Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1899-05-19


frozen rivers and frozen lakes and fro
zen oceans From arctic to antarctic
regions the inhabitants gather in to-
ward 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 to lower and the fur
naces begin TO go ont and the nations
begin to die. Cotopaxi, Vesuvius, Etna,
Stromboli, California geysers, cease to
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 the mast.
and helmsmen frozen at the wheel, and
passengers frozen in the cabin. All ma
tions dying, first at the north and then
at the south. Child frosted and dead
in the cradle. Octogenarian 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 congealing winter. Per-
petual winter Globe Of frigidity
Hemisphere shackled to hemisphere by
chains of ice. Universal Nova Zembla.
The earth an ice foe grinding against
other ice foes TIE archangels of malice
and horror have done their work, and
now they may have their thrones Of
glacier and look down upon the ruin
they have wrought What the destruc
tion Of the sun in the natural heavens
would be to our physical earth the de-
struction of Christianity would be to
the moral world. The sun turned into
darkness
whnt Atheism wouId Do.
Infdelity in our time is considered a
great joke. There are people who re-
joice to hear Christianity caricatured
and to hear Christ assailed with quib
BILE and quirk and misrepresentation
and badinage and harleQuinade. pro-
pose today to take infdeity and atheism
out of the realm Of jocularty into one
of tragedy and show you what infdels
propose and what. if they are success
full they will accomplish. There are
those in all our communities who would
like TO see the Christian religion over
thrown and who say the world would
be better without it, l want to show
you what is the end Of this road, and
what is the terminus Of this crusade.
and what this world will be when athe-
ism and infdelity have triumphed ever
it. if they can. | say if they can. l re-
iterate it, if they can.
In the first place, it will be the COM
plete and unutterable degradation Of
womanhood will prove it by facts
and Arguments which no honest man
will dispute In all communities and
cities and states and nations where the
Christian religion has been dominant
woman's condition has been ameliorat-
ed and improved. and she is deferred to
and honored in thousand things. and /
every gentleman takes of his hat be- |
fore her If your associations have been
good. You know that the name Of wife. |
mother. daughter. suggest gracious sur
roundings You know there are no bet |
ter schools and seminarics in this coun- |
try than the schools and seminaries toI !
our young ladies. You know that while |
woman may suHer injustice in England
and the United States. she has moro OF
her rights in Christendom than she has
anywhere else.
Now. compare this with woman's
condition in lands where Christianity
has made little or no advance-in
China. in Barbary, IN Borneo, in Tar
iary. in Egypt in Hindustan The Bur
mese sell their wives and daughters as
so many sheep The Hindoo Bible
makes il disgraceful and an outrage for
woman TO listen to music or look ont
of the window in the absence of her
husband and gives as a lawful ground
for divorce a woman'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
morning2 Infanticide following in.
fanticide. Female children destroyed
simply because they are female Wom-
an harnessed TO the plow as an OK.
Woman veiled and barricaded and in
all styles of cruel seclusion. Her birth
a misfortune. Her life torture. Her
death a horror The missionary OF the
cross today 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 carefully secluded
in side apartment, where they may
hear the voice of the preacher, but may
not be seen. No refinement. No hber-
ty. No hope for this life. No hope foI
the life to come. Finged nose. Cramped
foot. Disfgured face. Embruted soul
Now, compare those two conditions.
How far toward this latter condition
that | speak Of would woman 90 II
J., Christian influences were Withdrawn
and Christianity were destroyed Ii IL
only question Of dynamics. If an OBJ
iect 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
II startedY II will fall down, and It
will 90 still farther than the point from
which il started Christianity has lifted
woman up from the very depths OF
degradation almost to the skies. If that
lifting power be withdrawn, she falls
clear back to the depth from which she
was resurrscted not going any lower,
because there is no lower depth, and
vet Notwithstanding the fact that the
only salvation Of woman from degrade
tion and woe is the Christian religion
and the only influence that has over
lifted her in the social scales is Chris
tianity IL have read that there are
women who reject Christianity. | make
no remark in regard TO those persons
In the silence Of your own soul make
your observations.
Decentralization of Society.
II infidelity triumph and Christiani'
- 10 oyerthroxvp il means the demOr-