St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1901-03-16

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iigion as hypocrisy, or made pun o1
of something that Christ said. The
laugh started, and you joined in, ane
not one word of protest did you utter
What kept you silent? Modesty? No
Incapacity to answer? No. Lack oi
opportunity? No. 1t was a blow or
both your lips by the wing of the dumb
devil. If some one should malign your
father or mother or wife or husband
or child. you would flush up quick and
either with an indignant word OF
doubled up fist make response. And
yet here is our Christian religion which
has done so much for you and SO much
for the world that it will take all eter.
nifty to celebrate it, and yet when it was
attacked you Gid not so much as say:
II differ. l object. am sorry to hear
you say that. There is another side
to this" You Christian people ought
in such times as these to 60 armed. not
with earthly weapons, but with the
sword of the spirit. You ought to have
four or five questions with which you
could confound any man who attacks
Christianity. A man 90 years old was
telling me how he put to flight scofer.
My aged friend said to the skeptic:
did you ever read the history Of
Joseph in the Bible?" "Yes," said the
man, sit is fine story. and as interest
ing a story as ever read" "Well.
now," said my old friend, suppose that
account of Joseph stopped half wayg'
"Oh," said the man. "then it would not
be entertaining" "Well, now," said my
friend. 1--WE have in this word only half
of everything, and do you not think
that when we hear the last half things
may be consistent, and that then we
may find that God was right?"
Oh. friends, better load up with few
Interrogation points! You cannot af-
ford to be silent when God and the BIZ
bic and the things of eternity are as
sailed. Your silence gives consent to
the bombardment of your Fathers
house. You allow a slur to be cast on
your mothers dying pillow. In behalf
ofthe Christ, who for you went through
the agonies of assassination on the
rocky bluff back of Jerusalem, you
dared not face sickly joke. Better
load up with few questions. SO that
next time you will be ready. Say to the
scoffer: MY dear sir, will you tell me
what makes the difference between the
condition of woman in China and in the
United States? What DO you think of
the sermon on the mount? How do
you like the golden rule laid down il
the Scriptures? Are you in favor of the
Ten Commandments? In your large
and extensive reading have you come
across a loyelier character than Jesus
Christ? Will you please to name the
triumphant: deathbeds of infidels and
atheists? How do you account for the
fact that among the out and out be-
levers in Christianity were such per-
sons as Benjamin Franklin. John Rus
kin. Thomas Carlyle. Babington, Mac
aulay. William Penn, Walter Scott.
Charles Kingsley, Horace Bushnell,
James A. Garfield, Robert E. Lee. Stone
wall jackson. Admiral Foote. Admiral
Farragut. Ulysses s. Grant, John Mil
ton, William Shakespeare. Chief JUS
tice Marshall. John Adams, Daniel Web
ster, George Washington? How do you
account for their fondness for the
Christian religion? Among the in
colleges and universities
of the earth will you name me three
started by infidels and now supported
hv infAc1SC ha, -
you really happy in the position you
occupy antagonistic to the Christian
religion? When Go you have the most
rapturous views of the next world ?"
Go at him with few such questions,
and he will get SO red in the face as to |
suggest apoplexy, and he will look at
his watch and say he has an engage
ment and must go. You will put him in
a sweat that will beat Turkish bath. |
You will put him on a rout compared |
with which our troops at Bull Run |
made no time at all. Arm yourself, not |
with arguments. but Interrogation
points, and promise you victory. Shall |
such man as you, shall such woman
as you, surrender to one of the mean
est spirits that ever smoked up from
the pit-the dumb devil spoken of in the
text?
But then there are occasions when
this particular spirit that Christ exor-
cised when He said: ~ charge thee
to come out of him." takes people by
the wholesale. In the most responsive
religious audience have you noticed
low many people never sing at all?
They have a book, and they have
7oice, and they know how to read.
They know many of the tunes. and yet
Ire silent while the great raptures of
music pass by. Among those who sing
lot one out of hundred sings loud
enough to hear his own voice. They
lum it. They give a sort of religious
yrunt. They make the lips go. but it is
With a voice strong enough
o stop street car one block away all
hey can afford in the praise of God is
bout half whisper. With enough
opranos, enough altos, enough bassos
o make small heaven between the
our walls they let the opportunity go
~ unimproved. The volume of voice
hat ascends from the largest audience
hat ever assembled ought to be multi
,lied two thousandfold. But the min
ster rises and gives out the hymn. the
'rgan begins. the choir or prec~ntor
eads, the audience are standing 81
hat the lungs may have full expan-
ion. and mighty harmony is about to
scend when the evil spirit spoken of
n my text-the dumb devil-spreads
lis two wings, one over the lips Of one
lalf the audience and the other wing
YER the lips of the other half of the
udience, and the voices roll back into
he throats from which they started.
nd only here and there anything is
card, and nine-tenths of the holy
'ower is destroyed. and the dumb devil.
S he flies away. says: II could not
,eep Isaac Watts from writing that
ymn. and could not keep Lowell Ma
on from composing the tune to which
I Is SET huf SraOte info silence or half