are you in the Lords house
today? Why did you sing this song?
Why did you bow your head in the open
ing prayer? Why did you bring your
family with you? Why, when l tell you
of the ending of all trials in the bosom of
God, do there stand tears in your eyes
not tears of grief. but tears Of JOY such
as stand in the eyes of homesick children
far away at school when some one talks
to them about going home? Why is it
that you can be so calmly submissive to
the death of your loved one about whose
departure you once were so angry and so
rebellious? There is something the mat
ter with you. All your friends have found
out there Is a great change, and IL some
Of you would give your experience you
would give it in scholarly style, and 9TH
ers, giving their experience, would give it
in broken style, but the one experience
would be just as good as the other. Some
Of you have read everything. You are
scientific and you are scholarly, and yet
if should ask you, "What is the most
sensible thing you ever dd?' you would
say, "The most sensible thing l ever did
was to give my heart to God"
But there may be others who have not
had early advantages and If they were
asked to give their experience they might
rise and give such testimony as the man
gave in prayer meeting when he said:
"On my way here tonight l met a man
who asked me where l was going. I
said, 4 am going to prayer meeting He