The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-06-09

would u to death every h.Is ana
DIT resident on earth, and If he q the
mower would climb I'D until he could
drive the God OF HEAVIER from his throne
and take il himself. he universal
butf her. In France II Is called com
munism; in the United ) ltes If -
called anarchism; in Russia Il is called
nihtIism. but tia last is the most
= ar and descriptive term. 1t E1eaIls
omplet and eternal smash up. 1t
would make the holding Of pr3pe.ty a
crime. and it would drive a dagger
Though your heart and pu. a torch TO
your dwelling and turf over this
whole and into the possession of theft
and lust and rapine and murder.
Where does this monster live? In all
the towns and cities Of his land. 1t
offers it's hand to this fair republic. 1t
proposes to tear to pieces the ballot
box, the legislative hall, the congress
sional assembly. It would taka this
land and divide it up, or rather divide
it down. 1t would give as mu n to the
idler as TO the worker, to the bad as 20
the good. Nihilism! This panther, w.
ing prowled across other lands, has set
its paw on our soil, n it is only wait
ing for the time in which TO spring
upon its prey. 1t was nihilism that
burned the railroad property at Pitts
burg during the great riots; it was nj
hilism that slew black people in our
northern cities during the war, it was
nihliism that mauled to death the Chi
nese immigrants years ago; it is ninil-
.sm that glares out of the windows of
the drunkeries upon sober people as
they go by. All! It's power has
yet been tested. I pray God its power
may never be fully tested. It would, il
it had the power, cav every church,
chapel, cathedral, schoolhouse and col
lege in ashes.
Let me say it is the worst enemy OF
the laboring classes in any
The honest cry for reform lifted by p
pressed laboring men is drowned out py
the vociferation for anarchy. The
criminals and the v~agabonds who
range through our cities talking about
their rights, wnen their first right is the
penitentiary-if they could be hushed
up and the downtrodden faboring men
of this country could be heard there
would be more bread FOR hungry chill
dren. In his land rio. and bloodshed
never gained any wages for the people
or gathered up any prosperity. In this
land the best weapon Is no. the CLUB,
ont the shillilah, not firearms, but the
ballot. Let not our oppressed lab1rln.s
men be beguiled 70 coming under the
bloody banner Of nihilism. 1t will make
your taxes heavier, your wages smaller,
ycur table scantier, your children hun
grier, your suffering greater. Yet this
nihiliSm, with feet red OF slaughter,
comes forth and offers its hand for this
republic. Shall the banns be proclaim
&C.: If SO, where shall the marriage al
tai be? And who will be the officiating
priest? And what will be the music"
That altar will lave to be white with
bIeached skulls, the officiating priest
must be a dripping assassin, the music
must be the smothered groan of multi
tudinous victims, the gdrlanGs must be
twisted of night5hade, the fruits must
hn n rIn NJ SIJ0r Tho Vyioh ~ IL !1n
the blood of st. Batholom"Hs massa-
Gre. Mo-! 1t is not to oilii:sri. the
sanguinary monster, that this lan3 Is
to be married.
DANGER FROM INFIDELITY.
Another sutton for the and of this
nation is infidelity. When the midnight
~ruffians despoiled the grave of A. T.
Stewart in st. Marks churchyard,
everybody was shocked, but infidelity
the robbing Of all the graves of Chris
tendon of the hope Of a resurrection
1t proposes to chisel out from the tomb
stones of you Christian dead the
words, ASLEEP in Jesus" and substi-
tute the words, "Obliteration-annihi-
lation." Infidelity proposes to take the
letter from the worlds Father, inviting
the nations to virtue and happiness and
tear it up into fragments so small that
you cannot read a word of it. 1t pro-
poses to take the consolation from the
broken hearted and the soothing pillow
from the dying. Infidelity proposes to
swear in the president of the United
States and the supreme court and the
governors of states and the witnesses
in the courtroom with their right hand
on Paine's Age of Reason" or Vol
taire's PHILOSOPHY of History" 1t
proposes to take away from this coun-
try the book that makes the difference
bof uy IL ~ fofnc md h
kingdom of Dahomey, between Ameri-
can civilization and Bornesian canni-
balism. If inf1delity could destroy the
Scriptures, it would in 200 years turn
the civilized nations back to semibar-
barism, and then from se~mibarbarism
into midnight savagery until the morals
of a menagerie of tigers rattlesnakeS
and chimpanZees would be better than
the morals of the shipwrecked human
| race.
| The only impulse in the right direc-
ton that this world has even had has
| come from the Bible. 1t was the mother
of Roman law and OF healthful juris-
prudence. That book has been the
mother of all reforms and all charities
mother of English magma charta and
American Declaration Of Independence.
Benjamin Franklin, holding that Holy
Book in his hand, stood before an in
fdel club in Paris n read to them
out of the prophecies of Habakkuk,
| and the infidels, not knowing what
book it was, declared it was the best
poetry they had even heard. That
book brought George Washington down
on his knees in the snow at Valley
Forge and led the dying Prince Albert
to ask some one to sing Rock Of
| Ages"
| l tell you that the worst attempted
crime of the century is the attempt to
destroy this book. Yet inidelity, foath-
some, %stenchful, leprous, pestiferous,
rotten monster, stretches out it's hand,
ichorous with the second death, to take
the hand of this republic. 1t stretches
it out through seductive magazines,
! aid through lyceum lectures and
! through caricatures Of religion. 1t asks
for all that part of the continent al
ready fully settled, and h two-thirds
not yet occupied. 1t says: Give me
all east of the Mississippi, with the
keys Of the church and with the Chris
tan printing presses-then give me
Wyoming, give me Alaska, give me
Montana, give me Colorado, give me
all the states west of the Mississippi,
and j will take those nlaceS and keen