Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1899-08-16

~A8l GAS.~"InSS6 WHO
~ -He, profane, unclean of speech and
uHciean Of action, drunken and lost. But
by the power of this delusion of the Chris
tain religion they have been comp letely
Transformed, and now they kind and
amiable and loving and useful. Everybody
sees the change. Under the power Of this
great hallucination they have quit their
former associates, and, whereas they once
found their chief delight among those who
gambled and swore and raced horses, now
they find their chief Joy among those who
go to prayer meetings and churches, so
complete Is the delusion. Yea, their own
families have noticed 1.-THE wife has no.
ticed 1t, the children have noticed it. The
money that went for rum now goes for
books and for clothes and for edu cation.
He is a new man. All who know him say
there has been wonderful change.
What is the cause of this changer THIS
great hallucinption of the Christian relig
Ion. There is as much difference between
what he Is now and what he once was as
between a rose and a nettle. as between a
dove and a vulture, as between day and
1ight. Tremendous delusionl
Admiral Farragut, one OF the most ad-
nired men Of the American navy, early be-
came a victim OF this Christian deiusion,
and, seated not long before his death mt
Long Branch, he was giving some friends
an account of his early life. lie said:
"My father went down in behalf of the
On1teu StattS uONeTulltut " put Gnu
to Aaron Burr's rebellion l was cabin
boy and went along wi h him. l could
swear like an old salt. 1 could gamble in
every style of gambling. L knew all the
wickedness there was at that time
aboard. One day my father cleared every.
locked the door. He said: David, what
are you going to do2 What are you going
to be9' Well said, father, 1 am going
to follow the sea- Follow the sea and be
q poor, miserable, drunken sailor, kicked
and cufYed about the world, and die OF a
said. Father. will not be that; will
tread the quarter deck and command as
you do No, David my father said;
mo, David, person that has your prin-
ciples and your bad habits will never
tread the quarter deck or command My
father went out and shut the door after
him, and 1 said then, I will change, will
never swear again, 1 will never drink
again, 1 will never gamble again. and,
gentlemen, by the help of God, l have
| kept those three vows to this time. soon
after that became a Christian, and that
decided my fate for time and for eternity.
Another captive OF this great Christian
| delusion. There goes Saul OF Tarsus on
horseback at full gallon. Where is he GO
| Ing? To destroy Christians. He wants nc
better play spell than to stand and watcn
| the hats and coats of the murderers who
are massacring Gods children. There
goes the same man. This time he Is afoot
Where is he going now? Going on he road
to Ostia to die for Christ. They tried tc
whip 1t out of him, they tried to scare II
out Of him. they thought they would give
him enough of 1t by putting him on smai
diet, and denying him cloak, and con
demning him as n criminal, and bowling n
him through the streets; but they coult
not freeze it out of him, and they could no
sweat 1t out of him, and they could no
pound it out of him, so they tried the sur
gerry OF the sword, and one summer day II
66 he was decapitated. Perhaps the might
est intellect OF the 5000 years Of the world
existence hoodwinked, cheated, cajoled
duped by the Christian religion.
Ah, that Is the remarkable thing abou
this delusion OF Christianity! 1t overpow
ers the strongest intellects. Gather tn
critics, secular and religious, OF this cen
tury together and put a vote to them as t
which is the greatest book ever written
and by large majority they will say
paradise Lost" Who wrote "Paradis
Lost?" One of the fools who believed II
this Bible, John Milton. Benjamin Frank
lin surrendered to this delusion, II you ma
Judge from the letter that he wrote
Thomas Paine begging him to destroy eth
Age of Reason" in manuscript and neve
let 1t 60 into type, and writing afterwart
in his old days, "Of this Jesus Of Nazaret
I have to say that the system OF mora
He left and the religion He has given I
are the best things the world has ever see
or is likely to see." Patrick Henry, II
electric champion OF liberty, ensIaved /
. this delusion, so that he says, "The boo
worth all other books put together Is I'll
Bible" Benjamin Rush, the leading phys
ologist and anatomist OF his day, the gre
medical scientist-what did he say2 ct
! only true and perfect religion is Christian
, lty." Isaac Newton. the leading philos'
pher Of his time-what did he say
That man -surrandering to this deli