The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1899-1900, 1899-08-09

be" well, l sald, tather, i am going
to follow the sea- Follow the sea and
be a poor, miserable, drunken sailor,
kicked and cuffed about the world, and
die of fever in foreign hospital"
oh, MOI ! said. Father, l will not be
that; will tread the quarter deck and
command, us you do NO, David my
father said; no, David, person that
has your principles and your bad habits
will never tread the quarter deck or
command My father went out and
shut the door after him, and | said
then: Twill change. / will never swear
again, / will never drink again, / will
never gamble again. and, gentlemen,
by the help of God I have kept those
three vows to this time. | soon after
that became Christian, and that de-
cided my fate for time and for eter-
nifty"
Another captive of this great Chris
tian delusion. 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 0stia 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 cloak, and condemning him as a
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
mightiest intellect of the 5000 years
of the worlds existence hoodwinked,
cheated, cajoled, duped by the Chris
tian religion.
All, that is the remarkable thing
dDOul llllb VI VII II
overpowers the strongest intellects,
Gather the critics, secular and reli-
gious, of this century together and put
vote to them as 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
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-.
shaved 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 ant
perfect religion is Christianity" Isaac
Newton, the leading philosopher o.
I lis time-what did he say? That mar
surrendering TO this delusion of thu
Christian religion, crying out: 9Th,
sublimest philosophy on earth is the
philosophy of the Gospel" Davit
Brewster, at the pronunciation of whost
name every scientist the world over un
covers his head, David Brewster saying;
"Oh, this religion has been great light
TO me, very great light all my days
President Theirs, the great Frencl
statesman, acknowledging that hi
prayed when he said: 81 invoke the
Lord God, in whom | am glad to be
lieve." David Livingstone, able to con
quer the lion, able TO conquer the pan
ther, able to conquer the savage, YET
conquered by this delusion, this hal
lucnation, this great swindle of the
ages, so when they find him dead they
find him on his knees, William L. Glad
stone, the strongest intellect in Eng
land, unable to resist this chimera, thi.
fallacy, this delusion of the Christian
religion, went to the house of God
every Sabbath, and often, at the invi
tation of the rector, read the prayers tc
the people. If those mighty intellects
are overborne by this delusion, what
chance is there for you and me?
Besides that, l have noticed. thai
first rate infidels cannot be depended
on for steadfastness in the proclama
ton of their sentiments. Goethe,
leading skeptic, was so wrought upor
by this Christianity that in a veal
moment he cried OUT "My belief in the
Bible has saved me in my literary ant
moral life.' Rosseau, one of the mos
eloquent champions of infdelty
spending his whole life warrinl
against Christianity, cries out: "Tht
majesty of the Scriptures amazes me.
Altemont, the notorious infdel, ont
would think he would have been safC
against this delusion of the Christian
religion. Oh, no! After talking agains
Christianity all his days, in his las
hours he cried out: "Oh, Thou bias
phemed but most indulgent Lord God
hell itself is a refuge if it hide me from
Thy frown!" Voltaire, the most talent
ed infidel the world ever saw, writing
$50 publications, and the most of then
spiteful against Christianity, himsel
the most notorious libertine of the cen
tury-one would have thought he coult
have been depended upon for stead
fastness in the advocacy of infdelit,
and in the war against this terrible
chimera, this delusion Of the Gospel
But no; in his last hour he asks fol
Christian burial and asks that the,
give him the sacrament of the Lore
Jesus Christ. Why, you cannot de
pend upon these first rate infidels; yol
cannot depend upon their power to re
sist this great delusion of Christianity