Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1899-08-07

ed infidel the world ever saw, writing
$50 publications, and the most of them
spitefuI against Christianity, himself
the most notorious libertine of the cen
tury-one would have thought he could
have been depended upon for stead
fastness in the advocacy of inGdelity
and in the war against this terrible
chimera, this deluSiOn of the gospel
But no; in his last hour he asks for
Christian burial and asks that they
give him the sacrament Of the Lord
Jesus Christ Why, you cannot de-
pend upon these first rate infidels; you
cannot depend upon their power to re-
sist this great delusion of Christianity
Thomas Paine, the god of modern
skeptics, his birthday celebrated in
New York and Boston with great en-
thusiasm-Thomas Paine, the paragon
of Bible haters-Thomas Paine. about
whom his brother infidel, William
Carver, wrote in a letter which 1 have
at my house, saying that he drank
quart Of rum day and was too mean
and too dishonest to pay for it-Thom-
as Paine, the adOred of modern inf
delity-Thomas Paine, who stole an
other mans wife in England and
brought her to this country-Thomas
Paine, who was so sQualid and so
loathsome and SO drunken and so prof
igate and so beastly in his habits,
sometimes picked out of the ditch,
sometimes too filthy to be picked out
Thomas Paine, one would have thought
that he could have been depended on
for SteadfaStnesS against this great de-
fusion.
But no. In his dying hour he bees
the Lord Jesus Christ for mercy. Pow
erful delusion, all conquering delusion.
earthqual1ing delusion of the Christian
religion. Yea, it goes on. 1t is so i'm
pertinent, and it is so overbearing, this
chimera of the gospel, that, having
conquered the great picture galleries
of the world, the old masters and the
young masters, it Is not satisfied until
it has conquered the music Of the
world. Look over the programme of
any magnificent musical festival and
see what are the great performances
and learn that the greatest of all the
subjects are religious subjects.
Gospel Structures.
Yes, this chimera of the gospel is not
satisfied until it goes on and builds it
self into the most permanent architec-
ture, 50 it seems as if the world is new
er to get rid Of it. What are same of
the finest buildings in the world? st.
PauPs, st. Peters and the churches
and cathedrals of all Christendom.
Yes, this impertinence of the gospel,
this vast de4usion, is not satisfied until
it projects itself and in one year gives,
contributes, $3.50, 900 to foreign mis-
sions, the work of which is to make
ounces and fools on the other side of
the wOrld-peOple we have never seen.
Deluded doctors-22O physicians meet
ing week by week in London in the
Union Medical Prayer circle to wor-
ship God.
Deluded lawyers-Lord Cairns, the
highest legal authority in England,
the eX-adviSer 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, deluded Quaker. Henry Will
son, the vice president Of the United
States, dying a deluded Methodist or
Congregationalist. Earl of Kintore
dying a deluded Presbyterian.
The cannibaIs in South sea, the
bushmen of TERRA del Fuego, the wild
men of Australia, putting down the
knives Of their cruelty and clothing
themselves in decent apparel-aI IN
der the power of this delusion. Judson
and Doty and Abeel and Campbell and
Williams and the 5000 missionaries
of the cross turning their backs on
home and civilization and comfort and
going out amid the SQualOr of heathen-
ism to relieve it, to save it, to help it,
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 brill
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, it is bad enough to cheat man
when he is we'll and when 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, and no pleurisies, and no
consumptions, and no languishing.
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 that this