The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1899-05-19
AN ETERNAL GLOOM.
DR.. Talmvge Pictures the Earth
Without the Gospel.
WILDLY Portrays the Gloom of nm In
Hdci Worid-T riumph OF Atheism
would Mean Death OF
Civilization.
Copyright. Louis Klopsch, 1891

glimpse of what the world would be
the Gospel were abolished and the hu
man race left without Divine guidance
The text is Acts 2:20: THE sun shal
be turned into darkness"
Christianity is the rising sun of on
time, and men have tried with the up
rolling vapors of skepticism and tn
smoke of their blasphemy To turn TIL
sun into darkness. Suppose the arch
angels of malice and horror should b.
let loose little while and be allowed u
extinguish and destroy the sun in thu
natural heavens! They would take the
oceans from other worlds and poul
them on the luminary of the planetary
system. and the waters go Kissing down
amid the ravines and the caverns, and
there is explosion after explosion. unit
there are only few peaks of fire left
in the sun. and these are cooling down
and going out until the vast continents
of flame are reduced TO n small acreage
of fire. and that whitens and cools of
until there are only few Goals LEFT.
and these are whitening and going out
until there is not speck left in all the
mountains of ashes and the valleys OF
ashes and the chasms of ashes. An eN-
tinguished sun. dead sun! A buried
sun! Let all worlds wall at the stupcn-
dous obSequies.
OF course this withdrawal of the solar
light and heat throws our earth into a
universal chill, and the tropics become
Al. nj hn tom Ia
comes the arctic, and there are frozen
rivers and frozen lakes and frozen
oceans. From arctic and antarctic re-
gions the inhabitants gather in toward
the center and find the equator as the
poles. The slain forests are piled up
into a great bonfire, and around them
gather the shivering villages and cities.
The wealth of the coal mines is hastily
poured into the furnaces and stirred
into rage of combustion, but soon the
bonfres begin 10 lower, and the fur
naces begin 10 go out, and the nations
begin 10 die. Cotopaxi, Nesuvius, Etna,
Stromboli, California geysers, cease 10
smoke, and the ice of hailstorms re-
mains unmelted in their crater. All
the flowers have breathed their last |
breath Ships with sailors frozen at
he mast. and helmsmen frozen at the |
wheel. and passengers frozen in the |
cabin, all nations dying, first at the
north and then at the south. Child
frosted and dead in the cradle. Octo-
genarian frosted and dead at the
hearth. Workmen with frozen hand on
the hammer and frozen foot on the
shuttle. Winter from sea TO sea. All
winter. Perpetual winter.
Globe of frigidity. Hemisphere shack
ed 20 hemisphere by chains of
ce. Universal Nova Zembla. The earth |
IN ice foe grinding against other ice
hoes. The arehangels of malice and |
lorror have done their work, and now |
hey may take their thrones of glacier |
ind look down upon the ruin they have |
wrought. What the destruction of the |
un in the natural heavens would be |
o our physical earth, the destruction |
VI Christianity would be TO the moral |
world. The sun turned into darkness! |
Infdelity in our time is considered n |
great joke. There are people who re-
oice to hear Christianity caricatured |
md to hear Christ assailcd with bubble |
md quirk and Misrepresentation and |
oadinage and harlequinade. Propose
o-day To take infidelity and atheism
nut OF the realm of popularity into one
IF tragedy and show you what infidels
propose and what if they are successful
hey will accomplish. There are those
n our communities who would like to
zee the Christian religion oyerthrown
md who say the world would be better
without il. | want to show you what
S the end of this road and what is the
crminus Of this crusade and what this
world will he when atheism and infidei-
~ have triumphed over il. il they can.
say. If they can. reiterate II, if they
AN.
In the first place. il will be the com
,lete and unutterable degradation of
7 will prove il by facts
nd arguments which no honest man
will dispute. In all communities and
tiles and states and nations where the
'hristian religion has been dominant
= Dttn l
ated and improved, and she is deferred
D and honored in thousand things.
nd every gentleman takes Oft his hat
eforc her. If your associations have
cen good. you know that the name Of
life, mother, daughter, suggests gra-
ious surroundings. You know there
re no better schools and seminarics
] this country than the schools and
nminarics for our young ladies'. You
now that while woman may suffer in
nsticc in England and the United
tates she has more of her rights in
than she has anywhere
lse.
Now, compare this with woman's con-
tion in lands where Christianity has
ade little or no advancc-in China.
Barbory. In Borneo. in Tartary, i'm
gypt, in Hindustan. The Burmese sell
eir wives and daughters as so many
,eep. The llindoo bible makes il dis |
'accful, and an outrage for II woman 10 I
ten to music or look out Of the win
Nv in the absence Of her husband and
yes as lawful ground for divorce n
Dnans beginning to eat before her
Isband has finished his meal. What $
can those white bundles on the ponds
ID rivers in China in the morning?