The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1900-10-04

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 no.,
be building upon another mans
foundation. There is large number
of them. They are afraid of us ana
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 ana
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.
We'll, 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 uLto 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-
en- into them with trip hammer.
They were surfeited with prayer meet
ings. They were stuffed and chcked
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 Bunyans Pilgrims Progress"
Whenever father and mother talked of
lCliSiOAs SllSy QlCW dONu tIS COIucIS
of their mouth and rolled up their
eyes. If any one thing will send
boy or girl to ruin sooner than an
other, that is it. If l had such ia
ther and mother l fear | should have
been an infdel
Untaithful Christians.
Others We're tripped up to skepti
cism from being grievously wronged
by some man who professed to be a
Christian. They had partner in
business who turned out to be first
class scoundrel, though a protested
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 lands or if they did there
was no sign of oil produced; but the
president of the company was Pres
5yterian elder, and the treasurer was
an Episcopalian vestryman, and one
director was a Methodist class leader
and the other directors prominent
members of Baptist and Congregations
al churches. Circulars were gotten out
telling what fabulous prospects opened
before this company. Innocent men
and women who had little money
to invest, and that little their all, said,
Il do not know anything about this
company, but so many good men are
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
while they found that the company
had reorganized and had different
president and different treasurer and
different directors. Other engagements
or ill health had caused the former Of
fcers of the company, with many re-
grets, 10 resign. And all that the
subscribers of that stock had to show.
for their investment was a 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.
Goethe's irreligion started when the
news came to Germany Of the earth
quake at Lisbon, Nov. 1, 1875. 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 natural persistence in asking
the reason why. They have been fear
fully stabbed of the fatal interroga-
ton point. There are SO many things
they cannot get explained. They can
not understand the Trinity or how Coo
agent. Neither can l. They say, Il
don't understand why good God
should let sin come into the world"
Neither do 1. You say, why was that
child started in life with such disad-
while Others have all physi-
cal and mental equipment" l cannot
tell. They go out of church on Easter
morning and say, THAT doctrine of
the resurrection COMPOUNDED me-" So
it is to me a mystery beyond unravel
ment l understand all the processes
by which men get into the dark. l
know them all. have travelled with
burning feet that blistered way. The