Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1900-02-12


mer. in spinning out silken webs to
trap the unwary? Or Voltaire, the
most learned man Of his day, marshal
ing a great host of skept;cs and leading
them out in the dark land of infdelity
Or Gibbon, who showed an uncontrol-
liable grudge against religion in his his
tory of one Of the most fascinating pc
RODS of the worlds eXistence-the de
cline and Fall Of the Roman Empire"-
a book in which, with all the splendors
of his genius, he magnified the errors
of Christian disciples, while with a
sparseness Of notice that never can be
forgiven he treated of the Christian
heroes of whom the world was not
worthy?
Understand Your Power.
Oh, men of stout physical health,
men of great mental stature, men of
high social position, men Of great pow
er of any sort, l want you to under
stand your power, and l want you to
know that that power devoted to God
will be a crown on earth, to you typi-
cal of a crown in heaven, but misguid-
ed bedraggled in sin, administrative of
evil, God will thunder against you
with his condemnation in the day
when millionaire and pauper, master
and slave, king and subject shall stand
side by side in the judgment and mon
ey bags and judicial crime and royal
robe shall be riven with the lightnings.
Behold also how giant may be slain
of a woman. Delilah started the train
of circumstances that pulled down the
temple of DagOn about SamSon's ears.
And tens of thousands of giants have
gone down to death and hell through
the same fascinations. 1t seems to me
that it is high time that pulpit and
platform and printing press speak out
against the impurities of modern So
ciety. Fastidiousness and prudery say,
Better not speak; you will rouse up
adverse criticism; you will make worse
what you want to make better; better
deal in glittering generalities; the sub
ject is too delicate for polite ears But
there comes a voice from heaven over
towering the mincing sentimentalities
Of the day, saying, Cry aloud, spare
not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet,
and show my people their trangres-
sions and the house of Jacob their
sins"
The trouble is that when people
write or speak upon this theme they
are apt to cover it up with the graces
of bellies lettres, so that the crime is
made attractive instead of repulsive.
Lord Byron, in Don Juan, adorns this
crime until it smiles like a May queen
Michelet, the great French writer, COW
ers it up with bewitching rhetoric I'M
til it CLOVIS like the rising sun, when
it ought to be made loathsome as a
smallpox hospital. There are today
influences abroad which, if unresisted
by the pulpit and the printing press,
will turn our modern cities into So
doms and Gomorrahs, fit only for the
storm of fire and birthstone that
Whelmed the cities of the plain
You who are seated in your Chris
tan homes, comprised by moral and
religious restraints, do not realize the
gulf of iniQuity that bounds you on the
north and the south and the east and
the west. While | speak there are tens
of thousands of men and women going
over the awful plunge of an impure
life, and while l cry to God for mercy
upon their souls l call upon you to
your church and your nation. There
is a banqueting hall that you have
never heard described. You know all
about the feast of AhasueruS, where a
thousand lords sat. You know all about
Bclshazzar's carousal, where the blood
of the murdered king spurted into the
faces of the banqueters. You may
know of the scene of riot and wassail
where there was set before HISOpuS
one dish of food that cost $4,000 But
I speak now of a different banqueting
hall. Its roof is fretted with fire. Its
floor is tessellated with fire. It's
chalices are chased with fire. It's song
is a song of fire. Its walls are but
tresses of fire. Solomon refers to it
when he says, Her guests are in the
depths Of hell
Free Love Blight.
Our American communities are suf-
fering from the gospel of free lovism,
which, 80 years ago, was preached on
the platform and in some of the
churches Of this country. l charge
upon free lovism that it has blighted
innumerable homes and that it has
sent innumerable souls to ruin Free
lOvism is bestial. It is worse-it is
Internal! 1t has furnished this land
with many thousands of divorces an
nually. In one county in the state of
Indiana it furnished IL divorces in one
day before dinner. 1t has reused up
Opponents north, south, east and west. |
You can hardly take up a paper but
you read of an elopement. AS far as
can understand the doctrine of free
lovism it is this: That every man
ought to have somebody else's wife
and every wife somebody else's hus- |!
band. They do not like our Christian