Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1900-10-01
leader and the other directors prom

leader and the other directors prom
inent members of Baptist and Congre
gational churches. Circulars were got
CIT telling what fabulous prospects
opened before this company. Innocent
men and women who had a little
money to invest, and that little their
| all, said: II do not know anything
! about this company, but SO many good
men are at the head of it that it must
be excellent 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 awhile they
found that the company had reorgan-
lied and had a different president and
different treasurer and different di-
rectors. Other engagements or i'll
health had caused the former officers
of the company, with many regrets, to
resign. And all that the subscribers of
that stock had to show for their invest
ment was a beautifully ornamented
certificate. Sometimes that man, look
ing over his old papers, comes across
that certificate, and it is so suggestive
that he vows he wants none of the re-
Ggion that the president and trustees
and directors of that oil company pro-
fessed.
Of course, their rejection of religion
on such grounds was unphilosophical
and unwise. 1 am told that many of
the United States army desert every
year, and there are many court mar
tials every year. Is that anything
against the United States government
that swore them in? And if a soldier
of Christ deserts is that anything
against the Christianity which he
swore to support and defend? How do
you judge Of the currency Of a coun-
try? By counterfeit bill? Now, you
must have patience with those who
have been swindled by religious pre-
tenders. Live in the presence of others
a frank, honest, earnest Christian life,
that they may be attracted to the same
Saviour upon whom your hopes de-
pend.
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. 1, 1875. That
10000 people should hav> persisted in
that earthquake and in the after rising
Of the Tagus river so stirred his SYM
pathies that he threw up his belief in
the goodness Of Cog.
Light Up Darkness.
Others have gone into skepticism
frGm q 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 God
can be sovereign and yet man a free
agent. Neither can I. They say, II
don't understand why a good God
should let sin come into the world"
Neither do 1. You say, why was that
child started in life with such disad-
vantages, while others have all phys
zeal and mental equipment|' 1 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 unravelment.
I understand all the processes by
which men get into the dark. l know
them all. I have Travelled with burn
ing feet that blistered way. The first
word that children learn to utter is
generally papa or mamma. l think the
first word l ever uttered was why"
[ know what it is to have hundred
midnights pour their darkness into one
hour.
Such men are not to be scoffed at,
but helped. Turn your back upon q
drowning man when you have the rope
with which to pull him ashore and let
hot IN +1O frI or of
house perish in the flames when you
have ladder with which to help her
out and help her down rather than
turn your back scoffingly on a skeptic
whose soul is in more peril than the
bodies of those other endangered ones
can be. Oh, skepticism is dark landl
There are men who would give a thou
sand worlds, if they possessed them, to
get back to the placid faith of their ia |
theirs and mothers, and it is our place |
to help them, and we may help them,
never through their heads, but always |
through their hearts. These Skeptics,
when brought to Jesus, will be might
lily effective, far more so than those |
who never examined the evidences of |
Christianity. Thomas Chalmers was
once a skeptic, Robert Hall a skeptic, |
Robert Newton a Skeptic, Christmas
Evans a skeptic But when once with
strong hand they took hold of the char
lot of the gospel they rolled it on with
what momentum
If address such men and women to- |
day, l throw out no scott. I implead
them by the memory of the good old
days when at their mothers knee they |
7 To- n 10
and by those days and nights of scar