The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1899-08-12

| uHu u NulluIt, ub DtlWttN uuy uHl
night. Tremendous delusion!
Admiral Farragui. one OF the most
admired men of the American navy
early became victim of this Chris
tian Gclrsioa, and. seated not long be-
fore his death at Long Branch, he was
giving some friends an account OF his
oarly life. He said: "My father went
down in behalf of the United States
government to put an end to Aaron
Burr's rebellion. | was cabin BOY and
went along with him. | could swear
like an old salt. could gamble in every
style of gambling. knew all the wick
edness there was at that time abroad.
One day my father cleared everybody
out of the cabin except yselfand locked
the door. He said: David, what are you
going 10 do? What are you going TO
bc?' Well said. father, am going
TO follow the sea- Follow the sea and
be n poor, miserable. drunken sailor,
kicked and cuiTed about the world, and
| die of a fever in foreign hospitalY
| oh, no. J said. Father, ! will not be
that: ! will tread the quarter deck and
command, as you do No, David my
father said: no, David, a person that
will never tread the quarter deck or
command My father went ont and
! shut the door after him, and | said
then: i will change. will never swear
again. will never drink again, | will
never gamble again and, gentlemen,
by the help of God ! have kept those
three vows 10 this time. Il soon after
that became Christian, and that de-
cided my fate for time and for eter-
nity!N
Another captive of this great Chris
tian dclusion. There goes SSaul of
Tarsus OH horseback ut 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 nan. This time he is afoot.
Wls're is he going now? Going on the
road to Ostia to die for Christ. They
tried TO whip il 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 condcmning him as
criminal, and bowling at him through
the streets; but they could not freeze
it out of him, and they could not sweat
il 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
60 he was dccapitatcd. Perhaps the
mighticst 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
overpuwcrs the strongest intellects.
Gather the critics, secular and reli-
gious, of this century together and put
vote to them Cas TO which is the
greatest book ever written, and by u
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 10 say Of the system of morals
lie 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 dclusion, so that he says:
"The book worth all other books put to-
gethcr is the Bible" enjamin Rush,
the leading psychologist and anatomist
of his day. the great medical scientist
what did he say? 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, crying out: The
sublimest philosophy on earth is the
philosophy of the Gospel" David
Brewster, at the pronunciation of whose
name every scientist the world over UNI
covers his head, David Brewster saying:
"Oh, this religion has been great light
to me, Il very great light all my days."
President Theirs, the great French
statesman, acknowledging that he
| prayed when he said: IL invoke the
| Lord God, in whom l am glad TO be-
lieve." David Livingstone, able to con-
| qucr the lion, able to conquer the pam
Their, able to- conquer the savage, yet
conquered by this deluson, this hal
lucination, 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, this
fallacy, this delusion of the Christian
religion, went to the house of God
every Sabbath, and often, at the invi-
;ation of the rector, read the prayers TO
the people. II those mighty inte!lects
are ovcrborne by this delusion, what
chance is there for you and me?
/ Besides that, | have noticed that
first. rate infidels cannot be depended
on for steadfastness in the procama-
ton of their sentiments. Goethe, a
leading skeptic, was so wrought upon
by this Christianity that in weak
moment he cried out: my belief in the
| Bible has saved me in my literary and