Connecticut western news., 1899-08-10

contributes, S6,2o0.OO0 to foreign mis- sions, the work of which is to make dunces and fools on the other side of
 the world-people we have never seen. Deluded doctors-220 physicians meet ing week by week In London in the Union Medical Prayer circle to wor- ship God.
 Deluded lawyers-Lord Cairns, the
 highest legal authority in England. | the ex-adviser of the throne. spending his vacation In preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to the poor people of Scotland. Frederick T. Frelinghuysen of New Jersey, once secretary of state. an old fashioned Evangelical Christian. an elder in the Reformed church. John Bright deluded Quaker Henry Will son. the vice president of the United
 States, dying deluded Methodist or Congregationalist. Earl of Kintore dying deluded Presbyterian.
 The cannibals in South sea, the
 bushmen of Tierra del Fuego the wild men of Australia, putting down the knives of their cruelty and clothing themselves in decent apparel-all un- der the power of this delusion. Judson and Doty and Abeel and Campbell and Williams and the 5000 missionaries of the cross turning their backs on home and civilization and comfort and going out amid the squalor of heathen- ism to relieve 1t, to save 1t, to help 1t, | toiling until they dropped into their graves, dying with no earthly comfort about them. and going into graves with no appropriate epitaph. when they might have lived in this country and lived for themselves and lived luxu- riously aud been at last put into bril- liant sepulchers. What delusion! Yes, this delusion of the Christian l religion shows itself in the fact that | 1t goes to those who are in trouble. Now, 1t is bad enough to cheat a man when he is we'll and when he is pros | porous, 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 pleurisies, and no consumptions. and no languishing. Take courage and bear up." Yea, this awful chimera of the gospel comes to l the poor, and it says to them, You are on your way to vast estates and to dividends always declarable." This delusion of Christianity comes to the bereft, and 1t talks of reunion before the throne and of the cessation of all | sorrow. And then, to show that this delusion will stop at absolutely noth- 1 ing, it goes to the dying bed andvhlls the man with anucipations. How much better 1t would be to have him die without any more hope than swine | and rats and snakes! Shovel him un- der! That is all. Nothing more left of him. He will never know anything again. Shovel him under! The soul is | only a superior part of the body, and | when the body disintegrates the soul | disintegrates. Humiliation, vacancy, | everlasting 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 filling the dying man with anticipations of another life until | some In the last hour have clapped | their hands, and some have shouted, | and some have sung, and some have
 
 they could only look ecstatic? Palace | gates opening. they thought-diamond I coronets flashing, hands beckoning, or chestras sounding. Little children dy- ing actually believing they saw their departed 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 paroxysm of rapture
 uncomfortable they sprang to their | feet and shouted, Mother, catch me;
 I am coming"
 l More swindlers.
 l And to show the immensity of this | delusion, this awful swindle of the
 gospel of Jesus Christ, open a hospi- tai, and bring into that hospital the deathbeds of a great many Christian
 people. and I take you by the hand. and
 I walk up and down the wards of that
 hospital, and ask few questions.
 ask, Dying Stephen, what have you to say" Lord, Jesus, receive my l spirit" Dying John Wesley, what have you to say?" 'The best of all is
 God is with us." Dying Edward
 Payson, what have you to sayY II
 float In a sea of glory" Dying John
 Bradford, what have you to sayT If
 there be any way of going to heaven
 on horseback, or in fiery chariot, it Is
 this" Dying Neander, what have
 you to say?' Il am going to sleep now.
 Good night" Dying Mrs. Florence
 Foster, what have you to sayY' "A
 pilgrim in the valley, but the mountain
 tops are all agleam from peak to peak" l"
 Dying Alexander Mather, what have
 you to say P '"rhe Lord who has taken
 care of me 50 years will not cast me
 of now; glory be to God and to the
 lamb! Amen, amen, amen, amenw
 Dying John Powson, after preaching
 the gospel so many years. what have
 you to sayT My deathbed is bed of
 roses" Dying Dr. Thomas Scott, | what have you to say?" This Is heav-
 en begun" Dying soldier in the last
 war, what have you to sayY Boys,
 am going to the front" Dying tele-
 graph operator on a battlefield of Vir-
 ginia, what have you to say?' "The
 wires are all laid, and the poles are up
 from Stony Point to headquarters" ]"
 Dying Paul. what have you to say?'
 T am now ready to be offered, and the
 time of my departure Is at hand; I
 have fought the good fight, I have fin
 ished my course, have kept the faith.
 O death, where Is thy sting? O grave,
 where is thy victory? Thanks be unto
 God who giveth us the victory through
 our Lord Jesus Christ"
 O my Lord, my God. what a delu-
 sion, what a glorious delusion! Sub
 merge me with 1t, fill my eyes and
 ears with 1t, put it under my head for
 pillow-this delusion-spread 1t over
 me for canopy, put 1t underneath me
 for an outspreao wing-roll 1t over me
 in ocean surges 10000 fathoms deep.
 If infidelity, and if atheism, and If an
 initiation are a reality and the Chris