The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1899-06-22

their wives and daughters as SO many
sheep. The Hindoo Bible makes it dis

their wives and daughters as 50 many
sheep. The Hindoo Bible makes it dis
graceful and an outrage for woman to
listen to music or look out of the win
low in the absence of her husband and
gives as lawful ground for divorce a
Goman's beginning to eat before her
husband has finished his meal. What
mean those white bundles on the ponds
and rivers in China in the morning?
lnfanticide following infanticide. Fe-
male children destroyed simply because
they are female. Woman harnessed to
the plow as an OK. Woman veiled and
and in all styles of cruel Sc
Her birth misfortune. Her
life torture. Her death a horror. The
of the cross to-day in
heather lands breaches generally to
two groups-a group of men who do as
they please and sit where they please;
the other group, women hidden and
secluded in side apartment,
where they may hear the voice of the
preacher, but may not be seen. No re-
finement. No liberty. No hope for this
life. No hope for the life to come.
Hinged nose. Cramped foot. Disigured
face. Embruted soul. Now, compare
those two conditions. How far toward
this latter condition that I speak of
would woman go if Christian influ-
ences were withdrawn and Christianity
were destroyed? 1t is only question
OF dynamics. If an object be lifted to
certain point and not fastened there
and the lifting power be withdrawn,
how long before that object will fall
down to the point from which it start
ed? It will fall down, and it will go
still farther than the point from which
it started. Christianity has lifted wom-
an up from the very depths of degrade
ton almost to. the skies. If that lifting
power be withdrawn she falls clear
back to the depth from which she was
resurrected, not going any lower, be-
cause there is no lower depth. And yet,
notwithstanding the fact that the only
salvation of woman from degradation
and woe is the Christian religion-and
the only influence that has ever lifted
her in the social scale is Christianity
have head that there are women who
reject Christianity. / make no remark
in regard to those persons. In the 81
lence of your own soul make your OBJ
servations.
If infidelity triumph and Christianity
be overthrown, it means the demoraliza-
ton of society. The one idea in the
Bible that atheists and infidels most
hate is the idea of retribution. Take
away the idea of retribution and pun
ishment from society, and it will begin
very soon to disintegrate, and take
away from the minds of men the fear
of hell, and there are great many of
them who would very soon turn this
world into hell. The majority of those
who are indignant because of the idea
of punishment are men whose lives are
bad or whose hearts are impure and
who hate the Bible because of the idea
of future punishment for the same rea-
son that criminals hate the peniten-
tiary. Oh, ! have heard this brave talk
about people fearing nothing of the
consequences of sin in the next world,
| and have made up my mind it is mere
ly a towards whistling to keep his cour-
age up. l have seen men Haunt their inn
moralities in the face of the commune
+ ty, and l have heard them defy the judg-
ment day and scof at the idea of any
future consequence of their sin, but
when they came to die they shrieked
until you could hear them for nearly
two blocks, and in the summer night
the neighbors got up to put the win
dows down because they could not en-.
dure the horror.
| I would not want to see a rail train
with 500 Christian people on board &c
down through a drawbridge into .
watery grave; 1 would not want to SET
500 Christian people go into such dis
aster, but I tell you plainly that coule
more easily see that than / could fol
any protracted time stand and see al
infidel die, though his pillow were o
elder down and under canopy of yer
million. / have never been able t.
brace mp my nerves for such spec
tacle. There is something at such ];
time so indescribable in the counte
nance. just looked in upon it a min
ute or two, but the clutch of his fist wa
so diabolic and the strength of his voic
was so unnatural ] could not endure il
There is no hell, there is no hell, Their
| is no hell!" the man had said for g.
years, but that night when 1 looke'
in the dying room of my infidel neigh
Dor there was something on his counte
| nance which seemed to say: There il
there is, there is, there isl" Th
mightiest restraints to-day agains
theft, against immortality, against iii
ertinism, against crime of all sorts
! the mightiest restraints are the retr
buttons Of eternity. Men know tha
they can escape the law, but down j
the offenders soul there is the realize
ton of the fact that they cannot escap
. God. He stands at the end of the roa
of profigacy, and He will not clear th
guilty. Take all idea of retribution an
punishment out of the hearts an
minds az men. and it would not be Ion