Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1901-02-21

we NAV nn0 tndt COQ was TlgHt.
Oh, friends, better load up with few
interrogation points. You cannot afford Il
be silent when God and the Bible and thu
things of eternity are assailed. Your 81
lence gives consent to the bombardment
: of your Fathers house. You allow slul
: to be cast on your mothers dying pillow
In behalf of the Christ. who for You went
through the agonies OF assassination on
the rocky bluff back of Jerusalem, you
dared not face a 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 conditions OF
woman in China and the United States?
What do you think of the sermon on the
mount? How do you like the golden rule
favor of the Ten Commandments! In
your large and extensive reading have you
come across lovelier character than Jesus
| Christ? Will you please to. name the
triumphant deathbeds of infdels and athe-
lists.
How do you account for the fact that
among the out-and-out believers in Chris
tianity were such persons as BENJAMIN
Franklin, John Ruskln; -, THONGS Carlyle,
nell, James A. Garfield. Robert E. Lee
Stonewall Jackson. Admiral Foote, ,Ad-
mral Farragut, Ulysses S. Grant, John
Milton, William Shakespeare, Chief JUS
tice Marshall. John Adams, Daniel Webs
ter, George Washington? How, do you
| account for their fondness for the CHRIS
| tian religion?
"Among the innumerable colleges and
universities of the earth will you name me
| three started by infdels and now sup
ported by infdels? Down in your heart
are you really happy in the position you
occupy antagonistic to the Christian reli-
| gion?
Go at him with a few such questions,
| and he will get so red in the face as to
suggest 1poplexy, and he will look at his
must go. You will put him in sweat
that will beat a Turkish bath. You will
put him on rout compared with which
our troops at Bull Run made no time at
all.
Arm yourself, not with arguments, but
interrogation points, and l promise you
victory Shall such man as you, shall
such woman as you. surrender to one OF
the meanest spirits that ever smoked up
from the pit-the dumb devil spoken of in
the text?
But then there are occasions when this
when He said, Il charge thee to come out
of him. takes people by the wholesale.
In the most responsive religious audience
have You noticed how many people never
sing at all? They have a book, and they
have voice, and they know how to read.
silent. while the great raptures of music
pass by. Among those who sing not one
out Of hundred sings loud enough to
hear his own. voice They hum it, They
give sort of religious grunt. They make
the lips go, but it is inaudible. With
voice strong enough to stop street car
one block away, all they can afford in the
praise of God is about half whisper.
With enough sopranos, enough altos,
enough bassos to make small heaven be-
[,t-n1 L., IL !. - IL
tunity go by unim1proved. The, volume of
voice that ascends from the largest au-
dience that ever assembled ought to be
multiplied two thousandfold. But the
minister rises and gives out the hymn, the
organ begins, the choir or preceptor leads,
lungs may have full expansion, and
mighty harmony is about to ascend when
the evil spirit spoken of in my text-the
dumb devil-spreads his two wings over
the liDs of onehalf the audience, and the
osner wing. over the lips of the other half
into the, throats from which they started,
and only here and there anything is
heard. and nine tenths of the holy power
is destroyed, and the dumb devil, as he
flies away, says, 81 could not keep Isaac
Watts from writing that hymn, and l
could not keep Lowell Mason from CON-
posing the tune to which it is set, but I
smote into silence or half silence the lips
from which it would have spread abroad
to bless neighborhoods and cities and
the long meter doXology the full support
OF Chrstendom and those four lines would |
take the whole earth for God.
This is the way l account for the fact |
that the stupldest places on earth are |
some prayer meetings. | do not see how
tends them. They are spiritual refrigera.
tors. Religion kept on ice. How many of |
us have los. occasions of usefulness!
In !sculptor's studio stood a figure of |
the god Opportunity. The sculptor had
made the hair fall down over the face of |
the statue so as to completely cover it,
and there were wings to the feet. When
asked why he so represented Opportunity !
the sculptor answered, The face of the |
statue is thus covered up because we do
not recognize Opportunity when i. comes,
and the wings OF the feet show that On.
portunity is swiftly gone"
But do not let the world deride the
church because OF all this, for the dumb
devil @ is just as conspicuous in the world
Ihe great political parties assemble at the
proper time TO build platforms for the
TO stand on. A committee of
each party is appointed to make the plat.
form. After proper deliberation the com
nnittees come in with a ringing report,
whereas" and whereas" and whereas"
rronunclamentos all shaped with the one
NSo oi SettiiiR the most NOteS. All eX-
preston IN regard to the great moral evils
of the country ignored No expression in
behalf OF temperate living, for that would
ose the vote OF the liquor traffic. No ex.
preston in regard to the universal attempt
u the demolition OF the Lords day No
recognition of God in the history of ma.
lions, for that would lose the vote of
atheists. But whereas" and whereas"
md where's Nine cheers will be given
or the platform. The dumb devil OF the
ext puts one wing over the one platform
md the other wing over the other plat.
orm. Those great conventions are opened
with prayer by their chaplaips Ii they
wooded platitudes and told the honest
ruth in their prayers they would say:
" Lord, we, want to be postmasters and
onsuls and foreign ministers and United
states district attorneys. For that we are
iere and for that we will strive till the
lection next November. Give us Office or
We die. Forever and ever Amen"
The world, to say the least, is no bet.
er than the church on this subject of ST.
ence at the wrong time. In other words.