The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1899-09-14

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whereas they once found their chief
delight among those who gambled and
swore and raced horses, now they find
their chief joy among those who go to
prayer meetings and churches, SO COM
plete is this delusion. Yea, their own
families have noticed 1.-THE wife has
noticed it, the children have noticed it.
The money that went for rum now
goes for books and for clothes and for
education He is new man. All who
know him say there has been won
derful change. What is the cause of
this change? This great hallucination
of the Christian religion. There is as
much difference between what he is
now and what he once was as between
a rose and nettle, as between dove
and yulture, as between day and
night. Tremendous delusion!
Admiral Farragut, one of the most
admired men of the American navy,
early became victim of this Chris
tian delusion, and, seated not long be-
fore his death at Long Branch, he was
giving some friends an account of his
early life. He said: "My father went
down in behalf OF the United States
government to put an end to Aaron
Bur's rebellion. was cabin Doy and
went along with him. could swear
like an old salt. could gamble in every
style of gambling. 1 knew all the wick
edness there was at that time abroad.
One day my father cleared every body
out of the cabin except myselfand locked
the door. He said: David, what are you
going to do? What are you going to
be?' WELL said, father, / am going
to follow the sea-. Follow the sea and
be poor, miserable, drunken sailor,
kicked and cuffed about the world, and
die of q fever in foreign hospital?'
oh, no!' said. Father, will not be
that; I will tread the quarter deck and
command, as you do No, David my
father said; mo, 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: 4 will changes will never swear
again, 1 will never drink again, will
never gamble again. and, gentlemen.
by the help of God 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 Ostia 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 a cloak, and condemning him as q
criminal, and bowling at him through
the streets; but they could not freeze
it out of him. and theNcould 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
sc 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
about this delusion of Christianity! 1t
oyerpowers 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 .'rhe Age of ReLson'' in
manuscript and never let it go into
type, and writing afterward, in his old
days: "Of this Jesus of Nazareth /
nave " Sdy Vi TIC SyStC" VI IuOTulS
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-
slaved by this delusion, SO that he says:
'.The book worth all other books put to
gether is the Bible" Benjamin Rush,
the leading physiologist and anatomist
of his day, the great medical scientist
what did he say? 1.-The only true and
perfect religion is Christianity" Isaac
Newton, the leading philosopher Of
his time-what did he say? That man
surrendering to this delusion Of the
Christian religion, cryiSg out: .'Ths
sublimest philosophy on earth is the
philosophy of the Gospel David
Brewster, at the pronunciation of who's.
name every scientist the world over un
covers his head, David Brewster saying
.Oh, this religion has been great ligh
TO me, very great light all my days!
President Thiers, the great Frencl
statesman, acknowledging that h,
4 nrave.i when he said. 81 invoke fh,