The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1901-08-09

you want? What does anybody want2
The "Marsellaise Hymn "God kave
the QueenW Our own grand national arr
No. They want the hymn with WhidA
they sang their old Christian mother into
her last sleep, or they want sung the Sab
bath-school hymn which their little arl
sang the last Sabbath afternoon she was
out before she got that awful sickness
which broke your heart. ! appeal 70 Yow
common sense. You know the mok ca,
dearing institution on earth to-day 6 th
church Of the Lord Jesus Christ "A nan
v fool that docs not recognize Il.
The inRdels say: "There Il great liberty
now for infdels-freedom Of platform.
lnhdelty shows It's power from the fact
that II Is everywhere tolerated, and It can
say what It will" Why, my friends, in,
fidelity is not half 80 blatant in our day
as II was in the days Of our fathers DO
you know that IN the days Of our fathers
there were pronounced infdels in pubic
authority, and they could get any political
position! Let a man to-day declare him
self antagonistic TO the Christian religion,
and what city wants him for mayor, what
State wants him for Governor, what ma
ton wants him for President or for kingi
Let man openly proclaim himself the
enemy Of our glorious Christianity, and
he cannot get a majority Of votes in any
State, in any city, in any county, in any
ward of America The Christian religion
Is mightier to-day than Il ever was.
These opponents say that science n
overcoming religion in our day. They
look through the speetacles of the infdel
scientists and they say: 1T is impossible
that this book be true. People are finding
il out The Bible has got to 60 over
board" Do you believe that the Bible
e J.. e l..
thrown by inhdel scientists who have
fifty different theories about the origin OF
life? If they should all come up in solid
phalanx, all agreeing on one sentiment
and one theory, perhaps Christianity
might be damaged, but there are not 90
many differences of opinion inside the
church as outside the church.
Oh, it makes me sick to see these liter
airy tops going along with a copy Of Oar.
win under one arm and cnse of transhxed
grasshoppers and butterflies under the
other arm, telling about The Survival OF
the fttest" and Huxley's protoplasm and
the nebular hypothesis. The fact Is that
some naturalists, Just as soon as they find
out the difference between the feelers of
q wasp and the horns of a beetle, begin
to patronizS the Almighty, while Agassi2,
glorious AgassiZ, who never made any pre-
tension to being a Christian, put both his
feet on the doctrine of evolution and says:
Il see that many of the naturalists of our
day are adopting facts which do not bear
observation or have not passed under OBJ
servation" These men warning with each
other-Darwin warning against Lamarch,
Wallace warning against Cope, even Her
echel denouncing Ferguson. They do not
agree about anything.
Then you have noticed a more significant
fact if you have talked with people on the
subject-that they are getting dissatisfied
with worldly philosophy as matter of
comfort. They say it does not amount 70
anything when you have a dead child in
the house. They tell you when they were
sick and the door of the future seemed
opening the only comfort they could find
was the gospel. People are having dem
onstrated all over the land that science
and philosophy cannot solace the troubles
and woes Of the world, and they want
some other religion, and they are taking
Christianity, the only sympathetic rei-
gion that ever came into the world. You
Just take a scientific consolation into that
room where a mother has lost her child.
Try in that case your splendid doctrine of
the survival of the fttest." Tell her
that child died because it was not worth
as much as the other children. That is
your Survival of the fttest." just try
;
yoGr science, on Chat widowed SOUL ana
tell her it was a geological necessity that
her companion should be taken away from
her, just as in the course of the worlds
history the megatherium and the lchthyo.
saurus had to pass out of existence, and
then you 60 on in your scientific consola'
ton until you get to the sublime fact that
| 50,000,000 years from now we ourselves
may be scientific specimens on the geo
l,o1E ed sc
/ ti1fct human race, and after you have got
all through with your consolation, if the
poor afflicted soul is not craZed by it, We
will send forth from any of our churches
the plainest Christian we have, and with
one half hour of prayer and reading OF
Scripture promises the tears will be wiped
away, and the house from floor to cupola
will be flooded with the calmness Of an
Indian summer sunset. There is where
see the triumph of Christianity People
are dissatisfied with everything else. They
want God; they want Jesus Christ
The fact is that inhdelity and agnosti
cism are founded on ignorance geological
! ignorance chemical, ignorance astronomi
! CAL ignorance geographical. We have
! heard what the enemies of Christianity
! have had to testify. Now | put before
| you the testimony Of the church on earth
and the church in heaven. Not fifty, not
thousand, not a million but all of the
church on earth and all Of the redeemed
in heaven.
VIII you take the evidence of those
who have witnessed as well as felt the
power of religion, or will you prefer the
testimony of those who begin by declar
! ing that they have never witnessed or felt
\ its power? You tell me that on a certain
! 4th of March, twenty years ago, a Presi
dent of the United States was inaugu
rated. How do know it? You tell me
there were 10000 persons who distinctly
/ heard his inaugural address. l deny both
] / deny that he was inaugurated / deny
/ that his inaugural address was delivered
You ask why? | did not see it. / die
not hear it. But you say that there were
10000 people who did see and hear him,