The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1900-10-05

Christian worker look them in the eye
and with earnestcess in the accentu-
alton say Come" or they would long
ago have been in the kingdom. MY
friends, religion is either a sham or
great reality. If it be a sham. let us
disband our churches and Christian
associations. If it be a reality, then
great populations are on the way to
the bar of God untitled for the ordeal.
And what are we doing?
Dealing with Skeptics.
Comparatively little effort as yet
has been made to save that large class
of persons in our midst called skeptics,
and he who goes to work here will MOI
be building upon another mans
foundation. There Is a large number
of them. They are afraid of us and
our churches for the reason we do not
know how to treat them. One of this
class met Christ. And hear with what
tenderness and pathos and beauty and
success Christ dealt with him: Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all
thy heart and with all thy soul and
with all thy mind and with all thy
strength This is the first and great
commandment and the second is like
unto it-namely thou shalt love thy
neighbor as thyself. There is none
other commandment greater than
these" And the scribe said to him,
well, master, thou hast said the
truth, for there is one God. and to
love him with all the heart and all
the understanding and all the soul and
all the strength is more than whole
burnt offerings and sacrifices" And
when Jesus saw that he answered dis
creetly he said unto him, Thou art
not far from the kingdom of God"
You would not be so rough on that
man if you knew how he lost his faith
in Christianity. l have known men
skeptical from the fact that they grew
up in houses where religion was over
done. Sunday was the most awful day
in the week. They had religion driv-
Ell into them with trip hammer.
They were surfeited with prayer meet
| ings. They were stuffed and choked
with catechisms. They were often
told that they were the worst boys
the parents ever knew, because they
liked to ride down hill better than to
read Bunyan's Pilgrims Progress. ="
Whenever father and mother talked OF
religion. they drew down the corners
of their mouth and rolled up their
eyes. If any one thing will send a
boy or girl to ruin sooner than an
other, that is it. If l had such ia
Their and mother l fear | should have
been an infidel.
Unfaithful Christians.
Others were tripped up to skepti-
cism from being grievously wronged
by some man who protested to be a
Christian. They had partner in
business who turned out to be a first
class scoundrel, though professed
Christian. Many years ago they lost
all faith by what happened in an oil
company which was formed amid the
petroleum excitement. The company
owned no land, or If they did there
was no sign of oil produced; but the
president of the company was Pres
byterian elder, and the treasurer was
an Episcopalian vestryman, and one
director was Methodist class leader
and the other directors prominent
members of Baptist and Congregation
al churches. Circulars were gotten out
| Sol N,,1O nnpnQl
before this company. Innocent men
and women who had a little money
TO invest, and that little their all, said,
Il do not know anything about this
company. but so many good men are
at the head of it that it must be eX-
cellent. and taking stock in it must
be almost as good as joining the
church" So they bought the stock
and perhaps received one dividend so
as to keep them still, but after a
while they found that the company
had recognized and had a different
president and different treasurer and
different directors. Other engagements
or i'll health had caused the former of
ficers of the company, with many re-
grets, to resign. And all that the
subscribers of that stock had to show
for their investment was beautifully
ornamented certificate. Sometimes
that man, looking over his old papers.
comes across that certificate, and il
is so suggestive that he VOWS he wants
none of the religion that the president
and trustees and directors of that oil
company professed.
Some REASONS for Existing.
Remember, skepticism always has
some reason, good or bad, for existing.
Goethes irreligion started when the
news came to Germany of the earth
quake at Lisbon, Nov. l, 1775. That
10000 people should have persisted in
that earthquake and in the after ris-
ing of the Tagus river so stirred his
sympathies that he threw up his be-
lief in the goodness Of God.
Others have gone into skepticisms
from a natural persistence in asking
the reason why. They have been fear
fully stabbed of the fatal interroga-