St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1899-09-09
VOL. XXIV.-NO. 81.

IlAC al Viu cdkss NOuI1 uhUlC IN
style of gambling. knew all the wick
edness there was ut that time abroad.
One day my father cleared everybody
out of the cabin exceptmyselfand locked
the door. He said: David. what are you
going to do? What are you going to
be-" WELL said, father, l am going
to follow the sea- Follow the sea and
be q poor, miserable, drunken sailor
kicked and cutfed about the world. and
die of fever in a foreign hospital?
oh. no. said. Father, l will not be
that; l Will tread the quarter deck and
command, as you do No, David, my
father said; no, David, person that
has your principles and your bad habits
will never tread the quarter deck OF
command My father went out and
shut the door after him, and l said
then: Twill change. Twill never swear
again, will never drink ngain, ! will
never gamble again. and, gentlemen.
by the help of God l have kept those
three vows to this time. l soon after
that became a Christian, and that de-
cided my fate for time and for eter-
nity."
Another captive of this great Chris
tian dclusion. There goes Saul OF
Tarsus on horseback at full gallop.
Where is he going? To destroy Chris
tians. He wants no better play spell
than to stand and watch the hats and
coats of the murderers who are mas
sacring Gods children. There goes the
same man. This time he is afoot.
Where is he going now? Going on the
road to Ostia to die for Christ. They
tried to whip it out of him, they tried
to scare it out of him, they thought
they would give him enough of it by
putting him on small diet. and denying
him a cloak, and condemning him as
criminal, and bowling at him through
the streets; but they could not freeze
it out of him, and they could not sweat
it out of him. and they could not pound
it out of him, SO they tried the surgery
of the sword, and one summer day in
&C he was decapitated. Perhaps the
mighiiest intellect of the 5000 years
of the worlds existence hoodwinked,
cheated, cajoled, duped by the Chris
tian religion.
All, that is the remarkable thing
about this delusion of Christianity! 1t
overpowers the strongest intellects.
Gather the critics, secular and reli-
gious, of this century together and put
q vote to them AZ to which is the
greatest book ever written, and by a
large majority they will say paradise
Lost" Who wrote Paradise LOst?"
One of the fools who believed in this
Bible, John Milton. Benjamin Frank
lin surrendered to this delusion, if you
may Judge from the letter that he
wrote to Thomas Paine, begging him
to destroy ''The Age of Reason" in
manuscript and never let it go into
type, and writing afterward, in his old
days: ''Of this Jesus of Nazareth l
have to say of the system of morals
He left and the religion He has given us
are the best things the world has ever
seen or is likely to see." Patrick Henry,
the electric champion of Liberty, en-
slaved by this delusion. SO that he says:
"The book worth all other books put to-
gether is the Bible" Benjamin Rush,
the leading Psychologist and anatomist
of his day, the great medical scientist
what did he say? .The only true and
perfect religion is Christianity" Isaac
Newton, the leading philosopher Of
his tim-what did he say? That man
to this delusion of the
Christian religion. crying out: ''The
sublimest philosophy on earth is the
of the Gospel" David
Brewster, at the pronunciation of whose
name every scientist the world over un-
covers his head, David Brewster saying:
"Oh, this religion has been a great light
to me, very great light all my days."
President Theirs, the great French
acknowledging that he
prayed when he said: II invoke the
Lord God, in whom I am glad to be-
lieve." David Livingstone, able to con-
quer the lion, able TO conquer the pam
ther, able to conquer the savage, yet
by this delusion, this hal
lucination, this great swindle of the
nges, SO when they find him dead they
ind him on his knees. William E. Glad
stone. the strongest intellect in Eng
land, unable to resist this chimera, this
fallacy, this delusion of the Christian
went to the house of God
every Sabbath. and often, ut the invf-
tation of the rector, read the prayers to
The people. If those mighty intellects
are overborne by this delusion. what
chance is there for you and me?
Besides that, have noticed that
first rate inhdels cannot be depended
On for steadfastness in the proclama-
lion of their sentiments. Goethe, a
leading skeptic, was SO wrought upon
Dy this Christianity that in a weak
he cried out: '.My belief in the
Bible has saved me in my literary and
moral life" Rosseau, one of the most
eloquent champions of infidelity,
spending his whole life warning
against Christianity, cries out: ''The
of the Scriptures amazes me-"
Altemont. the notorious infidel, one
would think he would have been safe
against this delusion of the Christian
religion. Oh, no! After talking against
all his days, in his last
hours he cried out: "Oh, Thou bls r
phemed but most indulgent Lord God.
hell itself is . refuge if it hide me from
Thy frown!" voltaire. the most talent
ed infidel the world ever saw, writing
so publications. and the most of them
spiteful against Christianity, himself
he most notorious libertine of the CEN
tury-one would have thought he could
have been depended upon for stead
fastness in the advocacy of infidelity
and In the war against this terrible
this delusion of the Gospel
But no; in his last hour he asks for
Christian burial and asks that they
give him the sacrament of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Why, you cannot de-
pend upon these first rate infidels; you
cannot depend upon their power to re-
sist this great delusion of Christianity.
Thomas Paine, the god Of modern
skeptics, his birthday celebrated in
New York and Boston with great en-
thusiasm-Thomas Paine, the paragon
Of Bible haterseThomas Paine, about
whom his brother infdel. William
Carver. wrote in q letter which have