The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-07-09

life? The Bible. What shall / find In
nine out Of every ten homes in this city,
The Bible. In nine out of every ten
homes in Christendom? The Bible. Vol
taire wrote the prophecy that the Bible in
the nineteenth century would become ex-
tinct. The centuryois gone, and l have
to tell you that the room IN which Vol
taire wrote that prophecy not long ago
was crowded from floor to ceiling with
Bibles from Switzerland
The Force of the Bible.
Suppose the congress Of the United
States should pass a law that there
should be no more Bibles printed in
America and no Bibles read. II there
are 60,O00,0OO grown people in the Unit
ed States, there would be 10000, 900 peo-
pie in an army to put down such a law
and defend their right to read the Bible.
But suppose the congress Of the United
States should make a law against the
reading or the publication Of any other
book, how many people would go out in
such a crusade? Could you get 6O,OOO,-
900 people to go out and risk their lives
in the defense of Shakespeare's TRACE
dies or Gladstone's tracts or Macaulay's
History Of England?" You know that
there are a thousand men who would die
in the defense of this book where there
Is not more than one man who would die
in the defense of any other book. You
try to insult my common sense by telling
me the Bible is fading out from the
world. 1t is the most popular book of
the centuries.
How do 1 know it? I know it just as l
know in regard to other books. How
many volumes of that history are publish
- ~ 00n H4- MANN
copies of another book are publishedf A
hundred thousand. Which is the more
popular? Why, Of course, the one that
has the hundred thousand circulation.
And if this book has more copies abroad
in the world, if there are five times as
many Bibles abroad as any other book
among civilized nations, does not that
show you that the most popular book on
earth today is the word Of God?
"Oh," say people, 'the church is a col
lection of hypocrites, and It is losing its
power and it is fading out from the
world" Is 1t? A bishop Of the Methodist
church told me that that denomination
averages two new churches every day.
In other words, they build 730 churches
in that denomination in a year, and there
are at least 1900 new Christian churches
built in America every year. Does that
look as though the Christian church were
fading out, as though it were a defunct
institution? What stands nearest to the
hearts of the American people today? I
do not care in what village or what city
or what neighborhood you go. What is
it? Is it the postoffice? Is it the hotel:
Is it the lecturing hall? All, you know it
is not, You know that that which stands
nearest to the hearts of the American
people is the Christian church.
In the Hour of Distress.
You may talk about the church being a
collection Of hypocrites, but when the
diphtheria sweeps your children off whom
do you send for? The postmaster. the at
torney general. the hotel keeper. alder
man? No. You send for a minister of
this Bible religion. And if you nave not
q room in your house for the obsequies.
what building do YOU solicit? Do you
say. Give NE tnr finest room in the no.
tei?' Do you say, Give me that thea,
ter?" Do you say, Give the that public
building where / can lay my dead for a
little while until we say a prayer over
it?" No. You say. Give US the house
of God" And if there is a song to be
sung at the obsequies. what do you want
What does anybody want? The Mar
| s~eillaise Hymn" God Save the Queen?"
Our W grand national air? No. They
want the hymn with which they sang
their old Christian mother into her last
sleep, or they want sung the Sabbath
school hymn which their little girl sang
the last Sabbath afternoon she was out
before she got that awful sickness which
broke your heart / appeal to your com.
mon sense. You know the most endear'
ing institution on earth. the most popular
institution on earth today. is the church
Of the Lord Jesus Christ. A man is q
fool that does not recognize it.
The infdels say: There is great liberty
now for infdels; freedom of platform.
Infdelity shows it's power from the fact
that it is everywhere tolerated, and it car
say what it will" Why, my friends. in
fidelity is not half so blatant in our day
as it was in the days of our fathers. Dc
you know that in the days Of our fathers
there were pronounced infdels in public
authority, and they could get any politi'
cal position? Let a man today declare
himself antagonistic TO the Christian re
ligion. and what city wants him for may
or; what state wants him for governor
what nation wants him for president OIL
for king? Let q man openly proclaim
himself the enemy of our glorious Chris
tanIty, and &c cannot get q majority oil
votes in any state. in any city. in any
country. in any ward of America.
What Christianity Does.
A distinguished in6dpl years ago riding
In a rail car in Illinois said. What ha:
Christianity ever done?" An old Chris
tian woman said: 1T has done one Guos
thing anyhow. 1t has kept an irids
from being governor of Illinois," A.
stood in the side room of the opera hons.
Of Peoria. Ills. a prominent gentleman
of that city said. II can tell you the Sc
cret of that tremendous bitterness agains
Christianity" Said /. What is itT
"Why." said he. lin this very house ther,
was a great convention to nominate
governor, and there were three or fou
candidates AT the same time there wa
In a church in this city a Sabbath schoo
convention. and il happened that on- o
the men who was in the Sabbath schGo
convention was also a member of the po
liticai convention. In the political CON
vention the name highest on the roll q
that time and ahouf ~ he nominated Wa