The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-08-11

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Deluded doctors-220 physicians meet
ing week by week in London in the
Union Medical Prayer circle to wor-
ship God
DeIuded Iawyers-Lord Cairns, the
highest legal authority In England.
the e~x-advisor OF the throne. spending
his vacation in preaching the gospel
OF Jesus Christ to the poor people Of
Scotland. Frederick T. Frelinghuysen
Of New Jersey, once secretary OF state,
an old fashioned Evangelical Christian
an elder in the Reformed Church. John
Bright, a deluded Quaker. Henry Will
son, the vice president of the United
States, dying a deluded Methodist or
Congregatiohalist. Earl Of Kintore
dying a de,uded Presbyterian.
The cannibals in South sea, the BUSH
men of TERRA del Fuego, the wild
| men Of Australia, putting down the
knives OF their cruelty n clothing
themselves in decent apparel-an I'M
der the power of this delusion. Judson
and Doty and Abel and Campbell and
Williams and the 5000 missionaries
of the cross turning their backs on
home n civilization n comfort and
| going out amid the squalor Of heathen-
ism to relieve 1t, to save 1t, to help =.
toiling until they dropped into their
graves dying with no earthly comfort
| about them, and going into graves
with no appropriate epitaph, when they
might have lived in this country and
lived for themselves and lived luxu-
riously and been at last put into bril-
liant sepulchers. What a delusion!
Yes, this delusion Of the Christian
religion shows itself in the fact that
it goes to those who are in trouble.
Now, 1t is bad enough to cheat a man
when he is we'll and whcn he is pros
porous, but this religion comes to a
man when he is sick and says: You
will be we'll again after awhile. You
| are going into a land where there are
no coughs, n no pleurisies, and no
| consumptions, and nc laguishing.
Take courage and bear up" Yea, this
awful chimera Of the gospel comes to
the poor, and it says to them, You
are on your way to vast estates and to
dividends always declarable." This
| delusion Of Christianity comes to the
bereft, and it talks of reunion before
the throne and Of the cessation Of all
sorrow. And then, to show tina: this
delusion will stop at absolutely moth
ing, it goes to the dying bed and fills
J the ma with an~ticipatiOns. How
much better it would be to have him
/ die without any more hope han swine
> and rats and snakes! Shovel him un-
A., der! That is all. Nothing more left of
him He will never know anything
again. Shovel him under! The soul is
only a superior part of the body, and
| when the body disintegrates the soul
disintegrates. Annihilation, vacancy,
| everlasting blank, Obliteration. Why
| not present all that beautiful doctrin:
to the dying instead of coming with
this hoax, this swindle of the Christian
! religion, and filling the dying man
| with anticipations of another life until
\ some in the last hour have clapped
| their hands, and some have shouted,
and some have sung, and some have
been SO overweight with JOY that
they could only look ecstatic? Palace
gates opening, they thought-diamond
c%oronets flashing, hands reckoning, Or
chestras sounding. Little children dy-
ing actually believes they saw their
departed parents, so that although
the little children had been so weak
and feeble and sick for weeks they
| could not turf on their dying pillow
at the last, in a parozyism of rapture
uncomfortable they sprang to heir
feet and shouted, Mother, catch me;
I am coming"
MORE SWINDLERS.
And to show the immensely of this
delusion, this awful swindle Of the
gospel of Jesus Christ, I open a hospi-
tai, n I bring into that hospital the
deathbeds Of a great many Christian
people, and I take you by the hand,
and I walk up and down the wards Of
that hospital, and I ask a few ques-
tions. 1 ask, dying Stephen, what
have you to say?' Lord, Jesus, receive
my spirit" Dying John Wesley, what
have o to say?" The best of all is
God is with U.S." Dying Edward Pay
in a sea of glory" Dying John Brad
ford, what have you to say?" eff there
be any way of going to heaven on
horseback, or in a fiery chariot, it is
this" Dying Neander, what have
you to say?" Il am going to sleep now.
49, -:-l4y sGD--- AE~c T10r0nnn
Foster, what nave you to say?' "a
pilgrim in the valley, but the mountain
tops are all agleam from peak to peak"
Dying Alexander Mather, what have
you to say?' ''The Lord who has taken
care of me so years WI not cast me
off now; glory be to Cod and to the
lamb! Amen, amen, oJnen, amen!'
Dying John Powson. after preaching
the gospel SO many years, hat AVE
you to say?' MY deathbed is a bed of
roses" Dying DR.. Thomas Scott, what
have you to say?" This is heaven be-
what have you to say?" Boys, I am
going to the front" Dying telegraph
operator on a battlefield of Virginia,
what have you to say?" "The wires
are all laid, and the poles are up from
Stony Point to headquarters" Dying
Paul, what have you to say?' Il am
now ready to be offered, and the time
of my departure is at hand; I have
fought the good fight, I have finished
my course, I lave kept the faith. Q
death, where is thy sting? o grave,
where is thy victory? Thanks be unto
God who giveth us the victory through
our Lord Jesus Christ"
o my Lord, my God, what a delu-
sion, what a glorious delusion! Sub
merge me with it, fill my eyes and
ears with it, put it under my head for
a pi1lOw-this delusion-spread it over
me for a canopy, put it underneath me
for an outspread wing-roll. it over me
in ocean surges 1000 fathoms deep.
If infidelity, and if atheism, and if an
Inhalation are a reality and the Chris
tian religion is a delusion, give me the
delusiOn.
GRAND RESULTS.
The strong conclusion Of every rea-
sonable man and woman is that Chris
tianfty producing such grand results
cannot be a delusion. A lie, a cheat, a
swindle, a hallucination cannot launch
such a glory of the centuries. Your
logic and your common sense convince
-. L-& - haI a,,c 4o~~o% ~~oIY1nn