The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1901-02-15

"huh nc Saiu, HOu uuHD ana ucd
spirit, / charge thee. come out OF him.
Silence Sometimes n Crime.
There has been apotheosization Of
silence. Someone has said silence Is
golden, and sometimes the greatest
triumph is to keep your mouth shut
But sometimes silence Is a crime and
the direct result of the baleful influ-
ence of the dumb devil OF our text
There Is hardly man or woman who
has not been present on some occa-
sion when the Christian religion be-
came target for raillery. Perhaps it
was over in the store some day when
there was not much going on and the
clerks were in q group, or it was in
the factory at the noon spell, or it was
out on the farm under the trees while
you were resting, or it was in the club
room. or 1t was in a social circle, or
1t was in the street on the way home
from business, or it was on some occa-
sion which you remember without my
describing it. Someone got the laugh
on the Bible and caricatured the pro-
fession of religion as hypocrisy, or
made a pun out of something that
Christ said. The laugh started, and
you Joined in, and not one word of pro-
test did you utter. What kept you
silent? Modesty? No. Incapacity to
answer? No. Lack OF opportunity?
No. 1t was blow on both your lips
by the wing Of the dumb devil. If
someone should malign your father or
mother or wife or husband or child,
you would flush up quick and either
with an indignant word or 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 eternity to
celebrate it, and yet when it was at
tackled you did not so much as say:
Il differ. object. am sorry to hear
you say that. There is another side
to this" You Christian people ought
In such times as these to go 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 80 years old was
telling me how he put to flight scoffer.
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 in
teresting a story as l ever read"
We'll, now" said my old friend, Sup
pose that account of Joseph stopped
half way?" "Oh," said the man, then
it would not be entertaining" well
now" said my friend, 1--WE have in this
world 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?"
Silence Gives Consent.
Oh, friends, better load up with
few interrogation points, You cannot
afford to be silent when God and the
Bible and the things Of eternity are
assailed. Your silence gives consent
to the bombardment of your Fathers
house. You allow slur to be cast on
your mothers dying pillow. In behalf
of the Christ, who for you went
the agonies of assassination |
on the rocky bluff back of Jerusalem,
you dared not face a sickly joke. Bet
ter 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 be-
tween the condition of woman in
China and the United States? What
10 you think Of the sermon on the
How do you like the golden
'ule laid down in the Scriptures? Are
you in favor of the Ten Command
nents? In your large and extensive
'eading have you come across a love-
Ter character than Jesus Christ? Will
vou please to name the triumphant
leathbeds of infdels and atheists? {
low do you account for the fact that {
mong the out and out believers in !
were such persons as
Benjamin Franklin, John Ruskin,
'homas Carlyle, Darlington Macaulay, I
William Penn, Walter Scott, Charles J
Kingsley, Horace Bushnell, James A. S
fairfield, Robert e. Lee, Stonewall (
Admiral Foote, Admiral Far {
agut, Ulysses S. Grant, John Milton, '
William Shakespeare, Chief Justice
John Adams, Daniel Web G
ter, George Washington? How do t
OIL account for their fondness for the C
hristian religion? Among the in P
colleges and universities of d
lie earth will you name me three il
arted by infidels and now supported t
y infidels? Down in your heart are u
Oh really happy in the position you t
,cupy antagonistic to the Christian p
ligion? When do you have the most Il
lpturous views of the next world?" t,
o at him with a few such questions, n
Id he will get so red in the face as to W
ggest apoplexy, and he will look at 7
S watch and say he has an engage a
ent and must go. You will put him W
a sweat that will beat Turkish el
til. You will put him on rout COM Ell
red with which our troops at Bull fc
IN made no time at all. Arm your is
If, not with arguments, but with in m
rrogation points, and promise you 70